curiousChallenge Explorer
Circular Economyintermediate~35 mins

Create a business model that turns food waste into valuable products.

Restaurants and markets discard tons of edible and compostable waste daily.

Real-world context

Restaurants and markets discard tons of edible and compostable waste daily. Turning that stream into something valuable is both a green win and a business opportunity.

The challenge

Create a business model that turns food waste into valuable products. Study who is affected, dig past the obvious symptoms to the real root causes, and design a solution that could actually work in the real world. There is no single correct answer — what matters is the quality of your thinking, the stakeholders you consider, and how clearly you justify your chosen direction.

Reflection prompts

  • Who is most affected by this problem, and how did you account for them?
  • What is the single biggest risk to your solution working?
  • Which assumption, if wrong, would break your whole idea?