The "reality docu-drama" chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products. It donates a portion of its proceeds to charity.

"Human Resources," which debuts Friday on the Pivot network, will focus not on hard-partying beachgoers but on a socially conscious recycling company. The "reality docu-drama" chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products. It donates a portion of its proceeds to charity.

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Friday, August 8, 2014

HUMAN RESOURCES is a half-hour reality series that follows CEO Tom Szaky and his team of employees at New Jersey-based TerraCycle, as their company strives to eliminate waste on a global scale by transforming trash. TerraCycle takes anything and everything that is landfill bound -- from potato chip bags to dirty diapers to cigarette butts -- and recycles, up-cycles and transforms these objects into cool and functional new products. With a mission to "eliminate the idea of waste," TerraCycle has a team that is passionate about the cause and their work. HUMAN RESOURCES features these TerraCycle employees: Tom Szaky, the founder and CEO, who is 32-year-old businessman and Princeton University dropout, but now runs a company that is currently in 26 countries; Albe Zakes, VP of Global Marketing & Communications, whose gift of reading people is a major contributor as to why TerraCycle hasn't paid a dime for any advertising since it began under his strategies; Tiffany Threadgould, Chief Design Junkie, who has an MFA in Industrial Design and before joining TerraCycle had shown her skills online with upcycled product line, ReMake It!; Dean Innocenzi, a graphic designer and Trenton-born graffiti artist, who can take any word and make it monosyllabic with his slang abbreviations; Stephen Katz, who works in the material sales department in his first stop out of undergrad after a couple of unsuccessful internships; Andrew Heine, who works in operations and stays at TerraCycle because of the social dynamic and his gift for crunching numbers; Dan Harris, joined the company as the Junior Data Analyst over two years earlier and is currently on his sixth title at TerraCycle; Grace Sica, who works in sales and was still able to manage half of the company's revenue after breaking both wrists while snowboarding; Rick Zultner, a scientist, who, in addition to figuring out which plastics mix best when pelletizing waste, Rick frequently contemplates the zombie apocalypse; Rhandi Goodman, who is in charge of customer service and managing inbound brigades, making sure that schools, companies, and individuals receive their necessary points; Stephanie 'Steph' Tsang, Senior Account Manager, who developed a love for studying human-environmental interactions while studying Environmental Psychology at Cornell University; and Dennis McNamara, Business Development Associate, who can be found road cycling and seeking out wild adventures when not working to foster new partnerships.

The latest series for the network specifically aimed at millenials, “Human Resources” (Pivot at 10), is a lighthearted docu-series about an idealistic company (TerraCycle) that wants to eliminate all trash by turning it into useful or decorative items for resale.

It all started with worm poop. As a freshman at Princeton University, Tom Szaky watched his friends feed food scraps to red wigglers, whose droppings they used to fertilize houseplants. Szaky began asking what would become his life’s big questions: Why does garbage exist? How can we outsmart it? In the next 13 years, he would start and run TerraCycle, a business headquartered in Trenton, N.J., in an office made largely out of junk. The mission? Recycle all—and the company means all—types of trash. “I left Princeton, moved into a basement office, and found myself spending hours shoveling rotting food waste,” says Szaky, who’s now 32 and has a tornado-swept mop of hair. He maxed out credit cards to buy the equipment he needed to produce fertilizer from worm castings, which he sold in used soda bottles. Szaky made no profit and nearly gave up the project—until it caught the eye of a venture capitalist who cut him a check. Today, with offices in 25 countries, TerraCycle has expanded beyond organic fertilizers. With giant brands as partners—including Colgate and Target—TerraCycle has turned potato chip bags into pencil cases, pens into trash cans, and toothbrushes into playgrounds. Szaky gets especially excited about recycling waste that even the most environmentally conscious would happily send to a landfill. This includes cigarette butts (which are turned into plastic pallets and compost), dirty diapers (doggy pee pads and park benches), and chewing gum (TerraCycle is still figuring this one out). “They’re massive environmental issues, but because of the stigma around how ‘dirty’ they are, no one else is developing recycling processes,” Szaky says. Getting people to see soiled diapers in a greener light is one thing, but having them produce less trash is another story. Ideally, he says, people buy less or don’t buy stuff at all. That’s where Human Resources, which premieres today on Pivot, TakePart’s sister network, comes in. The show documents the work lives of the young people who run TerraCycle’s New Jersey headquarters. “Viewers will learn new things about the products and packaging they use every day,” says Szaky. Though Human Resources’ ultimate goal is to raise awareness about the dangers of mindless consumerism, he stresses that the show is not just for hippies. “They’ll also see the fun antics, crazy pranks, and social happenings of a bunch of passionate 20-somethings.” Szaky has come a long way from being a kid fascinated by worms. Now he leads a company of people who are just as ardent and eccentric (perhaps it takes eccentricity to want to work with poop from creepy-crawlies, diapers, or other things), all aiming to clean up the world’s trash. Szaky remains ambitious: “It may not happen in five years, but one day I want TerraCycle to become the Google of garbage.”

The New Jersey-set reality show "Human Resources" can be best described as "The Office" meets "Project Runway" — and with nary a spray tan or leopard print in sight. Premiering tonight at 10 p.m. on the year-old Pivot network, "Human Resources" chronicles the requisite wacky goings-on at TerraCycle Inc., the Trenton-based company that specializes in turning hard-to-recycle waste into sellable products and yes, occasionally results in snippets of dialogue like this: "Identify the waste streams you'd like to collect in your home." The company's CEO and star Tom Szaky, 32, who founded the company while a Princeton University student is evangelical about eliminating the very concept of garbage, which results in philosophical discourses about, say, the principles behind using plastic cutlery to decorate a mirror. "This hasn't become a mirror because of the use of the knives," Szaky tells designer Tiffany Threadgould in tonight's premiere. "It's really a mirror and you glued a bunch of knives on it." When Threadgould attempts to make her case based on aesthetics — itis a pretty funky mirror — Szaky shoots back: "If we can start having people think that this object could be a knife, but could be this, this and this, that is what suddenly unlocks the magic that there shouldn't be garbage out there." Szaky himself thought TerraCycle would make great television, and worked with a talent agency that eventually hooked him up with Pivot for a 10-episode series (though Szaky would welcome a second season). Though there are 120 employees at the Trenton office, only a handful are regulars. Of course Szaky, Threadgould and Albe Zakes, the communications and marketing director, are featured, but the rest, Szaky says, are, "honestly, the people I call the back of the classroom, mid-level junior employees who just became breakout stars." The earnestness of "Human Resources" is alleviated by a couple of these characters, notably not-quite-ready-for-prime-time graphic designer Dean Innocenzi, whose graffiti provides much of TerraCycle's decor, and whom, Zakes worries in the pilot, is liable to bust a rhyme in an upcoming business meeting, and Andre Heine, resident number-cruncher whose right-wing politics put him at odds with some of his fellow employees: "They're always talking about the environment," he says flatly in one confessional. "I don't know why. The environment seems fine to me." TerraCycle's social mission and unconventional work atmosphere made it a perfect fit for newbie Pivot (which is currently in 45 million homes but available in our area only via DirectTV, Dish and Verizon Fios). Pivot is targeted to millenials with a mission to inspire social change, says Belisa Balaban, the network's executive vice president for original programming. And what about the entertainment part of the equation? "Will we have guilty pleasures?," she responds. "I'd like all of our programming to pleasure pleasures, pleasure that you don't have to feel guilty about. We're not pushing. There's no finger-wagging. There's no judgment. We're trying to put great stories out there and hope that they inspire people to participate in the things that matter to them."

The folks at recycling company TerraCycle Inc. are back on television with a new series called “Human Resources.” The show, premiering at 10 p.m. Aug. 8 on the Pivot television network, is described as a “docu-comedy that pulls the curtain back on the life at TerraCycle,” according to the network. TerraCycle has built a reputation for tackling hard-to-recycle materials — such as drink pouches — and has grown over the years to accept a wide variety of post-consumer products. The Trenton, N.J.-based company now even accepts cigarette waste, including butts, ash, rolling paper and tobacco pouches. Company founder Tom Szaky is a feature player in the 30-minute show, which will run for 10 episodes. Albe Zakes, vice president of global marketing and communications, is frequently quoted in stories about TerraCycle. He’s in the show as well and shows off his hip-hop skills at one point during the first episode. A variety of other employees at the company also make up the cast of characters for “Human Resources,” which is produced by Left/Right. “TerraCycle is a remarkable and pioneering company, but it’s also a quirky workplace with its own unreasonable bosses, inscrutable co-workers, and often bizarre staff meetings,” said Belisa Balaban, an executive vice president at Pivot, in a statement. TerraCycle previously was featured on a show called “Garbage Moguls” that appeared on the National Geographic Channel in 2009 and 2010.

“A new show wants to redefine the meaning of trashy television. ‘Human Resources,’ which debuts Friday on the Pivot network, will focus not on hard-partying beachgoers but on a socially conscious recycling company. The ‘reality docu-drama’ chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products. It donates a portion of its proceeds to charity.” (Associated Press)

TerraCycle's New TV Show "Human Resources on NEWS12 NJ