One Simple Ask is dedicated to exploring the theory and practice of ethical consumerism. Over the past few months, our team has come across some outstanding companies that are truly walking the “green” marketing talk that permeates our consumer culture. One such company is TerraCycle, a small business headquartered in Trenton, New Jersey, that specializes in producing products from pre- and post-consumer materials that people send to the company. Over the years, TerraCycle has produced over 1,500 different products available at major retailers, including Walmart and Whole Foods Market. Below is a discussion I had with Megan Yarnall, the Senior Publicist at TerraCycle. What inspired the creation of Terracycle? TerraCycle’s creation was inspired by a blooming plant fertilized by worm poop and a business contest. Tom Szaky, the CEO of TerraCycle, visited a friend from home during a college break and discovered how well his friend’s plant was growing after being fertilized with worm poop. Tom happened to be entering a business plan contest at that time, and he realized that if he could figure out a viable way to produce and package worm poop in a bottle, worm poop fertilizer could be the basis for his business.

Green cleaning leader, and TerraCycle partner, Method, provides a great example of this being a successful model. Though slightly more expensive than a standard cleaner, their high quality and small price premium have made them a massive mainstream success at Target and other major retailers. Now, by introducing a refill pack (which can be recycled for free through a new TerraCycle Brigade) they have driven their cost down while also reducing their packaging weight. They've managed a nifty trifecta: They've made their high-quality product cheaper, reduced their packaging costs, and given shoppers a way to feel good about their green purchases.

Green cleaning leader, and TerraCycle partner, Method, provides a great example of this being a successful model. Though slightly more expensive than a standard cleaner, their high quality and small price premium have made them a massive mainstream success at Target and other major retailers. Now, by introducing a refill pack (which can be recycled for free through a new TerraCycle Brigade) they have driven their cost down while also reducing their packaging weight. They've managed a nifty trifecta: They've made their high-quality product cheaper, reduced their packaging costs, and given shoppers a way to feel good about their green purchases.

Method, a maker of premium, eco-friendly household and personal care wipes and other products, and recycling company TerraCycle, Inc., have created a way for families to recycle their used packaging By joining the "Method Refill Brigade," families can collect their used soap refill packaging and send it to TerraCycle. For each unit of packaging received, TerraCycle and Method will pay two cents to a charity of the collector's choice. The collected packaging will be turned into trash cans, coolers and other home goods. "At Method, we make sure we're using safe and sustainable materials and that our products are manufactured responsibly," says Adam Lowry, Method co-founder. "That doesn't stop at our packaging. We make most of our bottles from 100% recycled plastic and we want to make sure once all of our bottles and pouches are empty, there is a way for them to be recycled." TerraCycle is a leader in collecting difficult-to-recycle packaging, and upcycling or recycling it into new products through TerraCycle's innovative processes, which have been rated as among the world's most carbon-saving waste solutions. Through its free fundraising programs called Brigades, TerraCycle and its sponsors pay an incentive for people to send in their packaging. To date, more than 1.8 billion pieces of waste have been kept out of landfills, almost $2 million has been paid to schools and nonprofits and almost 70,000 locations are sending their packaging to TerraCycle.

The school works with an East Coast company whose goal is to eliminate waste by not only recycling but upcycling, the process of re-using items close to their original purpose. Students and staff of a Burr Ridge school are stepping up their efforts to be green by focusing on difficult-to-recycle products that, until now, ended up in the school's garbage cans. Trinity Lutheran School sends drink pouches, potato chip bags and cookie wrappers to TerraCycle in New Jersey, which recycles trash typically not recycled. The company has about 45 brigades worldwide of individuals and groups such as Trinity that collect and send garbage.

Tom Szaky was just a Princeton freshman when he discovered a treasure in an unlikely place: behind the university dining hall. The short version of the story is that Szaky discovered that the organic waste produced in the dining hall could be naturally composted by worms and turned into fertilizer. When Szaky started packaging this fertilizer in used soda bottles, he began producing the first product made entirely from waste. As a result of this discovery, Szaky began a school program that teaches younger generations to change their habits and rethink the way they view waste. Instead of immediately throwing something aside – they should think, “What can I do with this? Can I make something out of this?” Forget about having reusable items sit in a landfill; you can get creative and sew juice pouches together to make a pencil case or iron shopping bags to make a tote.

The idea of “going green” has been rolling since the 1970s, and started becoming trendy in the early 2000s when organic food, sustainable products, and eco-friendly everything started popping up. The movement was largely powered by an effort to change the products, habits and sciences we already had order to make our lives less impactful on the planet. While I took notice of this surge in popularity, I never identified myself as an environmentalist. That all changed one day when I noticed how much left over food was discarded in my university’s dining halls and how many bottles, notebooks chip bags etc were thrown away in my dorm halls. I was stunned by the amount of waste. But it wasn’t some sort of eco-guilt I was feeling, it was excitement. Waste made the perfect raw material for building new consumer products because it has little to no cost (theoretically even a negative cost), which would allow a company to make eco-friendly products without charging a premium all while doing something good for the planet. A lifelong obsession with waste began!

First they greened-up their ingredients, then they focused on concentrates. Now, eco cleaning companies are boosting their cred with innovative package design. Here, four waste-saving solutions.

What excites me is all the businesses using innovation to make our world more sustainable. Forward-thinking companies like Terracycle where they upcycle industrial scrap into durable consumer products are fundamentally challenging the old manufacturing mindset of “make it, use, it, chuck it.”

What’s going on? Consultants and and pioneers like Terracycle’s Tom Szaky and Method’s Eric Ryan have been quick to seize on the "authenticity gap." Only inauthentic ecofriendly cleaning products are failing; their "Light Green" consumers are more fickle, more price sensitive, not truly committed to the sustainability movement. By contrast, "Dark Green" consumers are more educated, more committed, more affluent and thus more inclined to stick with “pure play” brands that deliver both value and values.