Earth911 Podcast: The Birth of the Lomi Home Composter With Pela Co-Founder Brad Pederson

Brad Pederson, co-founder and chairman of Pela, joins Mitch Ratcliffe to discuss the company’s sustainable products. We recently spent a couple of months testing the Lomi home composter from the Kelowna, British Columbia-based maker of compostable phone cases, low-carbon and low-waste sunglasses, and now, appliances for a sustainable life. Pela launched as a maker of phone cases made from flax and a plant-based biopolymer that can be safely composted at home or in an industrial composting system. The Lomi is a countertop appliance that composts food waste, paper, and a growing number of bioplastic products that don’t break down in home compost piles. Pela also donates a share of sales to ocean cleanup and protection projects.

The Lomi earned our Greener Shopping Difference Maker designation for a product that reduces environmental impacts by at least 50%. The Lomi’s environmental performance varies based on how your electricity is generated but even in the worst-case scenario involving burning coal or oil for electricity, the Lomi delivered just over 50% lower emissions than sending the same compostables to a landfill. The methane emissions associated with anaerobic biodegradation in a landfill are eliminated when the material is composted.

Brad is also the author of a new book, Start Up Santa, about his career in the toy industry and lessons learned starting a sustainable products company. You can learn more about Pela Case at pelacase.com and the Lomi home composter at lomi.com.