Despite being neatly portioned, prepared, and packaged, most of our food does not come ready-to-eat from nature. Most food requires some degree of processing, and often, there are parts of crops that are undesirable, unappetizing, or inedible. Sometimes those parts can be easily repurposed, like dried corn husks for tamales.

The cocoa plant, the primary ingredient of chocolate, is made from the beans inside large, protective pods. Once dried and marketable, about 90% of the cocoa pod is considered waste. This byproduct presents a significant problem for several reasons. According to the non-profit Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa, the 2018-2019 global yield from cocoa was 4.8 million tons globally, and that production will generate a significant amount of trash. That can present a problem to local communities by polluting local waterways, cause flooding, and block water drainage systems. In addition to the environmental considerations, diverting cocoa waste into a usable form would create commercial opportunities for what some consider garbage.