Our Mission: Turning Food Waste Into Opportunity
The Spent Goods Company was founded out of frustration at seeing usable resources treated as garbage, at a moment when climate action requires both large systemic shifts and small local ones. We set out to prove that reducing food waste can be financially rewarding, not just well-intentioned.
What Inspired Us
We drew inspiration from organizations like the Great Ocean Cleanup and the Plastic Bank, which built fiscal incentives around recycling plastic, and asked whether a similar model could work for food waste in our own community. Rather than relying on goodwill alone, we wanted to show businesses the tangible value proposition of limiting waste, turning it into revenue instead of a cost.
What We Believe
- Individuals and businesses embrace sustainable solutions faster when social benefit is reinforced by financial gain.
- Food “waste” is a mislabeled resource; used coffee grounds are already being turned into clothing, and brewer’s waste into bricks, animal feed, and mushroom spawn.
- Diverting food waste from landfill could cut an estimated 70 gigatons of CO2 globally by 2050.
Our Origin Story
Our first solution paired craft breweries with artisan bakeries, transforming leftover barley grain into what we call Beer Bread, a sourdough that incorporates byproduct. It started as a single prototype: one waste stream (spent barley), one transformer (a Toronto bakery). That prototype became a founding principle: waste is just an input that hasn’t found its next use yet.
Where We Want to Go Together
We’re expanding beyond a single input and single transformer toward a broader ecosystem, working with multiple food waste streams and multiple transformers across Canada.
Bread -> Beer
By adding day old bread to beer mash, we can transform Bread-> Beer.
We call it Sourdough IPA
We’re proof that you can make Bread into Beer and then use Beer to make Bread.
i.e., Bread -> Beer -> Bread … closed loop solutions!
Spent coffee -> Grow Mushroom based Building Insulation
We’re exploring solutions to deal with the spent coffee grinds generated by urban coffee shops.
Based on innovative businesses using spent coffee as growth medium for mushrooms, we’re looking at a fossil fuel free building insulation that will also biodegrade under the right conditions.
Barley Milk
Due to dairy allergies, animal welfare concerns, climate change, death of bees increasing the cost of almonds, the market is growing by 20% year to year. Plant-based recipe costs are marginally cheaper than whole milk; global retail prices are often double that of dairy; therefore, plant-based can spend more on overheads and marketing by manufacturer/retailer and the profits will be higher for plant-based drinks.
We’ve tested and made samples of barley based milk using spent barley grains.
Our goal would be to enable craft breweries to make plant based milk in addition to beer onsite.
Consulting Agency
We now offer our food-waste transformation knowledge as a consulting service, helping other producers access a vetted supplier network, impact measurement tools, and multi-channel sales avenues.
Our belief is simple: when local businesses collaborate, everyone wins, through cost savings, new revenue, and a more resilient, sustainable local food system. We’re not just building a bread company; we’re building a case for why sustainability and profitability belong on the same balance sheet.