Where to Start Your Start-up
TerraCycle fertilizer Walmart office Target Include USA
Other companies' trash is Terracycle's treasure. Back in 2006, we dubbed Terracycle the "coolest little start-up in America <http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060701/coolest-startup.html?partner=newsletter_news> ." At the time, Terracycle was focused almost exclusively on their core product, a garden fertilizer made from composted worm poop, packaged in re-purposed soda bottles. Today the company is still turning trash into new products, only on a much larger scale. As the Wall Street Journal <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572504575214431306540058.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_smallbusiness> reports, Terracycle has greatly expanded their product line to include everything from backpacks made from reused drink pouches to kites made from old candy wrappers. That expansion, however, hasn't come without some difficulties. To house the mounds and mounds of garbage they collect for their products, the company has had to lease five new storage warehouses. Terracyle's execs have even begun sharing offices and moving their desks into the hallways to make room for trash piles. Terracyle is now banking on increased orders from big-box stores like Wal-Mart <http://www.inc.com/topic/Wal-Mart+Stores+Inc.> and Target <http://www.inc.com/topic/Target+Corporation> to jumpstart their business and keep their warehouses full of trash out of landfills. "The pressure is as high as I can think of," says the company's founder, Tom Szaky <http://www.inc.com/topic/Tom+Szaky> .