From food waste to organic nutrients, with Tinia Pina

Tinia Pina is my guest on Episode 135 of Inside Ideas with Marc Buckley.  Tinia received her B.S. in Business Information Technology from Virginia Tech and studied briefly at Columbia University's Earth Institute. She has seven years of experience in the financial services industry and ten years as a professional in the sustainability industry. Her experiences related to food waste, food systems and sustainability have fueled her passion to increase our communities' resilience, prosperity, and knowledge to help us live more conscious lives. Tinia's pioneering business model has earned her a Huffington Post Millennial Impact Grant, the American Express Emerging Innovator award and a MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneur grant, among other honors.  After studying Environmental Conservation and Sustainability at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and volunteering at various community urban farms, Tinia launched Re-Nuble with a mission to “Redefine Waste” within urban communities. Re-Nuble quickly evolved into a social enterprise dedicated to changing wasteful habits around the world. Tinia is a SWANA Certified Composting Systems Technical Associate and her experiences related to food waste, systems and policy have fueled her passion to increase our communities’ resilience, prosperity, and knowledge to help us live more conscious lives.  Re-Nuble Founded December 2011  While volunteering as an SAT-prep teacher in 2012 in New York City, Founder Tinia Pina saw firsthand how limited healthy food options impacted her students' productivity, affecting their future. Pulled towards the mission of improving local food production, she created the company, Re-Nuble. Tinia felt there was a unique opportunity to use New York City's food stream to catalyze more sustainable growing near urban areas, especially as people continue to become more interested in eating less chemically-laden food.   Tinia began to spend a lot of time thinking, why is this? Why is it that there’s more affordable chemically-laden and processed food available than chemical- free and healthier options. After doing extensive research, Tinia realized that it’s because our food system is incredibly inefficient. A pound of organic- certified tomatoes is often sold at a price that’s 43% higher than chemically produced (conventionally grown) tomatoes because it’s easier and cheaper for growers to produce. With the alarming adversities our society is facing with food and water scarcity and with 70% of global population estimated to live in and near cities by 2050, she knew that we had to be more smart and efficient with our natural resources and overall production of healthy, good food.   https://www.re-nuble.com/