Terracycle is one of my favorite companies of all times and Tom Szaky is another living proof that one person can make a huge impact in the world, Terracycle has deviated over 2 billion units of trash from going to landfills, it has donated over $2 million dollars to schools and it has over 23 million people collecting trash! Here's an inspiring interview with Tom, a popular blogger at Treehugger and the face of the National Geographic show Garbage Moguls.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. When I was 14, I started a web site design company called Flyte Design, and my interest in entrepreneurship continued to grow from there.
Albe Zakes is constantly surrounded by a shrine to garbage. The desks in his office are made from old doors, the walls from soda bottles, and the front showroom covered in recycled Astroturf. The desk dividers are made from vinyl records, and graffiti covers every wall.
But considering his job, the workplace makes sense: he’s in charge of media relations for TerraCycle Inc., which sells consumer products made from recycled waste. The company launched in 2001, selling worm poop as fertilizer to retailers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Now, TerraCycle recycles items like Frito-Lay chip bags, Clif Bar wrappers, and Capri Sun pouches to create tote bags, iPhone cases, and MP3 speakers.
Eco-innovator TerraCycle (www.terracycle.net) charted new territory in the consumer goods industry in 2003 with one big idea: How can you eliminate the idea of waste? Back then, the company specialized in worm poop fertilizer packaged in old soda bottles. Its "upcycling" concept soon caught the eyes of consumer good companies small and large, like Honest Tea, Kraft Foods and Clif Bar, who had their own garbage issues to solve.
Terracycle <
http://www.terracycle.net/>
has so many great things that they make! For my review they sent me this great messenger bag!
Terracycle is giving the lunch bag above to one lucky Songberries Follower! To enter please go to Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> and look around, come back here and in a comment tell me comment something you learned. Make sure you’re a follower!
A company founded in 2001 by a 19-year-old Princeton University freshman is increasingly finding a home for "un-recyclable" plastics and bridging the gap between consumers of everyday items like drink pouches and the brand owners that create them. Now, Tom Szaky, a grizzled 28-year-old that was named to Inc. magazine's 30 under 30 <
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060701/coolest-startup.html> list at 24, and his company, TerraCycle <
http://www.terracycle.net/> (Trenton, NJ), are reaching out to the plastics industry.
TerraCycle Makes Strides with Brigades Most outdoor enthusiasts enjoy energy bars, granola, or trail mix before, during and after they hit the trails, streams and lakes. They already stash the leftover wrappers in pockets and backpacks to properly discard the used packaging when they return home. Now some of the industry's most trusted names, CLIF BAR, Kashi, Bear Naked and Odwalla, are rewarding people's efforts by creating a program that turns those wrappers and bags into eco-friendly products, while earning money for local charities.
The four leading brands sponsor TerraCycle "Brigades" or free collection programs that contribute two cents to a school or charity for every energy bar wrapper, granola bag, or Kashi packaging returned. In under a year, the programs have helped keep over a million and a half wrappers out of landfills -- TerraCycle collects the used packaging and other hard to recycle material and turns it into new products ranging from shower curtains to backpacks.
