Tom was interviewed live with Maria Bartiromo for her nationally syndicated CNBC show, On the Money, from the steps of the NYSE. Maria is widely considered one of the top financial journalists in the nation. The 2.30 minute-long piece ran on CNBC Primetime last night and also ran on NBC affiliates in 285 markets across the weekend.
There's no such thing as garbage at this company, which aims to revolutionize the recycling industry.
New Jersey-based TerraCycle's mission is to “eliminate the idea of waste” and it's been a profitable enterprise. The company expects about $20 million in revenue this year, according to founder Tom Szaky.
Candy manufacturer Mars is working to upcycle the trash their products produce.
BusinessWorld says that even though “upcycling will first need to prove itself profitable to companies before it can break into mainstream use … some big-name firms are slowly jumping on the bandwagon. In the U.S., a joint effort between TerraCycle and candy manufacturer Mars—the latter aims to cut down its waste by three percent annually—has been producing repurposed packaging from used and surplus wrappers of candies like Twix and Starburst.”
TerraCycle started in 2001 as a simple organic fertilizer company. Founder Tom Szaky, then a freshman at Princeton University, saw an opportunity to use discarded food scraps from the cafeteria to make a product that had value. He fed the leftovers to an army of worms to harvest worm compost, or Worm Poop as it became fondly known, a completely organic, ultra-effective fertilizer. With no money to buy packaging, Tom bottled the liquid fertilizer in used soda bottles collected from recycling bins, unwittingly creating the world’s first product made from AND packaged entirely in waste. The idea of using would-be waste material to make new products grew.
Today, TerraCycle partners with major consumer goods manufacturers such as Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Mars, Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal, Method and many more to collect almost 50 kinds of non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle packaging, such as drink pouches, chip bags, candy wrappers, toothpaste tubes, cosmetics and household cleaner packaging. For each piece of waste sent to TerraCycle through this Brigade program, the collector earns points that can be put toward charity gifts or converted to cash and paid to any school or non-profit.
The programs are completely free to join and all shipping costs are pre-paid. The collected material is upcycled or recycled into a wide range of consumer products. By using some of the millions of pieces of packaging that go to landfill every year to make innovative consumer goods, TerraCycle hopes to reduce the need to use virgin materials and show the world it is more sustainable and profitable to use waste as a raw material.
Since 2007, more than 90,000 locations and 29 million people have gotten involved in the Brigade program and are helping to collect trash in homes, schools, offices and community buildings across the country. More than 2.5 billion pieces of pre- and post-consumer packaging have been collected and over $4.5 million has been donated to schools and non-profits.
For more information, please visit: TerraCycle.com and TerraCycleShop.com
Tom Szaky founded TerraCycle in 2002. Originally a producer of organic fertilizer, the company shifted its focus to upcycling and recycling solutions in 2007. Today, TerraCycle is a multi-million dollar business and works with thousands of schools, NGOs and brands to divert billions of units of waste a year.
Partnering with brands is a part of TerraCycle's business model. What do you think makes a partnership successful?
Successful partnerships are all about aligning interests. You want to have brands who see the problem in the same way and are really interested in having a solution. For example, L’Oreal is really committed to solving cosmetic waste and they're getting really behind that with us.
TerraCycle been able to generate positive PR by telling its story through various media outlets. How can small businesses take advantage of the PR opportunities available to them?
The easiest way to do that is to make the job of the reporter very easy. Don’t approach it like you just want to get your propaganda out there, but instead think about it from the reporter’s perspective. Reporters want to have interesting stories and they want to be able to get good content. The easier you can make it for a reporter to get great content, the easier it will be to do an article.
How can a small business turn a negative review or PR experience into a positive one?
The best way to turn a negative into a positive is to own it and be transparent about it. Own the issue, because if you own the issue, no one can come back to you and hit you for it. The press will only hit you for it if you’re not acknowledging and owning the problem.
GOLD: TerraCycle
TerraCycle’s business model is to eliminate waste by offering free recycling fundraisers to any school, non-profit, corporation or individual/family for any type of man-made waste. The program incentivizes the collection of common packaging and products ranging from candy wrappers to cosmetics, packaging to cigarette butts.
“Brigades” collect waste that TerraCycle then turns into more than 1500 new products, ranging from recycled park benches to upcycled backpacks. These products are available online and at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods. There are currently more than 40 programs that range from food packaging (like drink pouches and candy wrappers) to office supplies (like pens and tape dispensers) to personal products (like cosmetic and beauty packaging to diaper packaging).
For every item returned, TerraCycle donates two-cents (or the local equivalent) to a school or non-profit of the collector’s choice. TerraCycle operates in 22 countries, minimizing the global threats of landfill and incineration on humans and the environment. So far, through TerraCycle, 32 million consumers have diverted 2.5 billion units of waste from landfill and incineration, while earning over 4.5 million dollars (US) for schools and myriad non- profits.
For example, the drink pouch is a ubiquitous waste stream found in every school cafeteria in America. In order to offset the estimated 11 BILLION pouches that go to waste every year in America alone, TerraCycle partnered with Honest Tea and Capri Sun to start the Drink Pouch Brigade. The free recycling fundraiser was an opportunity for two competitors to put aside their corporate differences and do the right thing for the environment. Since the Program was founded, over 70,000 organizations – including 57,000 schools – signed up for the program. As of December 2012 they helped collect over 164 MILLION drink pouches and collectively earned over 3.2 million dollars.
The collected pouches are upcycled or recycled into a variety of products. School items like pencil cases and backpacks that help to complete the education for kids. The students get to see what the pouches they helped collect are turned into for a second life. Pouches are also recycled into more utilitarian products like park benches, picnic tables and railroad ties.
TerraCycle’s programs are sponsored by some of the world’s largest companies. These major companies include Kraft Foods, Nestle, Mars, Inc., Kimberly-Clark, Frito-Lay, Kashi, Sanford, Elmer’s Products, Inc, Logitech, Old Navy, Clif Bar, Sprout Baby Food, 3M, Malt-O-Meal, Colgate, Palmolive, L’Oreal, and BIC.
Terracycle's CEO Tom Szaky is featured as a guest expert for a new CNBC show called "Crowd Rules". Tom will visit 3 small businesses during the show and be part of a celebrity panel to determine the winner. Please tune in or share with your contacts.
Below please find links to an advert and a profile of Tom on CNBC.com.
Meet Crowd Rules Expert Tom Szaky
In recognition of April being "Earth Month," recycling pioneer TerraCycle is celebrating reaching $7 million donated to schools and charities across the country and around the world with help from groups in Rhode Island.
