TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

Posts with term Stonyfield Yogurt X

Run a less wasteful business with tips from TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky

TerraCycle, a multinational recycling and upcycling company, got its start during founder Tom Szaky's freshman year at Princeton University. Here, the founder shares how natural retailers and natural businesses can become less wasteful.
Tom Szaky’s infectious passion has propelled TerraCycle, a multinational recycling and upcycling company, to be among the fastest-growing corporations in the nation. He will share more about his business from 9 to 10 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 20, in room 308/309 at Natural Products Expo East.   Natural Foods Merchandiser: How do you describe your business for those who don’t know about it? Tom Szaky: TerraCycle’s business revolves around the simple idea of making things recyclable that are not recyclable. Today, we are in 22 countries around the world where you can sign up to collect waste. You simply take a cardboard box and fill it up. Each waste stream goes into its own box, such as pens in one box, chip bags in another. Once the box is full, you download a free shipping label and send it to us. We typically credit your account 2 cents for every piece of waste you collect to allocate to any school or charity in the country. Then we take the waste and we do one of three things to it: reuse it, if it’s possible, we do that for example in our shoe program; upcycle it, for example juice packs into backpacks; or recycle it, where, for example, we melt chip bags into trash cans.

Food and Beverage Packaging Industry Expected to Continue Green Efforts in 2011

For those not familiar with "Terracycle", it is one of many organizations that work to create useful items out of waste products. "Terracycle", in conjunction with both consumers and people from within the food and beverage industry, collects empty and discarded items like foil cheese packets, foil beverage pouches, potato chip bags, gum wrappers, beverage bottles and other items. "Terracycle" then converts those items into a wide array of new items like insulated coolers, garbage cans, fences, plant food, household cleaners, photo frames, jewel cases, clothing and fashion accessories. Part of the proceeds from the sale of those items is in turn donated to area schools and non-profit groups.

Food and Beverage Packaging Industry Expected to Continue Green Efforts in 2011

This increase in repurposing materials has caused food and beverage manufacturers like Kraft Foods to stand up and take notice. Proof in point is the company's recent decision to add foil cheese packets to their pre-existing "Terracycle Collection Program." In Packaging Everything Old is New Again For those not familiar with "Terracycle", it is one of many organizations that work to create useful items out of waste products. "Terracycle", in conjunction with both consumers and people from within the food and beverage industry, collects empty and discarded items like foil cheese packets, foil beverage pouches, potato chip bags, gum wrappers, beverage bottles and other items. "Terracycle" then converts those items into a wide array of new items like insulated coolers, garbage cans, fences, plant food, household cleaners, photo frames, jewel cases, clothing and fashion accessories. Part of the proceeds from the sale of those items is in turn donated to area schools and non-profit groups.

TerraCycle Kid's Herb Growing Kit

Today, I found TerraCycle Kid's Growing Kit and snapped them up! They consist of a three-pack of used Stonyfield Yogurt cups that have been filled with soil. The cardboard packaging that holds the containers is actually embedded with seeds for either tomatoes or basil, depending on which you pick. The best part? They only cost a $1 each. When I got home and started looking at TerraCycle's site, I found that they have a bunch of products that are made from “upcycled” products - a bike pouch made from energy bar wrappers, a bubble kit made from milk bottles, backpacks and totes made from drink pouches. What an innovative and fun company! Check it out to see if there's something you just can't live without. Of course, if you wanted to go one step further, you could save all your own yogurt containers and break a seed packet out among several cups so that the seeds are already planted and watered for the first time when you hand them out, but these were too convenient for me to pass up.