According to Feeding America, 38% of all food in America is wasted, equating to $473bn of value and 145bn meals. Meanwhile, per a research report from NYU Stern, sustainable CPG products represent 18.5% of the CPG market but nearly one-third of growth over the past decade at a 10% CAGR in the past five years. But outside of Imperfect Foods, there are few household brands that are leveraging food waste to create novel nutritious, sustainable products within the “upcycled” category. Like other plant-based alternatives, the term has negative connotations around “ugly” and recycled food. Thus, new vegetable chip brands like Hippeas and From The Ground Up have quickly gained popularity within the salty snack category. But if entrepreneur Kaitlin Montegale gets her way, upcycled foods will finally sit prominently on shelves as she relaunches Pulp Pantry under the forthcoming Trashy brand. This week, HNGRY sat down with Montegale to understand lessons learned from selling across 1k retail doors over the past three years and how she now plans to reposition Trashy away from upcycling towards the circular economy in the fashion industry.