AND BEYOND
Transforming Food Waste, Pioneering a Sustainable Future
By and large, the modern composting industry treats all food waste the same. Collectors mix everything together in rear-load garbage trucks and dump it at industrial facilities, where it’s combined with brushy waste. While this may seem efficient, it often produces low-quality, low-value compost—far from the “black gold” promised to consumers.
At Break it Down, we take a different approach. We understand that food waste varies greatly depending on the type of business producing it. Each type has the potential to become a unique, value-added product. That’s why we collect food waste in separate containers for each business. This system also lets us swap out bins, so customers always start with clean, fresh containers after every pick-up.
At our unique facility, we process different types of food waste using dehydration or a biochar retort to create specific materials. Once we remove the water, we stabilize the food waste and shift focus to material science—how can we transform it into higher-value forms?
Through this approach, Break it Down turns an under-utilized resource base into a new set of supply chains. We believe imagination is the only true limit to what we can create.
Read on to learn about some of the novel products we have in development.
“Don’t limit yourself to the skies when there is a whole galaxy out there.”
DEHYDRATION
The primary workhorses behind our vision are 4 state-of-the-art dehydrators built by Hungry Giant. Each one can process up to 1.5 tons per batch! Depending on the type of material, we can dry 6-10 tons per day into powders with various compositions and physical properties. The resulting material is sterilized, stable, and reproducible.
SOIL FOOD
To feed plants, start by feeding the soil. Soil types range from sandy to clay-heavy, from rich to depleted, and our understanding of how to care for and improve them continues to grow.
Whether you rely on detailed soil tests and custom formulas or prefer a simpler approach, we’re developing a range of products designed to give your soil what it needs to support healthy plant growth year-round.
Our product line is still in development, and we’ll update our site as new items become available.
Are you a business or individual curious about where we are now?
BIOCHAR
Unlike dehydration, biochar production uses extremely high heat and little to no oxygen to create materials with unique and varied properties. Some food wastes don’t dehydrate well—so at Break it Down, we asked ourselves: what if we just heat the heck out of it instead? Biochar remains a complex material, and its many variations continue to challenge even the scientific community.
Even small changes in temperature or burn time can produce biochars with different chemical and material properties. On top of that, the market is full of bold claims about biochar—many of which haven’t lived up to the hype. While we don’t believe biochar will “save the world,” we do see real opportunities to turn waste stream materials into higher-value products that benefit society.
BONE CHAR
Processing bones at high heat into bone char creates an effective material for removing excess fluoride from drinking water.
Excess fluoride in drinking water affects over 300 million people worldwide. In Mexico alone, around 20 million people—mostly in rural areas—rely on water with elevated levels of naturally occurring fluoride.
As local aquifers continue to drop, the problem worsens. Break it Down is partnering with biochar experts and the nonprofit Caminos de Agua in Mexico to develop a reliable, high-quality bone char filtration medium for clean drinking water.
Hairchar is a type of charcoal created by burning hair at high temperatures with little to no oxygen—a process called pyrolysis. Most biochars lack nitrogen, but by using hair collected from local salons and pet groomers, we produce a nitrogen-rich biochar with unique benefits.
Our Hairchar is excellent for the long-term enrichment of houseplants and garden soil.
