Local Teen Entrepreneurs Revolutionize Future of Sustainable Food Disposal: Andrew Yang, David Chen, and Matthew Gao || By. Zikang Jiang and Thaniha Mohan

As almost every country in the world burns fossil fuels for heat, electricity, and transportation, emitting copious amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, one small team of highschoolers from New Jersey is fighting to make quantifiable changes.

The Torus company strives to reduce the amount of CO2 in the air by introducing composting bins to households around New Jersey and raising awareness on the harmful effects of greenhouse gasses. 

We sat down with the three founders of Torus: Matthew Gao, David Chen, and Andrew Yang to learn more about their company and their goals as young entrepreneurs. Gao’s role on the team is to mainly manage ads and referrals as well as to hire drivers for delivering composting bins. He remarked that his experience working with the organization has taught him “fundamental skills, like talking to strangers, and knowing how to sell products” Gao explained that he was introduced to many new aspects about the business world through Torus.

In addition to the logistical work and aspects of the organization, Gao also described the close relationship between the members of the team. He stated that “Obviously, it’s hard, there’s a lot of struggles, but when you’re together and you figure stuff out together, find solutions together, you get closer.” The success of Torus is not only due to the amazing work ethic of the team, but is also due to the team’s ability to collaborate.

As for the future of Torus, Gao said that their “end goal is to spread nationally. But right now, we need to further saturate the composting world in New Jersey.” Gao hopes that in the upcoming months Torus can get “as many people to sign up for composting and make people realize that composting has a serious environmental impact.”

Through a relentless devotion to customer acquisition Torus has in just 3 months grown to service more than 100 houses in West Windsor and neighboring townships. Torus has benefited from spreading awareness about food waste by going from house to house and asking homeowners to compost.

Andrew Yang, another founder, said  that his “role is primarily in sales… Just making sure Torus is expanding and succeeding.” However, in the future he could also see himself working on raising funds for the nonprofit or managing existing houses to provide an even more desirable customer experience.

He elaborated on co-founding Torus, where the mission of bringing composting to every household in the country is “something that aligned with what [he] wanted to do '', which is to inspire change and leave a lasting impact. Each time he sees the “text message that we get two more signups” is a sign that “we are succeeding as a team”.

David Chen, Co-Founder and head of marketing for Torus, clarified that his goal is “increasing our reach and impact.” He approaches this by sending emails in a “genuine and authentic way” that truly provides value or interesting information to the recipients, not more useless junk mail. He believes that these emails allow Torus to connect with their potential “partners (households using the service, partners in reducing co2) and show them that we truly want to improve the community”.

Chen explained his reason for these emails and his decision to co-found Torus. He said that “This summer, I kinda set out a goal. To help my community in as many ways as I could. So with Project Engage (his other non profit) we obviously provide schooling to local students. With Torus it's a completely different approach. The mission statement is so important, providing sustainable and free composting nationwide.” He elaborated saying that the most rewarding moments with Torus have been “seeing the number of pounds of co2 reduced grow and seeing the houses signed up grow.”

Despite being busy attending various summer camps and training for the upcoming rowing season, Chen still wakes up at 6:00am to work on his personal goals for Torus driven by his main ambition to scale Torus first throughout New Jersey, then nationwide.

To continue this rapid growth, Yang believes there is much to be improved upon such as “promoting Torus at the Princeton Farmers Market” and “working with a lot of the town councils” before expanding to the state level. Through such ambitious goals and direct action steps, Yang and the Torus Team hope to expand their non profit to servicing 500+ households by the end of the summer.

Sign up to support this team’s initiative and get the experience of composting for free!

Click here to sign up and help the environment!