Die TerraCycle-Geschichte. In der Natur gibt es keinen Müll. Alle Materialien werden durch natürliche Prozesse wiederverwendet oder recycelt. Erst die moderne Zivilisation hat ein enormes Abfallproblem hervorgerufen. Die Erfindung von komplexen Plastikpolymären während und nach der industriellen Revolution zerstörte den geschlossenen Kreis des nachhaltigen Systems, das auf der Erde für Billionen Jahre existiert hatte. Heute entstehen durch den Bedarf an sicheren und angemessenen Verpackungen für Konsumgüter Billionen Tonnen von nicht oder nur schwierig recycelbaren Abfällen.
Candy wrappers: These aren’t accepted in your blue bin, however you can join or start a local “brigade” of collectors for many hard-to-recycle items, including candy wrappers, and earn cash for your school or nonprofit by signing up at
www.terracycle.net.
Dropps laundry detergent is already a leader in the detergent industry in environmental awareness due to their lack of bulky packaging. Certified by the U.S. EPA Design for the Environment, their detergent packs simply dissolve in the washer and the only thing left is the lightweight outer pouch which until today was not recyclable by local collectors.
But, now that problem is gone because
Dropps has partnered with
TerraCycle to collect and recycle the plastic bags and make
Dropps a zero waste product. Recycling is easy because
TerraCycle offers free postage-paid shipping labels on their website and offers donations to charity for each pouch recycled. Learn more about
Dropps and
TerraCycle and celebrate a clean Earth Day tomorrow!
You'll always fail first. Imagine starting your own company, creating a life-changing, world-saving product, and pouring every dollar, minute and ounce of sanity into cultivating your business. Imagine then realizing one day that your product is in some way irrelevant or unmarketable. What do you do? Sure, you could give up. But
Tom Szaky, the CEO of TerraCycle, says it's easy—just change your business model and keep going. Szaky writes in
The New York Times' You're the Boss column today about how his company survived its first, second, third and fourth business models and still remains open to more changes. Because in business, there's always room for a plan D.
Tom Szaky
Founder, TerraCycle
"I think only if you are a service company trying to inspire confidence in your clients -- i.e. lawyers and accountants. If you are not one of the above, I wouldn't have a dress code. In fact, at TerraCycle, we have a "negative dress code." You shouldn't show up in a suit and tie. You'll be asked to dress down."
Learn what TerraCycle's objectives are and how the company is adding to the number of waste streams it collects.
Earth Day. It's the day on which countless companies decide to announce new green products, environmental goals, project results or tree-planting plans, meaning it's also the day countless announcements go straight from our in-box to our (electronic) recycling bin.
We'll try to make sure that at least a few of the resources that went into typing up and emailing those releases to us don't go to waste. Here are some of the ones that made the cut:
New Life for Plastic Cups and Flip-Flops
TerraCycle, the New Jersey company that turns all types of trash into consumer products, launched a handful of partnerships and limited collection drives this month. Two new collection programs will accept cosmetics packaging from Garnier brand products and plastic polystyrene cups, which let's hope you don't see at any Earth Day celebrations.
Throughout this week TerraCycle is working with Office Depot to give customers coupons for new Sanford products if they bring in pens, pencils or markers to be recycled. And if your flip-flops get ruined while picking up trash on the beach, Old Navy stores will collect used flip-flops until late May to be turned into public playground items through TerraCycle.
