Szaky is founder and CEO of TerraCycle, in Trenton, N.J. He says the throwaway culture in the U.S. took shape in the mid-20th century. "There were advertisements in 1950 that talk about, 'You don't have to wash the dishes anymore, simply take the whole thing, — the cutlery, the dishes, the tablecloth itself — and throw it all out,' " he says. That disposability was made possible in large part by the invention of cheap plastic.