Even the Ivy League isn't immune to dropouts. Tom Szaky -- a Canadian who didn't know that Princeton was in New Jersey until he got to campus -- left college after two years. Szaky was on fall break during freshman year in Montreal when he saw a bountiful weed (yes, that kind of weed) harvest that owed its success to worm and organic waste. The light bulb went off, and he began packaging worm waste in used soda bottles that later ended up on the shelves of Home Depot and Walmart. Over the next year, he would head home after class and work on his business, the way college basketball players head to the gym to work on their free throws. He didn't solicit help from professors and says the faculty was "hands-off" in that respect. By his sophomore year, TerraCycle was taking off -- he had a logo, a name and a diversified body of products -- and it was now or never. "I would have loved to stay in school, but TerraCycle was starting to grow and I was putting more time into it," says Szaky, 28, also a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors. "I took a semester off, which turned into a permanent leave." The business has evolved since 2003 -- kites made of Oreo wrappers and picture frames wrapped in bicycle chains, part of the company's "upcycling" line of products, helped catapult revenues to $7.5 million in 2009 -- but he still spends time on campus as a guest lecturer and thinks teaching could be a fun career down the road. For now, he's focused on waste, and he's able to indulge his inner dork with the science of composting. Looks like he didn't need that behavioral economics degree after all, much like other dropouts who felt the need to quit school and carpe diem. "I have nothing against school," says Szaky, author of Revolution in a Bottle. "TerraCycle was happening, and that was the decision at the moment."

WALL — The 409 students at Allenwood Elementary School know the lunchtime drill. Grab a plastic foam tray, wait in the lunch line, sit down and eat lunch, then march the recyclable items to the green bins on the table at the front of the room. Cookie wrappers go in one bin, candy wrappers in another. Snack bags, string cheese wrappers, juice pouches and plastic lunch bags each are placed in separate containers. And although the plastic foam trays are not recycled, they are scraped, and fruits and vegetables are saved for the compost bin outside. Then the trays are stacked neatly so they take up as little space as possible in the trash container.

MOUNT LAUREL - The Countryside Elementary School has earned a $30,000 grant for placing second in a statewide contest that encourages the "upcycling" of post-consumer packaging. The "Trash for Cash" program is sponsored by TerraCycle, a Trenton manufacturer of goods made from used materials, and discount retailer Wal-Mart. In addition to the grant, the school earned $931 in funds for the parent-teacher organization, an award based on the unspecified number of boxes of recycled materials submitted for the contest.

I’ve been doing some thinking on how the recycling system could be improved here in the U.S., increasing the amount and scope, and I’d like your thoughts. There are some great models out there. But which way is best, for all involved, on both the producer and consumer ends? At TerraCycle we’ve begun expanding operations into other countries, so I’ve been learning about what’s happening, and it’s intriguing. But I wonder, will it work here, or more like, will it be allowed to work here?

O consumidor ganha um kit escolar, contendo uma caixa de ecolápis com 12 cores e um ecoestojo produzido pela TerraCycle a partir de embalagens de suco em pó recicladas.

Parents and kids at the K-2 school finished fifth in a statewide recycling contest sponsored by TerraCycle, a company started by a Princeton University dropout who sold organic “worm poop” fertilizer in used soda bottles and then branched out to make lunch bags, fences and other products from hard-to-recycle materials. TerraCycle partners with major brands to create products from packaging that otherwise might pose a public relations problem for them. The company was founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a 20-year-old freshman at Princeton. When his worm fertilizer idea only finished fourth in the Princeton Business Plan Contest, he left school to develop the concept and won a $1 million competition. He turned down the money to retain control of the company. TerraCycle now operates from a Trenton headquarters decorated by graffiti artists. The company has turned nearly 2 billion pieces of trash into a line of 246 recycled and “upcycled” products sold by the likes of Walmart and Whole Foods Market. More than $1.6 million has been generated for schools and charities. On Earth Day 2009, Tom Szaky published Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business.

TerraCycle Argentina es una empresa cuyo objetivo principal es cambiar el concepto de la basura, haciendo una propuesta de reciclado y re utilización de envases de productos de consumo masivo para la generación de producción productos upcycled, generando conciencia ambiental en niños, jóvenes y adultos al mismo tiempo que colabora con escuelas y Organismos sin fines de lucro. (OSFL), las cuales son elegidas como beneficiarias de los equipos de recolección y reciben $ 0,10 por cada envase que junten. De esta manera, no sólo evitan que miles de millones de piezas de basura lleguen a deposición final, sino que también generan nuevos productos económicos y amigables con el medio ambiente, lo que reduce el uso de nuevas materias primas, minimizando el impacto ambiental. Al fabricar un producto, por lo general el factor más importante que contribuye al impacto de carbono es la extracción de las materias primas y el refinamiento de esos materiales para convertirlos en materiales aptos para ser utilizados. Al contrario, cuando se hace una cartuchera de sobres de bebidas en polvo (upcycling), se sustituye el algodón con sobres de bebidas (un material que es un desecho y por lo tanto no requiere de nuevas materias primas). O cuando fabrican un tacho de basura hecho de las bolsitas de snacks (reciclaje), pueden reemplazar el plástico virgen y minimizar las emisiones de dióxido de carbono. En el caso de un sobre de bebidas en polvo, el envío del sobre a un basural crea un poco más de 0,5 gramos de emisiones de dióxido de carbono por bolsa. Si el mismo se incinera se genera un poco más de 6 gramos de carbono por sobre (con la contabilización de la energía recuperada). Si se recicla el bolso, por ejemplo, en madera de plástico, entonces el ahorro de carbono (no de costos) es un poco más de 13 gramos de carbono por sobre (cuando se compara contra el plástico virgen). Si se upcycle los sobres de bebidas en polvo, por ejemplo en una cartuchera, el ahorro de carbono es alrededor de 190 gramos de carbono por sobre (cuando se compara contra una cartuchera de algodón). Tags: Medio ambiente, productos sustentables, reciclado Recycle from Innovation Argentina TerraCycle is a company whose main objective is to change the concept of waste, making a proposal for recycling and reuse of containers of consumer products for the generation of upcycled products production, creating environmental awareness among children, youth and adults at the same time that works with schools and nonprofit organizations. (NPOs), which are chosen as recipients of the collection teams and receive $ 0.10 for each container meet. Thus, not only prevent billions of pieces of trash from reaching final deposition, but also generate new economic products and environmentally friendly, reducing the use of new raw materials, minimizing environmental impact. When manufacturing a product, usually the most important factor contributing to the carbon footprint is the raw material extraction and refinement of these materials to make them suitable materials for use. By contrast, when a cartridge is made of powdered drink packets (upcycling) is replaced with cotton envelopes beverages (which is a waste material and therefore requires no new raw materials). Or when you make a trash bags made from snacks (recycling), can replace virgin plastic and minimize emissions of carbon dioxide. In the case of a powdered drink on, sending the envelope to a landfill creates a bit more than 0.5 grams of carbon dioxide emissions per bag. If it is burned it produces a little over 6 grams of carbon per envelope (with the accounting for the energy recovered). If the bag is recycled, for example, plastic timber, then the carbon savings (no cost) is slightly more than 13 grams of carbon per envelope (when compared against the virgin plastic). If Upcycle envelopes powdered drinks, such as in a cartridge, carbon savings is about 190 grams of carbon per envelope (when compared against a cotton pouch.) Tags: Environment, sustainable products, recycling

9. Companies learn to close the loop. Starbucks announced it’s made considerable progress toward turning used coffee cups into new cups, and five Walmart stores began testing a collection system for 28 types of trash (candy wrappers, yogurt tubs, pens, coffee bags) that TerraCycle can convert into tote bags, plant pots, backpacks and portable speakers. Hasbro is increasing the recycled content of its packaging and paper materials to 75 percent this year, and Pepsi-owned Naked Juice is converting all of its bottles to 100 percent post-consumer content.