PittMoss, which appeared on Shark Tank, expands internationally
Thursday, June 17
PittMoss creates potting soil out of recycled paper and cardboard materials.
PITTMOSS
By Julia Mericle – Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times
Jun 16, 2021 Updated Jun 16, 2021, 3:29pm EDT
Pittsburgh-based PittMoss, which makes potting soil out of recycled materials, is expanding its operations internationally with plans for a factory in Lebanon.
The company, which received investment from Shark Tank, expects to complete about $1 million in sales this year, according to President Brian Scott.
PittMoss partnered with Pittsburgh-based nonprofit DTCare for the expansion, and Scott said he hopes to use a similar partnership model to open five to 10 more facilities in the next five years. Scott said he is currently in talks with three organizations in California, but he said it was too early to disclose the companies.
PittMoss creates environmentally sustainable potting soil at its Ambridge facility out of recycled paper and cardboard materials, such as newsprint, mail ads and magazines. Scott said a typical bag of traditional potting soil, which is made of peat moss, has the same carbon emissions as burning 22 pounds of coal.
Scott said peat moss is typically dug up from bogs and then shipped long distances, and he said the United Nations identified the elimination or reduction of peat moss mining as one of their top 10 carbon reduction priorities in the world. PittMoss reported that its products prevented 81,111 cubic feet of peat moss from extraction in 2020, which would equal about 811.11 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
“What really makes our product click for a lot of people is that the typical process is to dig up peat, which is bad for the environment, and then ship it across the country,” Scott said. “But everyone has paper and cardboard waste. Our deal is why would we want to dig up something out of the earth, cause carbon emissions, when every major metropolitan area could have PittMoss facilities and make their own soil.”
Scott said PittMoss requires less water and less fertilization than other potting soils. After some testing, DTCare also reported that the soil worked much better than traditional potting soil in the Arizona desert climate. That gave the nonprofit the idea to move ahead with expansion into Lebanon.
“DTCare’s mission is to advance our goals of promoting civil society, reducing poverty (especially for women), pursuing the advancements of science and scientific research, as well as providing jobs and training veterans,” DTCare President Marco Gruelle said in a prepared statement. “The plant will provide a wide range of jobs. Our hope is to also make enough PittMoss to be able to start soil remediation in the Bekaa Valley, which is the main agricultural area in Lebanon.”
In particular, Scott said the facility will help grow food more efficiently for Lebanon’s refugee population.
PittMoss also recently expanded into some new market segments. Scott said the company recently found a foothold in the cannabis growing industry. He said the company found that its soil provided a 12.5% yield increase and 4.9% higher THC content, while simultaneously cutting fertilizer costs in half for the companies it worked with.
“If we did not have people quantifying and measuring, it’s almost an unbelievable story to them,” Scott said.
PittMoss also recently saw an opportunity in the rise of backyard chickens, and launched a new product called Roost, which he said has successfully grown.