TerraCycle transforms trash into everyday products. Worm poop. Those two words mark the beginning of Tom Szaky’s ten-year-and-running quest to found and champion TerraCycle, a company that uses upcycling techniques to turn garbage that is usually difficult to recycle, such as packaging, into other, functional items. It all started after high school graduation, right before he entered Princeton University. “My friends started growing pot in their basement at the end of senior year,” said Szaky. “When I went to Princeton, they went to Canada and started using worm poop in compost to grow the marijuana, and they got amazing results.” Szaky was sold. He drew up a business plan and six months later dropped out of Princeton and dedicated himself to running his new business full time. ‘We spent the first few months just shoveling organic waste,” said Szaky. “Before we knew it, the company just got bigger and bigger.”

TerraCycle transforms trash into everyday products. Worm poop. Those two words mark the beginning of Tom Szaky’s ten-year-and-running quest to found and champion TerraCycle, a company that uses upcycling techniques to turn garbage that is usually difficult to recycle, such as packaging, into other, functional items. It all started after high school graduation, right before he entered Princeton University. “My friends started growing pot in their basement at the end of senior year,” said Szaky. “When I went to Princeton, they went to Canada and started using worm poop in compost to grow the marijuana, and they got amazing results.” Szaky was sold. He drew up a business plan and six months later dropped out of Princeton and dedicated himself to running his new business full time. ‘We spent the first few months just shoveling organic waste,” said Szaky. “Before we knew it, the company just got bigger and bigger.”

TerraCycle transforms trash into everyday products. Worm poop. Those two words mark the beginning of Tom Szaky’s ten-year-and-running quest to found and champion TerraCycle, a company that uses upcycling techniques to turn garbage that is usually difficult to recycle, such as packaging, into other, functional items. It all started after high school graduation, right before he entered Princeton University. “My friends started growing pot in their basement at the end of senior year,” said Szaky. “When I went to Princeton, they went to Canada and started using worm poop in compost to grow the marijuana, and they got amazing results.” Szaky was sold. He drew up a business plan and six months later dropped out of Princeton and dedicated himself to running his new business full time. ‘We spent the first few months just shoveling organic waste,” said Szaky. “Before we knew it, the company just got bigger and bigger.”

If you don’t want to take on DIY projects yourself, you can start a “brigade” and earn points for your group. A school, for example can collect foil juice containers (like Capri Sun packets), ship them to TerraCycle, which will make them into backpacks. Plastic pellets can be reformulated to become lunchbox/coolers, Frito Lay chip bags make the inner lining of a cooler, composite wood can be made from everyday trash, etc. In return, the brigade will earn points and pick a charity for which TerraCycle will translate the points into a contribution. Charities include Covenant House, which provides services to homeless and at-risk youth; Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization; National Wildlife Federation, dedicated to conserving wildlife habitat; Charity: water, which provides safe drinking water to developing countries; and many others. (Details, charities and donations are detailed at www.terracycle.net/points).

TerraCycle will take hard-to-recycle items or garbage such as juice pouches, chip bags, toothbrushes and pens and work with companies to reuse them in backpacks, park benches, cutting boards and other items.

Learn what TerraCycle's objectives are and how the company is adding to the number of waste streams it collects.

  Flip flop season is almost upon us; the time of year where many of us bare our toes and opt for the ubiquitous summertime footwear.  At our house, weather permitting, we tend to wear our flip flops from the end of April to October. I’m such a fan of flip flops, but among our many pairs, I’ve never really considered what happens to the flip flops after we’re done with them.  Donate? Hand them down? Let them collect dust? How about recycle? Genius.

Alternatives, a non-profit agency serving individuals with disabilities throughout Central Massachusetts, demonstrated its concern for the environmental health of the Blackstone Valley by utilizing green technology in its renovation of the Whitin Mill in Whitinsville. One of the agency's latest environmental initiatives is a Terracycling partnership with the Balmer Elementary School in Northbridge. Working with individuals served by Alternatives, students recycle their Capri Sun and Honest Kids drinks containers. The containers sent to Terracycle, where they are recycled into a variety of products. For each recycled container, the school receives $.02.

A 10-year-old Mildred student is showing Americans what they can do with their waste, by making it to the final four of a national eco-design competition with a product made from recyclable materials. Aniq Chunara, a fifth-grader at Mildred Elementary, used recyclable materials to create a light-up desk organizer in a process known as upcycling, where instead of recycling the products, he simply turned them into something else. The eco-product design contest, being run by Terracycle, accepted entries from schools across the United States up until March 28, and now it is down to members of the public to vote for their favorite, by no later than April 20. Chunara's light-up desk organizer will face entries from New Jersey, including Glue Top Earrings and the Glue Stick Jump Rope. The fourth entry is The Glamp, submitted by a student from Allen.

Also new this year, Kraft is playing on consumer’s “green” concerns by partnering with TerraCycle to encourage customers to recycle the cheese wrappers, through a promotion called “Cheese Brigade.” Families collect wrappers, bags and containers from their Kraft Cheese purchases and send them to TerraCycle, which upcycles them into other products ranging from office supplies and totes to decorative accessories. TerraCycle and Kraft Foods pay postage and two cents per unit of packaging to a charity of the collector’s choice. Several Kraft Foods brands, including Capri Sun beverages, Nabisco and Oscar MayerLunchables are now lead sponsors of TerraCycle Brigades. Since 2008, the Capri Sun Drink Pouch Brigade has diverted over 50 million pouches and paid over $1 million to schools and non-profits.