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Wasted* Introduces the Wasted*Can at Greenbuild 2026, Wins Attendees' Choice Award
Posted by: Rate It Green Team
Wasted* debuted a bright orange, 20-foot shipping container jobsite restroom, the Wasted*Can, at Greenbuild 2026, attracting considerable attention on the trade show floor. The exhibit, which won Greenbuild's Attendees' Choice Award, allowed the company to showcase its new sanitation product and introduce building professionals to its vision for the urine mining industry category the company has created and is working to expand.
The Wasted* team has long understood and taken quite seriously something many people are only beginning to appreciate—and might initially find a bit funny: human urine is a nutrient-rich resource containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, essential nutrients for plant growth.
Rather than allowing these nutrients to be lost through conventional sanitation systems, Wasted* is developing ways to collect urine, recover its nutrients, and produce circular-economy alternatives to conventional fertilizers.
As Wasted* Co-Founder Thor Retzlaff explains:
"From our point of view, urine is one of the most undervalued recurring resources on Earth. Every day, we produce something with practical value. Humans also spend considerable effort collecting, transporting, and treating it as waste. There is an opportunity to design that system around recovering what’s useful."
The company designed the Wasted*Can to serve as both a sustainable, waterless restroom and a collection point for nutrients that can eventually be recovered and processed into fertilizers.
The system is intended to meet several needs simultaneously: providing a comfortable, dignified restroom experience for workers, offering an efficient sanitation solution for construction site managers, and collecting urine separately from other waste so its nutrients can be recovered.
Wasted* is focusing this next stage of growth on construction sites, where groups of people already gather and need temporary sanitation facilities. Since site managers already budget for sanitation services, the company sees an opportunity to improve the restroom experience, reduce servicing costs, and develop a reliable nutrient-collection network.
Retzlaff also sees an opportunity to change how people think about an everyday activity; "A bathroom can become a place where people participate in something so much bigger than any one person….” The company’s bright orange container, and educational signage should definitely help achieve the goal and a greater impact.
The company's messaging and sharp demo restrooms made an impact at Greenbuild - see below!
Wasted's CoF-Founder, Thor Retzlaff
To lean more: Wasted* — What Is Urine Mining?
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