Louis Structures (source: Louis Structures)
Louis Structures LLC, a Wisconsin-based company developing waste-to-resource solutions, has announced its pursuit of new investment to accelerate expansion of its operations. The company is open to a range of funding pathways, including regulated crowdfunding, to support a planned step up from processing consumer cosmetic materials toward handling mixed municipal waste and recyclables on a city-wide scale.
Investment proceeds are expected to be directed toward scaling physical infrastructure, broadening feedstock acceptance, and strengthening quality assurance and distribution capabilities. “We aim to move beyond our pilot facility by building larger production spaces in key urban areas,” Benjamin Louis Horvat, founder and CEO of Louis Structures, states. “At the same time, we intend to refine our systems for sorting and decontamination and expand manufacturing stages like extrusion and granulation.” Funds would also support additional testing and certification work, enabling the output to meet the varied requirements of civil and infrastructure applications as the components of the product evolve from specialty cosmetic feedstock uses to wider municipal streams.
Louis Structures’ core offering converts mixed waste into MSWagg, a lightweight construction aggregate. “MSWagg has an internal friction angle of 44psi making it similar to crushed limestone but with 70% less weight,” Horvat adds. The production path is multi-stage: incoming material is sorted and reduced in size, oils and soluble contaminants are removed through intensive washing and thermal treatment, and the remaining solids are dried, milled, and blended with engineered binders.
That blend is then formed under controlled heat and pressure, cooled, and finished into a granular aggregate suitable for use in a variety of construction contexts. The process has been refined using cosmetic industry feedstocks in the company’s operating facility and, as Louis Structures notes, is adaptable to a wider range of municipal materials with appropriate scale-up.
The resulting aggregate is positioned as a lightweight alternative to conventional mineral gravels. Its characteristics include lower density, handling advantages in transportation and placement, and engineered durability created through the company’s encapsulation and coating steps.
“We’ve done our own research to inform the potential to apply the same transformation pathway to mixed municipal solid waste, and we see this as an extension of the methods already validated on current feedstocks,” Horvat says. The company emphasizes that ongoing testing continues to explore the material’s suitability for building, roadway, and civil engineering contexts, with iterative development informed by both laboratory evaluation and field trials.
At present, Louis Structures is using cosmetic waste streams as a reliable pilot feedstock, chosen in part because those streams align with brand partners’ circularity commitments and allow steady operational refinement. This pilot experience has provided valuable insight into material handling, high-temperature washing, milling, extrusion, and final quality control.
Louis Structures notes that these operational learnings are central to the planned expansion. Horvat explains, “The same technical process may be adaptable to a wider range of waste materials. The key difference at a larger scale is not the method itself, but the size of the facilities and the volume of material they can handle.”
The company envisions a network of appropriately sized processing facilities sited near urban waste sources, enabling waste to be repurposed locally into construction aggregate. The long-term aspiration is to integrate these operations into existing industrial footprints where possible, converting underutilized buildings into processing centers that divert waste streams and produce marketable material for infrastructure and building projects.
As Louis Structures seeks partners for the next phase, it emphasizes its commitment to responsible growth, methodical technical development, and engagement with communities and regulators, aiming to ensure that expanded operations align with local needs and standards.
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Name: Benjamin Horvat
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