Recycling the non-recyclable: Town Hall South speaker provides solutions
TerraCycle Szaky Include USA
Consider the dirty diaper.
Of course, most people would rather not. But consider that the used versions of incontinence products account for about 2 percent of the stuff that clogs American landfills, with 3.7 million tons dumped in 2010.
If that seems like a problem, Tom Szaky’s company has a solution.
Szaky, chief executive officer of Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle, spoke about his favorite subject – garbage – Dec. 6 at Upper St. Clair High School for the Town Hall South lecture series.
He explained how TerraCycle scientists have developed a means to separate the artificial and organic materials, including the unpleasantries, and into either compost or plastic pellets to be repurposed for new consumer goods.
“We are on a consumption fix. When we buy stuff, that is what causes every environmental issue in the world.”
That’s just one example of the company’s mission: “Collecting and recycling things that could never be recycled before,” Szaky said.
Cigarettes represent another, as all those discarded butts that smokers toss casually aside could be collected and used in an infinitely better manner.
Hirsute and dressed casually, especially for Town Hall South, the 34-year-old Hungary native provided a simple societal reason for TerraCycle even to exist.
“We are on a consumption fix,” he said. “When we buy stuff, that is what causes every environmental issue in the world.”
As such, and flying in the face of the current seasonal spending spree, Szaky recommended that members of the capacity crowd consider buying durable instead of disposable goods, and to buy used items.
“The very best thing, which I challenge you on, is to stop buying unless you really have to,” he said.
Szaky told the audience about his first efforts on the road toward TerraCycle, when he was a student at Princeton University. He showed a slide depicting an impressive multilevel contraption designed to take food waste, feed it to worms and emerge with compost.
“No one would invest in our idea,” he admitted.
The next try worked better, packaging liquefied compost in discarded soda bottles as marketing them as TerraCycle Plant Food. Szaky said he promptly received letters from lawyers representing beverage companies, claiming infringement on intellectual property because of the bottles’ shapes, but he convinced them that his intentions were good.
One multinational corporation, though, threatened a protracted legal battle, one that TerraCycle couldn’t afford. So the fledgling company went another route instead.
“You don’t have to play on their playing field,” Szaky explained. “We decided to play this in the media rather than in the courtroom.”
The result was plenty of positive coverage for TerraCycle and a corresponding boost in sales that helped pave the way toward stability and sustained growth.
Today, the company is housed in a renovated 100,000-square-foot building, where artists around Trenton always are welcome to expressive their creativity by painting on the walls. Meanwhile, Szaky continues to laud the American business environment for giving him the opportunity to pursue an unconventional path.
“This is a country where you can create ideas and take risks,” he said, “because without risk, you can’t innovate.”
He also pointed to the entrepreneurial successes of immigrants like himself.
“That’s important to remember, especially in today’s political climate.”