Minus Global Holdings Inc. has acquired Toronto-based food waste company, Planet Earth. Planet Earth is a provider of organic recycling services in southern Ontario. The acquisition will expand Plant Earth's market penetration and its service offerings to existing customers to include Minus' food waste recycling technology, the ORCA digester. Dedicated to environmental performance, Planet Earth currently offers several landfill diversion alternatives to their food waste collection customers. With Minus, Planet Earth customers can now choose the ORCA digester to measure and minimize the amount of unnecessary food purchased and aerobically digests their unavoidable waste, diverting it away from traditional collection and disposal in landfills.
The funding for this acquisition was provided by Kensington Capital Partners Limited.
"Joining the Minus team ensures that Planet Earth continues to deliver the highest quality and most environmentally responsible food waste services in Ontario," said Dave Bardocz, CEO of Planet Earth. "Together, we look forward to providing customers with transparent and measurable results that transform their environmental footprint and rationalize their operations."
According to the United Nations Panel on Climate Change, 2021 saw the largest increase in methane production in recorded history. Food waste, when disposed of in landfills, decomposes anaerobically to methane. Methane has roughly 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide in the near term.
In fact, the United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that global food waste represents more greenhouse gas emissions than any country in the world except for China and the United States. This results in over $1 trillion USD of direct economic loss and $700 billion USD in environmental costs each year. With the planet rapidly approaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, more than 100 countries, including Canada, have agreed to cut 30 percent of their methane emissions by 2030.
"We are very pleased with the progress made by the Minus management team and continue to support them with their vision toward powering a future where people use less energy and provide cleaner, safer waste solutions. Planet Earth has a great business that is highly complementary to Minus. This is an important milestone, and we are excited about this new chapter," said Tom Kennedy, chairman at Kensington Capital Partners.
