waste combater. difference maker. minute exerciser. Albe Zakes wanted to work for TerraCycle (a pioneer in innovative upcycling and recycling systems) so badly he took an unpaid internship. He’s now TerraCycle’s VP of Media Relations. [www.terracycle.com] I’ve always worked for causes that were about giving back to the community. Giving back has always been my intention. When I work for a company I know is making a positive difference in the world, I work better. When you believe in something and you’re passionate about it, you’re destined to go far. I’d spent a lot of time working for non-profit organizations when I read an article about Tom Szaky, the CEO and founder of TerraCycle. He basically said it’s easier to change major corporations if you’re in the boardroom than if you’re picketing in the parking lot. That floored me. I’ve come to think that for-profit industry creates the most opportunity for change. Now I work at TerraCycle. One of the things we do is run recycling fundraisers for schools and nonprofits. We bring attention to the waste issue America faces. Twenty-seven trillion pieces of consumer packaging go into landfills every year. An estimate of 90 percent of the things we buy will be in a landfill within six months of buying them. The average American creates four pounds of waste a day. That doesn’t mean we throw four pounds of waste a day away with our own hands, but our actions, on average, create four pounds of waste every single day – and that’s for all 360 million of us in America. When you start hearing some of these stats, they can knock you loose. People are usually unaware of the effects our culture’s waste habits are having and how connected things are. A lot of people just need their eyes opened about our waste situation. I was once in southern Europe doing a beach cleanup as part of a volunteer project and saw stuff that had washed up on shore all the way from the U.S. It was staggering. That was the moment when I realized how connected the world really is. Giving back also happens in smaller ways. In the PR department where I work, we revive and reconnect in different ways. We like to do exercise minutes. Anyone can call for them. One person in the department is a Pilates instructor, so she’ll lead us in a five-minute Pilates course. Or, on nice days, we’ll all get out and go for a walk. I’ve found that getting up and moving can be really helpful.