TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

Run a less wasteful business with tips from TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky

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TerraCycle, a multinational recycling and upcycling company, got its start during founder Tom Szaky's freshman year at Princeton University. Here, the founder shares how natural retailers and natural businesses can become less wasteful.
Tom Szaky’s infectious passion has propelled TerraCycle, a multinational recycling and upcycling company, to be among the fastest-growing corporations in the nation. He will share more about his business from 9 to 10 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 20, in room 308/309 at Natural Products Expo East.   Natural Foods Merchandiser: How do you describe your business for those who don’t know about it? Tom Szaky: TerraCycle’s business revolves around the simple idea of making things recyclable that are not recyclable. Today, we are in 22 countries around the world where you can sign up to collect waste. You simply take a cardboard box and fill it up. Each waste stream goes into its own box, such as pens in one box, chip bags in another. Once the box is full, you download a free shipping label and send it to us. We typically credit your account 2 cents for every piece of waste you collect to allocate to any school or charity in the country. Then we take the waste and we do one of three things to it: reuse it, if it’s possible, we do that for example in our shoe program; upcycle it, for example juice packs into backpacks; or recycle it, where, for example, we melt chip bags into trash cans.