Mill

Households have long struggled with the complications of disposing of food waste responsibly and sustainably. Composting usually involves messiness, takes time and space, and sending scraps to a landfill contributes unnecessarily to greenhouse gas emissions. Mill has taken a strong leadership position in re-imagining food waste treatment, and turns food waste from a daily annoyance into a resource!

Launched in 2020 in San Bruno, California, by former Nest executives Matt Rogers and Harry Tannenbaum, Mill aims to redefine the way we manage food waste through technology, logistics, and behavioral change. The firm’s flagship product is a compact, Wi-Fi-connected food recycler that grinds, dehydrates, and blends kitchen scraps into dry, odorless “food grounds,” consequently reducing the 80% volume of scraps created through everyday meals either by utilizing chicken feed or other garden/waste systems. Those food grounds can then be shipped back to Mill via prepaid boxes, to then be repurposed, typically as chicken feed or as input for other non-traditional compost systems or garden systems. The company allows for a closed-loop from the household, so when considered solely from the household standpoint, the volume and weight of food waste is reduced significantly. In addition, it can be done without odors, pests, or the heavy lifting or other effort involved with traditional composting. For that, the household simply adds a wide variety of scraps to the food recycler, setting aside scraps ranging from avocado pits to chicken bones, drops the shredded food scraps into the recycler instead of the shortcut, then wakes up for a new day, with reduced scrap output that is also odorless. The app also tracks usage time, days and other variables. Will... it also tracks unwanted food waste data that includes a yearly usage impact and offer tips on ways to reduce waste.

Mill operates with a subscription-based pricing model starting at roughly $33 a month, which includes renting the recycler, maintenance, software upgrades and return shipping for the grounds. Customers may also choose to purchase the recycler outright for roughly $999, and service plans are available for logistical and support needs. This recurring revenue model provides predictable sales and reduces barriers to purchase by not requiring customers to pay a large amount upfront. The firm has also explored commercial opportunities with its Mill for Workplace offering. This offering implements the same food recycling technology with enterprise level analytics, and is priced according to the service and volume, for businesses, schools and municipal offices.

The company has been growing rapidly, with an estimated 471 employees by 2025 and not only expanding into households but also partnering with cities and corporations. For instance, Kansas City deployed 50 units in municipal buildings in advance of the 2026 FIFA World Cup; Phoenix deployed 25 devices as part of their sustainability initiatives. Duolingo, Vornado Realty Trust, and Rosewood Hotel Group are among the first employers to implement Mills in the workplace. By 2025, the firm’s users had emphasized the point of separation from the landfill, with the company’s users together diverting nearly 10 million pounds of food waste from landfills, and an updated life-cycle assessment showed that on average, each device prevented an estimated 735 kg of CO₂e per year (escalating to 899 kg if grounds were used for chicken), and surveys suggested that in the end, when users adopted the company’s services, most surveyed said they changed their cooking, shopping, and storing behavior that led to an average (20%) reduction in overall waste generation.

Financially, Mill has secured some form of funding totaling approximately $70.4 million, which included a $70 million Series C round led by Prelude Ventures, together with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, GV, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital and MCJ Ventures/John Doerr, in October 2023. The company is valued at approximately $500 million and had reported $20 million of trailing twelve-month revenue in early 2025. Though Mill does not disclose profitability and is most likely still heavily reinvesting into growth and logistics infrastructure, it has a solid investor base and potentially scalable business model due to its expanding commercial presence.

Mill competes with countertop composters, including Lomi, Reencle, and the Vitamix FoodCycler, as well as municipal composting programs and commercial waste services in Canada. Many of these alternatives offer cheaper alternatives than Mill, but the company’s integrated hardware, logistics, and analytics distinguish it and provide a seamless, odour free, and measurable impact for users. The firm’s prices are still a barrier for economic do-it-yourselfers or municipal service users, and the environmental trade-offs of shipping food grounds long distances are worrisome, although the company would ultimately like to amid transport distances in their processing for any carbon dioxide emissions related to transportation waste.

With increasing user base, solid venture capital, slow but sure expansion into residential and business services, and desire to do for food recycling what was done for water recycling as common & easy & meaningful, Mill is poised to be a major player in the future of household and workplace sustainability.Mill is changing the concept of food recycling into a meaningful act for the planet by amalgamating state of the art hardware, behavioral insights, and circular logistics, and by addressing the food waste issue in another way that has never been done before - instead of just focusing on the issue at hand like a traditional waste management company has typically done - through rewards it is reshaping the food waste narrative into a daily activity.

Click here to access Mill's website.