TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

The Story of Stuff or How We Can Manufacture with Health, Love & Eco-Friendliess in Mind Instead of Waste, Poison & Obsolescence

TerraCycle Include USA
This week’s featured film on The Progressive Film Hour with Mitchell Rabin is The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard.
A film that has had more than 10 million viewers in over 200 countries, this 21-minute animated film, narrated by Annie Leonard, tells a story about the linear version of the manufacturing process that will make your head spin. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
To discuss the themes of the film with Mitchell is Albe Zakes, the 27 year -old Vice President of Media Relations at TerraCycle, Inc., the world’s leading ‘upcycling’ company, which converts waste materials into eco-friendly, affordable products available at big box retailers nationwide.
Albe came to TerraCycle shortly after graduating from the University of Colorado, Boulder. While at University, Albe ran several grassroots groups and worked as a student volunteer supervisor for CoPIRG (Colorado Public Interest Research Group.) With PIRG he help to run the Environment Alert initiative for two years, hosting on-campus awareness events and running letter writing, petitioning and fundraising campaigns. Other student groups Albe ran included the Colorado chapter of Hip Hop Congress a grassroots movement that spreads political and social awareness and activism through music and poetry. Albe started at TerraCycle as an intern in the PR department, after being told he did not have enough experience for a full time position! After spending two months as an intern he was offered a full time position and never looked back. In the last three years, Albe has worked his way to the top of the PR department. With little PR experience he help TerraCycle battle Scotts Miracle-Gro, running the “Sued by Scotts” Campaign in 2007. Albe got coverage for TerraCycle on Oprah and Good Morning America on the same day: Earth Day! On tonight’s show, we will see a clip of the The Story of Stuff and then discuss the wasteful, toxic, subsidized character of the manufacturing process in this country and what more long-term, non-toxic, non-polluting and ultimately, much more profitable solutions are.