Los Angeles, CA, April 05, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Industry Intelligence Inc., a market intelligence and information management company serving the forest products, packaging, and food and beverage industries, today announced it will offer a webinar with Tom Szaky, the CEO of TerraCycle, on April 17. In this presentation, Szaky will share his thoughts on the state of sustainable packaging and the paths he sees for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry in the face of the rising resource costs, packaging taxes and extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws.

There is profitability in waste. Join Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, as he shares his thoughts on the state of sustainable packaging and the paths he sees for the CPG industry in the face of the rising costs of resources, packaging taxes and EPR laws. Tom will tell how TerraCycle has helped hundreds of brands turn wasted packaging into massive brand equity and consumer engagement.

TerraCycle is a social business, which means that we focus on the so-called triple bottom line: planet, people and profits. For us, this has meant creating a business model that involves capturing nonrecyclable waste — like chip bags or diaper packaging — before it goes to a landfill or incinerator and finding a way to recycle, upcycle or reuse it. Basically, we’re giving garbage a second life by creating a system for otherwise nonrecyclable waste to be recycled. Through sponsorship from more than 50 brand partners (L’Oréal, Kimberly-Clark) we are able to offer free shipping and a small donation (typically 2 cents per piece of waste received) to a school or organization of the collector’s choice. Today, we engage more than 35 million people in collecting this waste in 22 countries around the world. While our sales have grown every year for the past nine years — we finished 2012 with slightly less than $15 million in revenue — we just became profitable in 2011. We earned a small profit in 2012 as well. In my letter to the company, I wrote that our goal is to eliminate the very idea of waste: “This is a lofty goal that I believe is best executed via a for-profit platform. But I would like to underline that we do not exist for the sole purpose of profit.” Instead, I explained, profit is a tool we use to help us accomplish our purpose. But it can get complicated, and much depends on how a company is structured and financed. One challenge of trying to balance profits with a socially minded business can be the law. Perhaps the best example is the sale of Ben & Jerry’s to Unilever. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield started the company in a renovated gas station in South Burlington, Vt. They were fair to their employees and their cows, they cared about the environment, and they used the business as a vehicle to raise awareness about social and environmental issues.

Tom Szaky, 30, is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Inc., one of the world’s foremost leaders in eco-capitalism, recycling and upcycling. In 2006, Inc Magazine named TerraCycle “The Coolest Little Startup in America.” That same year Szaky was named the “Number-One CEO in America Under 30.” Szaky came to the U.S. in 2001 when he matriculated as a Princeton University freshman. In 2002, he took a leave of absence to dedicate himself full-time to starting TerraCycle, which began as a two-man outfit in a dorm room in Princeton. Today, TerraCycle runs packaging reclamation and post-consumer waste solution programs for major CPG companies, such as Kraft Foods, Nestle, L'Oreal, Mars, GSK, Kimberly-Clark Professional and many more. TerraCycle has expanded these recycling and upcycling fundraisers — which pay schools and non-profits to collect used packaging and products — into 20 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, the UK, Ireland, Israel and Turkey. In 2010, TerraCycle was named the 288th fastest growing privately held company in America in Inc Magazine’s annual listing, the Inc 500. In four years of running free recycling programs, TerraCycle has collected over 3 billion units of waste and donated over $4 million to schools and non-profits. In 2012, TerraCycle is projecting roughly $15 million in revenue.

One man’s trash is another’s treasure — and Tom Szaky is living proof. The Hungarian native’s fascination with trash goes back a long way. While studying at Princeton, he and his mates cultivated a huge worm farm, which they fed with cafeteria waste. They then sold the resulting Worm Poop (very effective fertilizer, or so we’ve heard) in bottles they’d found in the trash. It was a win-win: they made money, and the project was environmentally friendly too. Fast forward to 2012, and Tom, as the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Inc, one of the world’s foremost leaders in eco-capitalism, recycling and upcycling, was named #1 CEO in America Under 30 by Inc. Magazine. Today, with a projected $15 million in revenue and clients like Kraft Foods, Nestle, L’Oreal, Mars, GSK and Kimberly-Clark Professional, TerraCycle is a post-consumer waste solution force to be reckoned with. They’re even teaming up with cigarette companies — talk about an odd couple! TerraCycle isn’t just good business — it’s ‘good’ business. They’ve expanded their recycling and upcycling fundraisers, which pay schools and nonprofits to collect used packaging and products, into 20 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brasil, UK, Ireland, most EU countries, Israel and Turkey.

The news that the London 2012 Olympic Games aims to be the first Olympics to be “zero waste to landfill” is an indication of the growing importance of finding new ways to fulfill the old mantra of “reduce, reuse, and recycle”.  Recycling is even finding new applications in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries as more companies seek to reduce waste.   A new technology from National Bulk Equipment (NBE), the ProductSaver system, separates powdered or liquid package contents, such as over-the-counter medications, from the packaging material at the manufacturer or packager’s facility. The contents are then disposed of, but the packaging can be recovered for recycling.   Garments and gloves from cleanrooms and laboratories can also be collected and recycled.  Kimberly-Clark Professional, which specializes in contamination control for cleanrooms and laboratories, started a recycling program with recycling expert TerraCycle last fall.  Life-sciences manufacturer Life Technologies Corporation, for example, is piloting a program to recycle nitrile gloves. Pharmaceutical Technology will be hosting a live webcast, “Path to Zero Landfill: Learn How One Company is Leading the Way”, on Tuesday, August 21, in which these three companies will discuss their program.

Kimberly-Clark is known for popular consumer brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, and Depend. Yet through its four business segments, the company also makes products for industrial and medical-related segments. In all, Kimberly-Clark markets its brands in more than 175 countries. This summer, Kimberly-Clark Health Care and Kimberly-Clark Professional, two of those four segments, are launching “SmartPULL*” packaging technology for its STERLING* and LAVENDER* Medical Exam gloves that greatly reduce glove waste from previous packaging and fit into the company’s wide-ranging sustainability efforts. Developed internally, SmartPULL packaging technology incorporates a dual glove opening tab for paperboard cartons used in medical, dental, laboratory, and university research environments.

Disposable garments used in cleanrooms and laboratories prevent contamination of products and people, but not necessarily contamination of air, water and land. A pilot program by Kimberly-Clark Professional, Dallas, Texas, and partner TerraCycle Inc., Trenton, N.J., collected more than 7,000 pounds of garment and nonwoven waste, including coveralls, hoods, boot covers, hair nets and masks. The cleanrooms and labs participating in the program are enthusiastic. “The reaction shows a need for recycling in this area, as well as an industry desire to give a second life to garments and gloves,” says TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. The partners are actively seeking additional garment collection locations. The discards can be converted into plastic lumber, park benches or picnic tables.

Kimberly-Clark Professional, Roswell, Ga., and TerraCycle, Trenton, N.J., have announced plans to expand the world's first clean room and laboratory garment recycling initiative to include a pilot program for gloves. Since the program's launch in October 2011, participating clean rooms and laboratories have sent in more than 7,000 lbs. of garment waste, including coveralls, hoods, boot covers, hairnets, and masks, to be recycled into plastic products such as plastic lumber, park benches, and picnic tables. Collections are on track to reach more than 350,000 lbs. in coming months, and both companies are actively pursuing additional locations for garment collection. Life Technologies Corp. is piloting a nitrile glove recycling program with Kimberly-Clark Professional, TerraCycle, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, which supplies the gloves and all recycling program materials. Employees at Life Technologies' Pleasanton, Calif., facility started recycling gloves in December 2011 to support the goal of becoming the first of the company's sites to achieve zero waste to landfill. "In 2011, our Pleasanton manufacturing site raised its landfill diversion rate from 37 to 83 percent, and in early 2012 we expect to reach over 90 percent," said Eve Nichelini, glove and garment recycling program manager for Life Technologies.

After reaching key collection milestones in its cleanroom and laboratory garment recycling program's first six months, disposable garment distributor Kimberly-Clark Professionaland recycler TerraCycle are expanding their initiative to include a pilot program for gloves. Since the program's launch in October 2011, participating cleanrooms and laboratories have sent in more than 7,000 pounds of garment waste, including coveralls, hoods, boot covers, hair nets and masks, to be recycled into plastic products such as plastic lumber, park benches and picnic tables. Participating locations have requested more than 1,000 pallets of collection boxes to return additional garments, signifying that collections are on track to reach more than 350,000 pounds in coming months. Kimberly-Clark Professional and TerraCycle are actively pursuing additional locations for garment collection. "The launch of the program last fall was a tremendous success," said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. "The reaction to the program shows a need for recycling in this area, as well an industry desire to give a second life to garments and gloves. This new direction has been beneficial to TerraCycle, Kimberly-Clark Professional, laboratories and cleanrooms, and most importantly, the environment."