Today's guest is Heidi Kujawa, founder and CEO at ByFusion. ByFusion is solving the global plastic waste crisis by turning unrecyclable plastics into building materials.
Plastics are lightweight, durable, strong, low-cost, and built to last. Those qualities are fantastic in reducing the cost and weight of shipping and packaging items. And those qualities are equally terrible when it comes to waste. Not to mention, virgin plastics come from fossil fuels and are providing an increasing amount of the value of a barrel of oil. ByFusion is looking to take advantage of plastic's positives while obviating its negatives by turning waste plastic into durable building blocks.
Heidi and Cody have a great conversation about her background, the different types of plastics, and what's recyclable and what's not (side note: we can all probably do better when it comes to recycling). They also talk about how ByFusion works with municipalities and waste management companies to source materials, what the company’s ByBlocks look like, who is building with ByFusion and what they are building, the evolution of plastic waste credits (which are similar to carbon credits) and how Heidi is financing the company and its product development. This is a jam-packed episode and we hope you enjoy it!
In this episode, we cover:
[2:09] Heidi's background and how it fed her experience building ByFusion
[4:31] How she decided to focus on plastic waste
[6:58] An overview of ByFusion and the company's ByBlock product
[9:44] Recyclable vs non-recyclable plastics
[13:34] Different use cases for ByFusion's construction materials
[17:14] ByFusion's municipalities customers, unit economics, and who's paying
[21:36] The company's business model
[23:51] The plastic diversion/credit market
[25:43] ByFusion's upcoming projects
[28:34] State and country-wide policies around plastic and their implications
[30:50] The company's financing to date
[34:37] Where ByFusion needs help today
Visit our website for a full transcript of this episode.
Get connected:
Cody Simms Twitter / LinkedIn
Heidi Kujawa / ByFusion
MCJ Podcast / Collective
*You can also reach us via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Episode recorded on January 18, 2023
Turning Plastic Trash into Treasured Building Materials