Princeton entrepreneur wants to rid the globe of most of its trash The heart of Princeton resident Tom Szaky’s $20-million-a-year business empire is an old printing plant at 121 New York Ave. in Trenton, where most of the company’s 75 employees work, at desks made of old doors, with a computer network cobbled together from other companies’ obsolete hardware, with dividers made of old vinyl hip-hop records and empty soda bottles, and in some cases walking on floor tiles made of processed plastic and aluminum juice pouches.

Elementary school joins nationwide recycling effort MAHOPAC: After seeing a lot of discarded Capri Sun pouches, teachers at Fulmar Road Elementary School signed up to recycle them through a company called TerraCycle. The school earns two cents per pouch. The move is part of a nationwide effort that has just reached the milestone of keeping 50 million pouches out of landfills.

A set of New Jersey Wal-Mart parking lots now have a way to turn consumer product waste into profits. (Well, a little pocket change, anyway.)  Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  has installed what they call "Store Collection Systems," a 20-foot trailer that accepts all kinds of packaging that can't be recycled in the normal blue bin outside your house. Then they take the mostly plastic waste—like Elmer’s glue bottles, toothpaste tubes, Capri Sun drink pouches—and turn them into products to resell in stores and online. They make mostly bags, pouches and coolers, but a few other items like picture frames and fertilizer, too.

Like many others, we already loved TerraCycle before reviewing Tom Szaky’s book, Revolution in a Bottle—How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business. Szaky’s little book is incredibly readable and takes you through the ups and downs (there were lots of downs). Starting with his freshman year at Princeton and his decision to drop-out, Szaky takes us with him through every agonizing detail of the struggle to start the company and keep it afloat.  Think garbage bins filled with maggots, overflowing swimming pools filled with worm poop “tea”, etc… This could have been subtitled: The Little Green Company That Could.

The teachers at Delshire Elementary School in Delhi used to see a lot of Capri Sun drink pouches get thrown away. Once they signed up to recycle them through a company called TerraCycle, the school began earning two cents for every one of those pouches and became part of a nationwide effort that has just reached an impressive milestone of keeping 50 million pouches out of landfills. In addition, TerraCycle, which makes affordable, eco-friendly products from packaging waste, and Capri Sun have paid one million dollars to schools and non-profits in return for the recycled drink pouches.

Beginning this month, Fairhaven, Diamond Lake and West Oak Middle schools will collect empty Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches from student lunches, classroom parties, etc. Once the district has 500 pouches, it can send them to TerraCycle, a company which will re-purpose the drink pouches into items like backpacks, messenger bags, folders, clip boards and laptop cases, which the company sells on its website www.terracycle.net. The district will receive two-cents for every pouch it provides to TerraCycle.

When it comes to eco-mindedness, throwing anything away can be an anxiety riddled experience.  Every product is rigorously analyzed guaranteeing the trashcan is the only option.  In steps Tom Szaky, an innovate man with an earth changing idea, Sponsored Waste. Tom Szaky started TerraCycle in 2001 as a Princeton University freshman, with the hopes of winning the Princeton Business Plan Contest.  His idea was to address the environmental issue of trash by using worms to eat organic waste thus producing fertilizer.

I always wonder what I can do to help the environment. I also try to inspire my children to have that same passion for the Earth we live on. TerraCycle has an amazing set up! They recycle trash from non recycleable products. TerraCycle has partnered up with some major retailers to help distribute these wonderful products. And Terra Cycle also helps raise money for charities. They have everything...from upcycled lunchboxes to recycled plant pots. Plus, the prices for these products are very reasonable.

A set of New Jersey Wal-Mart parking lots now have a way to turn consumer product waste into profits. (Well, a little pocket change, anyway.)  Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  has installed what they call "Store Collection Systems," a 20-foot trailer that accepts all kinds of packaging that can't be recycled in the normal blue bin outside your house. Then they take the mostly plastic waste—like Elmer’s glue bottles, toothpaste tubes, Capri Sun drink pouches—and turn them into products to resell in stores and online. They make mostly bags, pouches and coolers, but a few other items like picture frames and fertilizer, too.