Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer were on the scene with their worm-based invention in 2001. They fed organic waste from the dining hall to worms, then liquefied the excrement to make compost tea that was stored in used soda bottles [2]. Those bottles were collected on campus. In 2002, they planned on expanding their work to other businesses by collecting their waste. Szaky discovered that they had created the world's largest continuous flow reactor [3].
I was watching
Garbage Moguls one night on
National Geographic channel. They were featuring an all-weekend marathon on TerraCycle. The first night I watched, I was hooked. Their crew went all out! At the time of viewing, they were expanding into retailing after years of working with other companies to sell their products. The crew was having a small difficulty adapting to the new expansion and Tom Szaky brought them into his office. In particular, he spoke to two girls whom he delegated the responsibility to run the store. During an approximate 15 minutes chat, he highlighted his concerns and offered solutions. He would follow up with a visit to the retail store and work further with those two girls. The result was a dedicated team of girls who figured out how to get creative.
Tom Szaky, a 28-year-old wunderkind from Canada, wants you to send him your garbage, and he’ll pay the shipping.
Oh, and he also wants to make a lot of money and save the world by taking unrecyclable waste like chip bags and juice pouches and turning them into new products like backpacks, kites, coolers and clocks.
Now he and his company, TerraCycle, take tons of hard-to-recycle plastics and other waste collected from collection “brigades” formed in schools, churches businesses and service organizations and turns them into products sold at Walmart and Target. They pay the shipping for articles like shopping bags, used pens, whatever, and pay 2 cents per unit to a charity on behalf of the collecting organization. All of it is organized through the company Web site, terracycle.net.
The feel-good business model has worked with giant companies like Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay and Kimberly-Clark, who pitch the program on their packaging. Walmart and Target also have joined up, setting up collection points and selling products.
What excited me about my daughter’s project was her description “Inspired by
Terracycle“.
My daughter’s familiarity with Terracyle comes from items we have been sent to review for our blogs.
TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. With over 50 products available at major retailers like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, OfficeMax, Petco and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the fastest growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for materials others deem garbage.
I absolutely loved the show Garbage Moguls. I want to work at
TerraCycle but I already have a good job and I do not live near Trenton NJ. I have some suggestions for Terracycle on how they might find some ideas, what to collect…etc.
Tom Szaky, co-founder and chief executive officer of TerraCycle Inc., a company that has become the most eco-friendly brand in North America, will be the guest speaker for the Allan P. Kirby Lecture in Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center. The event is free to the public.
TerraCycle is well known for TerraCycle plant food, a fertilizer made from worm feces available through retailers such as Walmart, Whole Foods and Home Depot.
The company manufactures more than 50 consumer products. Other products include garbage cans made from crushed computers, handbags made from energy bar wrappers and juice pouches and eco-friendly binders and pencils. The company won more than 100 environmental and social awards. It has three manufacturing facilities in North America with headquarters located in Trenton, N.J.