I’m not going to judge you for your obsession with Real Housewives, but if you’d like to tune in to some trashy television of the more guilt-free variety, you won’t want to miss the Garbage Moguls marathon airing this Saturday (starting at 7 pm) on the National Geographic Channel. The show follows the inner workings of one of my favorite eco-minded companies, TerraCycle, as its crew works to transform trash into treasure.
BY Cristina Kinon
National Geographic Channel's "Garbage Moguls" isn't your typical New Jersey-based reality series.
Instead of peddling trashy behavior like "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" or even trashier outfits like Snooki and her gang, "Garbage Moguls" star and TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky deals with actual, literal garbage.
"There's a certain kind of irony there," Szaky tells The News. "Our show wasn't picked up because it's based in New Jersey, but it's an awesome coincidence that just as Jersey is getting big in the world of reality TV, our show is trying to make a run for it."
MTV's Jersey Shore is no longer the trashiest New Jersey-based reality show on television thanks to a new series premiering this weekend. Garbage Moguls will hit the air Saturday, August 21 on the National Geographic Channel as the trashiest of all reality shows...literally!
Garbage Moguls will take "an inside look at the zany way" TerraCycle, develops products made completely out of trash. Led by Princeton University drop-out and worm poop connoisseur Tom Szaky, the show follows TerraCycle's team of young "eco-capitalists" as they brainstorm, argue over, go dumpster diving for, and eventually create new products that help solve America’s waste problem.
You all already know how important I feel it is to do our part to make the environment a big priority in our lives and in the lives of our children. I mean we all want there to be an actual planet here for future generations, don't we? So, in my quest for a better environment I came across what may just be the coolest program....TerraCycle.
I have written about TerraCycle before… They are an innovative company that takes “Garbage” like wrappers, juice box containers (like Capri Sun, I could never get those open without making a mess as a kid) and take them and make something new with them without remanufacturing the materials.
This Saturday on the National Geographic channel they are airing a 3 part documentary about the company and some of the creative projects they have embarked on. TerraCycle is led by Princeton University drop-out and self defined “worm poop connoisseur” Tom Szaky, the show follows TerraCycle’s team of young “eco-capitalists” as they brainstorm, argue over, go dumpster diving for, and eventually create new products that help solve America’s waste problem.
Tom Szaky's ambitions to turn one of America's fastest-growing private companies into a multi-billion dollar global empire didn't have glamorous beginnings.
Szaky's Trenton-based TerraCycle got off the ground eight years ago out of a Princeton University student business plan contest. Szaky's idea was to establish a company that would transform biodegradable waste into high-yield fertilizer made from worm poop.
Szaky, 28, drew his inspiration for the fertilizer plan from the success he and some of his Canadian high school buddies had in growing robust plants in fertilizer made from worm poop. He decided to drop out of Princeton during his sophomore year to give his full attention to the waste-into-fertilizer business he dubbed TerraCycle.
Today, the company that Szaky founded in 2002 with a $20,000 machine for feeding organic waste to millions of little worms that would turn that waste into fertilizer has moved well beyond being merely a fertilizer-specialty manufacturer.
It is a high-profile player in a niche corner of the recycling market known as "upcycling," in which used materials such as aluminum drink pouches, plastic soda bottles and plastic food wrappers are collected and transformed for use in new products without being broken down into their raw material components.
Other coffee companies are also wrestling with the waste issue. Businesses that use Flavia pods, which is made by Mars, are able to ship the used pods to the New Jersey company TerraCycle, which will compost the coffee or tea and reuse the plastic in products like pavers and fencing, a TerraCycle spokesman, Albe Zakes said. More than 2.5 million Flavia packs in the United States have been recycled in the last year. Mars sells a billion drinks a year in 35,000 workplaces worldwide.
In Britain, Mr. Zakes said, TerraCycle has processed more than 800,000 coffee discs from Kraft’s Tassimo single-serve system. The results are being evaluated for possible application in the United States, a Kraft spokeswoman, Bridget MacConnell, said. Kraft and Mars are paying for collecting the pods, including shipping costs to TerraCycle.
