US startup Mill’s Mill bin is the ultimate solution to leftover
US startup Mill aimed to create the ultimate solution to household food waste when designing the bin, which dries out any leftovers so they can be post to the company and given a new purpose.
Developed by two former Nest employees, the Mill bin slowly heats and mixes any food waste on a low-power cycle to dehydrate and shrink the scraps, allowing the bin to be emptied less often. It can be scheduled via an accompanying app.
Mill was founded by Matt Rodgers and Harry Tannenbaum at the start of the pandemic, when the duo found themselves “stuck at home staring at and smelling our own trash”, and becoming increasingly obsessed with waste according to Tannenbaum.
The duo designed the bin in-house, aiming for a minimalistic look and a friendly and approachable pill shape, with the LED display interface hidden underneath a wood veneer lid so as not to command attention.
https://www.dezeen.com/2023/02/13/mill-bin-food-waste-matt-rogers-harry-tannenbaum/
The Mill bin offers a new way to deal with kitchen food scraps. After a few weeks, when the bin is full, the user tips the resulting “food grounds” into a prepaid box and schedules a pick-up to have it posted back to Mill as part of a membership-based service.
UK also has such system from leftover to compost. RIDAN is one of them in food system. And in South Korea they use food waste processor in homes and dehydrates leftover and mills them. Prices matters and such equipment uses electricity.
Mill’s goal is to keep leftovers in food system and reused them
The process presents an alternative to sending food to landfill and composting, which can require specific conditions or combinations of waste to work effectively.
The company is currently working through the scientific and regulatory processes to turn to the grounds into a commercial chicken feed ingredient. Mill’s goal is to keep leftovers in the food system and reuse them in the most valuable, resource-efficient way.
The dried food grounds can be placed into a prepaid box and sent to Mill for reuse. While the bin is in use, Mill promises that there should be no noticeable smell- even as the food scraps are heated.
The evaporating water and air from the bin are pushed through an odour management system that incorporates a charcoal filter before the air is expelled through an exhaust fan at the rear of the bin.
Founders looked at what makes up landfills. The single largest inhabitant is food and kitchens at home are the number one source. What’s worse is that, when food ends up in a landfill, not only do we waste all the nutrients and resources that went into growing it and getting it to your plate, it releases methane.
Methane accounts for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions but because of its potency, it is estimated to trap approximately 86 times more heat in the atmosphere than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide on a 20 year timescale.
The duo started ny thinking about all the ways that the experience of dealing with home food waste could be improved – “no smell, no flies, less trios taking out the trash”- and tried to deliver all these solutions in one package.
Some of these things are built into the hardware, where the bucket is transformed into a bottomless pit, 80% of food is water, so it shrinks down significantly when they dehydrated so you have to take out the trash less.
Wood veneer lid conceals its inner workings. Some are more subtle, like the impact tracking so you can see how much you’re wasting and becoming a better buyer and start saving money at the grocery store.
The product is currently only available in the US. Mill has recently launched and is currently only available in the US. Other innovations in waste disposal in recent years include the Townew bin that automatically seals and changes bin bags and the prototype Taihi bin, which composts waste using a Japanese fermentation method.
Sources: dezeen
