A company called Terracycle, featured last year on National Geographic's series Garbage Moguls, recycles pens, candy wrappers, tooth brushes, and even that supposed scourge of the waste bin: dirty diapers. The materials are remade as park benches. Any young athlete has already noticed the recycled tires in her playground mulch, turf cushioning, and track-and-field surfacing; but tires also appear in cosmetics and in the shock absorbers that now grace many highway guard rails. Even wax-coated cardboard, long considered a contaminated recyclable, can be repurposed as a fireplace wood substitute.

As an environmental company, TerraCycle has a unique relationship with Earth Day. Celebrating our environment and spreading awareness and activism is wonderful, but we also like to remind people that the Earth needs to be taken care of every day. For the past few years, we’ve had an array of special events around Earth Day. In 2009, we launched our mini-series on National Geographic – Garbage Moguls – and in 2010, we had a Walmart Hotspot with sixty TerraCycle products were displayed in Walmart stores, right next to the products that they used to be! Think, drink pouch backpacks next to boxes of Capri Sun. Last year, 2011, we had the Old Navy Flip-Flop Replay in which we collected used flip flops at Old Navy stores across the country during the Earth Month. That same month, in partnership with Office Depot, we collected used pens and writing instruments at their retail locations.

טום סזאקי, מייסד ומנכ"ל חברת המיחזור טרה סייקל, מייצג סוג חדש של איש עסקים: יזם חברתי-סביבתי שרוצה להציל את כדור הארץ מבלי להקריב את שורת הרווח. בראיון למוסף "הארץ" מסביר איל הפסולת שהתעשר מהפרשות תולעים מדוע העתיד שלנו נמצא בזבל

TerraCycle, an award-winning company that specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle waste, wants to help small businesses achieve their green initiatives while giving back to the community. If your company signs up to a TerraCycle “Brigade” and begins collecting specific items such as Scotch tape dispensers, toner cartridges, pens, drink pouches, potato chip bags and more, TerraCycle will process those items and your company can earn money for the school or charity of your choice.

Social media is popular for various reasons including the fact that it’s easy to reach people and that it’s free. Media such as advertising and marketing often is not free, so for many companies it is hard, if not impossible, to find room in the budget. For companies who don’t mind taking a leap of faith, there’s another option, one that TerraCycle relies heavily upon: owned media. I say “leap of faith” because sometimes you have to shell out some cash to create the owned media, and then be patient and wait for the fruit of your efforts to materialize. Here at TerraCycle, we just started a bi-weekly podcast that documents eco-tips, eco-news, and features interviews with key players from our partners such as Elmer’s, Dropps, and Garnier as well as leading voices from the sustainable industry.

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.”

Those who think they're pretty masterful recyclers have obviously never met Tom Szaky. (pronounced Zack-ee) He is the 27-year-old Hungarian-Canadian founder and CEO ofTerracycle, a company founded in 2001 that collects non-recyclable garbage and turns them into usable, branded merchandise like backpacks, boom boxes and laptop bags. Not only does it help the environment and charity -- over 1 million units of garbage have been collected and over $2 million have been donated -- but it also provides companies like Kraft and Colgate-Palmolive an eco-friendly solution to the tons of waste produced by their brands.

Thursday, March 17, 2011. GAINESVILLE, Fla.  — Tom Szaky, co-founder and chief executive officer of TerraCycle, will talk about sustainable innovation and entrepreneurism at 7 p.m. March 22 in the University of Florida’s <http://www.ufl.edu>  Reitz Student Union Grand Ballroom. Szaky’s company specializes in repurposing nonrecyclable post-consumer waste. Titled “Rethinking Waste: Eco-Capitalism in Challenged Economic Times,” his speech will explore opportunities that exist in today’s environment, how to see and capitalize on hidden assets, growing business in a constrained economy and the importance of a big idea. The event is free and open to the public. Szaky started TerraCycle while he was a student at Princeton University after noticing the potential for organic waste to be converted to organic fertilizer through vermicomposting, the process of using worms to compost. Since then, the concept of “sponsored waste” has attracted more than 14 million people in 11 countries. Together they have diverted billions of pieces of waste that are upcycled or recycled into more than 1,500 products. In 2009 TerraCycle, named the most eco-friendly brand in America, opened its first retail location. Since then, the company has expanded internationally. TerraCycle has received the Home Depot Environmental Stewardship Award twice, and Szaky was named the No. 1 CEO in America under 30 years old by Inc. Magazine. He was also featured in National Geographic Channel’s miniseries, “Garbage Moguls,” and is the author of the book, “Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business.” In conjunction with Szaky’s visit, UF is participating in a number of TerraCycle collection brigades on campus. Gator Dining Services now hosts collections of energy bar wrappers, candy wrappers, and lunch kits at POD Market in the Reitz Student Union, Beaty Market, Little Hall Express and the Graham Oasis. The Office of Sustainability is now collecting for the Aveeno Beauty brigade, which collects any brand beauty and personal care tubes, Cheese Packaging brigade, and the Bear Naked bags and wrappers brigade. Szaky’s speech is part of the UF Office of Sustainability’s REthink campaign, which encourages the campus community to consider waste in its many forms and the ways they can REduce, REuse, REcycle, REpurpose, REnew, REstore, and REspond in their own lives. In addition to Szaky’s keynote, the Office of Sustainability will also be hosting a screening of the documentary “Tapped” at 7 p.m. March 23 in Florida Gym Room 280. “Tapped” examines the path of turning a basic resource into a mass-produced commodity, and explores the role and impacts of the bottled water industry on public health, energy and climate change, pollution and social equity. For more information on the event, REthink or these new recycling opportunities on campus, please visit www.sustainable.ufl.edu <http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu> .