It’s the milkman for the 21st century, with customers from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia already having signed up online this spring. Founder and CEO Tom Szaky, who spun Loop off from his Trenton recycling company, TerraCycle, believes this is the right moment for a new way of grocery shopping.

Tom Szaky, the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, is known for recycling the unrecyclable—cigarette butts, chewing gum, diapers—but last year, as he watched the business model for recycling crater (in part because it’s not profitable to recycle many of the new, lighter, more flexible plastics), he had an epiphany.

It’s the milkman for the 21st century, with customers from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia already having signed up online this spring. Founder and CEO Tom Szaky, who spun Loop off from his Trenton recycling company, TerraCycle, believes this is the right moment for a new way of grocery shopping.

Diane Bérard explique que TerraCycle agit en quelque sorte comme un entremetteur. L’entreprise s’occupe de la collecte des matériaux difficilement recyclables pour le commun des mortels. Un consommateur qui souhaite se débarrasser de certains déchets indésirables n’a qu’à s’inscrire sur le site web de TerraCycle, et ainsi commander une boîte prétamponnée dans laquelle il peut déposer les matériaux qu’il ignore comment recycler.

“About nine million tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year,” explains Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, a global recycling company on a mission to eliminate waste. “Every year more people are producing more waste. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, by 2050 there will be more plastic by weight in our oceans than fish.”

"In the next 25 years, we are looking at world where there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish," said Michael Waas, a vice president of TerraCycle, which works with companies like Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Colgate-Palmolive on their recycling challenges. They have, for example, recycled toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes into playgrounds, he said.

Plastic waste has become a major area of investment and concern for beauty brands over the past few years, with multiple companies testing out more sustainable packaging options and initiatives. Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble-owned hair care brand Herbal Essences joined forces with waste management giant TerraCycle to launch a series of bottles comprising 25% beach plastic, while Kiehl's Since 1851 unveiled a limited-edition version of its signature ‘Rare Earth' mask in April alongside John Legend, presented in new, lower-plastic packaging. REN Clean Skincare has pledged to become completely "zero waste" by the year 2021, and personal care conglomerate Unilever recently unveiled a three-part plan to target plastic use in the US, including a pledge for 50% of its plastic packaging to be made from post-consumer recycled (PCR) content by the end of 2019.

The Brigantine Green Team and TerraCycle have partnered by purchasing three “Zero Waste” boxes which will allow our community to recycle specific types of waste. TerraCycle is a company that works with communities, companies or individuals who wish to recycle items that are traditionally nonrecyclable. TerraCycle has recycling solutions for pretty much every type of waste available for purchase.

The Brigantine Green Team and TerraCycle have partnered by purchasing three “Zero Waste” boxes which will allow our community to recycle specific types of waste. TerraCycle is a company that works with communities, companies or individuals who wish to recycle items that are traditionally nonrecyclable. TerraCycle has recycling solutions for pretty much every type of waste available for purchase.

The individuals that led this conversation included Lindsay Clinton, the Senior VP of Industry Initiatives at the NYCEDC, and Michael Waas, Global VP of Brand Partnerships for TerraCycle. According to both Clinton and Waas, in order for the circular economy to work, there must be a mind shift and behavioral change, and TerraCycle does this by having elementary schools partake in its programs because the passion that young people have is very impactful.