"It's so heartening to see people have come across Petal and are willing to share their thoughts on something I co-invented. We teamed up up Scott Henderson, who led the industrial design, which is certainly why Petal looks so sleek. As a co-inventor, I wanted to share a little more background regarding its creation, which may not otherwise be very clear above. Where I'm from, Toronto and its adjacent municipalities, we have what some may consider ambitious organic waste collection programs, along with recycling and landfill waste collection. The programs are mandatory by means of infrequent regular waste collection and limitations on regular waste bin sizes. It's a very good system, and the Greater Toronto Area is able to divert over 50 percent of its residential waste from landfills through its green bin and recycling programs. The program began about 15 years ago and meant that we found ourselves suddenly having to sort our waste or pay for higher garbage hauling costs. Overnight I became a composter and at the time I lived in a condo. To paint a picture, the city provides a 7-liter beige bucket, a tiny little thing, to keep your food scraps in. Funny enough, it's sized at seven liters because they found that at any larger size, it would get so foul with rotting food that it would need emptied at the 7-liter mark anyway. Well, boy were they right. After about two weeks of keeping this thing under my counter, I had a host of nuisances on my hands - bad smells, fruit flies, and other issues - and I couldn't take it anymore. This was one important impetus for creating Petal. On a personal front, my lovely wife also suffers from asthma and so fragrant household cleansers and deodorizers are a no go. Petal prevents and locks away odors so no deodorizers are necessary. As we began to explore the idea initially we wondered "Why hasn't anyone done this before?" When we started looking into previous patents for household disposal freezers, low and behold, we found multiple concepts dating all the way back to 1962. The idea itself was not new. Many people had had the same "ah ha" moment. But as it turns out, ideas are some times just that. It's worth noting that Petal's walls have twice the insulative effect of a typical household freezer. The less than $1/month electricity cost is based on the Eco Mode (10 deg F) and is derived from energy consumption tests based on requirements of the Department of Energy. These tests factor in lid openings by testing the unit at 90 degrees ambient temperatures. And yes, costs will vary depending on factors such as the electricity cost in your jurisdiction. Why electricity is so expensive with all the technology we have? That is another matter. Also of note, Petal uses R600a refrigerant, known as isobutane. It has a 450x lower Global Warming Potential as compared R134a which was the common refrigerant previously for appliances and is now phased out. R600a is also significantly more efficient than R134a which is one of the reasons it was even possible to invent Petal. This was a very intentional choice. Petal is designed to the highest safety standards, so although R600a is flammable it poses little risk -- each Petal uses only 50 grams worth of refrigerant. We are fully committed to working towards a goal of Zero Waste. That means when customers are finished using their Petal, we'll send them a pre-paid shipping label so they can return it to us. We are committed to responsibly recycling Petal for use in new models and/or ensuring that the materials are put to use elsewhere. I appreciate Rain and Core77 for spotlighting us and am happy to share more about Petal if anyone is ever interested - primoz.cresnik@petalllc.com"