As many great companies do, this one started in a dorm room. Yet the light-bulb idea that emerged from these tight living quarters was... collecting trash? TerraCycle, founded by Tom Szaky, is a company that "upcycles" waste into affordable, eco-friendly products ranging from worm-waste fertilizer to messenger bags and school supplies. A company that has mobilized over 10 million people to collect trash, diverted over 1.9 billion units of waste from landfills, boasted a revenue of $7.5 million, and donated $1 billion to schools and nonprofits, TerraCycle’s road to success was a result of hard work, persistence, and the courage to take risks. A college drop-out with nothing but a firm belief in his vision, Szaky recalls, "In those early days, no one returned my phone calls. I would literally be laughed at when I tried to call retailers to sell them my fertilizer." But today, nothing is impossible. Szaky resolves, "I hope in five years from now there will be a TerraCycle upcycling bin in every school, church, and retail location in America!"

If you think you've reduced your carbon footprint all you can, think again. By looking at the problem of landfills from two sides – not putting stuff in them and taking stuff out of them – a company founded in 2001 by then 19-year-old Tom Szaky has gone well beyond the blue recycling bins we all know and use (don't we?) to upcycling, the reuse of trash. It all started with worms and a Princeton Business Plan contest. Now his company, Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  boasts that it has collected almost 2 billion units of waste and manufactures 178 products using recycled bits and pieces. He has engaged children and nonprofits in collecting everything from candy wrappers to Huggies, and paid them almost $1 million for doing so. Back to the worms: While looking for an idea to enter into the business plan contest, Szaky was introduced to composting worms: They eat garbage and expel very rich fertilizer. That became his business plan: an organic fertilizer company. But in the course of years, it morphed into an overall "garbage in, good stuff out" plan. The company began to make things out of candy wrappers and e-waste, things like waste baskets, picture frames, toys, and tote bags.

If you don't have a need for bottled urine, perhaps you'd like to purchase some worm poop? According to TerraCycle Inc. <http://www.terracycle.net/products/43-Lawn-Fertilizer> , worm poop is an ideal, natural fertilizer. That is why they package the naturally occurring waste in used 20-ounce soda bottles and sell it for $7.99 (prices may vary). Proving where there's worm waste and soda drinkers, there's money to be made.

TerraCycle  has gotten a lot of media attention for its unusual business model: Basically, it takes waste and turns it into a wide range of products, from fertilizer to computer bags to kites. Co-founded by Tom Szaky, who dropped out of Princeton University to start the company, TerraCycle, which is based in Trenton, N.J., has been the subject of an Inc. magazine  cover story, a National Geographic reality show, and a recent profile in the Wall Street Journal. But in 2009, the privately held company says it lost $2.2 million on sales of $7.6 million. The problem, according to Mr. Szaky, TerraCycle’s chief executive, was that the company didn’t really know how to manufacture its many products. You can find out how he addressed the problem — and why he’s projecting a $3.2 million profit on sales of $16 million in 2010 — by watching the video below.

Along the way, Szaky (photo below) described how Terracycle had to negotiate with Pepsi and Coke for the rights to use their bottle shapes. He also talked about bottling, sleeving, and capping thousands of bottles of liquid garden fertilizer by hand before opening a factory in New Jersey; about getting sued by Scott’s, the garden product company, for trade dress infringement; and about how Terracycle and its unique upcycling concept of turning packaging waste into consumer products—bags, kites, pencil cases--is taking off around the world. “We’re establishing ourselves in a new country about every six weeks,” he told his Packaging Summit audience.

Terracycle is one of those odd little success stories. If you read their story – it all boils down to the fact that this is a company that takes recycled fruit juice pouches and turns them into backpacks cooler bags and lawn fertilizer.

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> .

TerraCycle Inc. aims to make money by reusing the hard-to-recycle trash the U.S. produces each year—but it first needs to find out if Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers think there's enough demand for its products.

The words “waste” and “garbage” have always had such negative connotations.  “You’re a waste of space.”  Schoolyard taunts about smelling like a garbage picker.  The phrase “garbage in, garbage out,” which refers to something made with low quality materials that will also yield a low quality final product. Tom Szaky, the 28 year old CEO of Terracycle, sees waste differently.  While he has brought garbage into his company, it seems that the outputs have been nothing short of valuable.  Szaky started Terracycle as a 19 year old Princeton student.  His idea?  Taking food waste from Princeton’s cafeterias, having worms digest it, and producing fertilizer on the other end.  The products were contained in old soda bottles.  After nearly going broke, he was helped out by an investor, which led to the company getting orders into two major retailers.

The words “waste” and “garbage” have always had such negative connotations.  “You’re a waste of space.”  Schoolyard taunts about smelling like a garbage picker.  The phrase “garbage in, garbage out,” which refers to something made with low quality materials that will also yield a low quality final product. Tom Szaky, the 28 year old CEO of Terracycle, sees waste differently.  While he has brought garbage into his company, it seems that the outputs have been nothing short of valuable.  Szaky started Terracycle as a 19 year old Princeton student.  His idea?  Taking food waste from Princeton’s cafeterias, having worms digest it, and producing fertilizer on the other end.  The products were contained in old soda bottles.  After nearly going broke, he was helped out by an investor, which led to the company getting orders into two major retailers.