It all started with worm poop. As a freshman at Princeton University, Tom Szaky watched his friends feed food scraps to red wigglers, whose droppings they used to fertilize houseplants. Szaky began asking what would become his life’s big questions: Why does garbage exist? How can we outsmart it? In the next 13 years, he would start and run TerraCycle, a business headquartered in Trenton, N.J., in an office made largely out of junk. The mission? Recycle all—and the company means all—types of trash. “I left Princeton, moved into a basement office, and found myself spending hours shoveling rotting food waste,” says Szaky, who’s now 32 and has a tornado-swept mop of hair. He maxed out credit cards to buy the equipment he needed to produce fertilizer from worm castings, which he sold in used soda bottles. Szaky made no profit and nearly gave up the project—until it caught the eye of a venture capitalist who cut him a check. Today, with offices in 25 countries, TerraCycle has expanded beyond organic fertilizers. With giant brands as partners—including Colgate and Target—TerraCycle has turned potato chip bags into pencil cases, pens into trash cans, and toothbrushes into playgrounds. Szaky gets especially excited about recycling waste that even the most environmentally conscious would happily send to a landfill. This includes cigarette butts (which are turned into plastic pallets and compost), dirty diapers (doggy pee pads and park benches), and chewing gum (TerraCycle is still figuring this one out). “They’re massive environmental issues, but because of the stigma around how ‘dirty’ they are, no one else is developing recycling processes,” Szaky says. Getting people to see soiled diapers in a greener light is one thing, but having them produce less trash is another story. Ideally, he says, people buy less or don’t buy stuff at all. That’s where Human Resources, which premieres today on Pivot, TakePart’s sister network, comes in. The show documents the work lives of the young people who run TerraCycle’s New Jersey headquarters. “Viewers will learn new things about the products and packaging they use every day,” says Szaky. Though Human Resources’ ultimate goal is to raise awareness about the dangers of mindless consumerism, he stresses that the show is not just for hippies. “They’ll also see the fun antics, crazy pranks, and social happenings of a bunch of passionate 20-somethings.” Szaky has come a long way from being a kid fascinated by worms. Now he leads a company of people who are just as ardent and eccentric (perhaps it takes eccentricity to want to work with poop from creepy-crawlies, diapers, or other things), all aiming to clean up the world’s trash. Szaky remains ambitious: “It may not happen in five years, but one day I want TerraCycle to become the Google of garbage.”

Inspired by the zany half-hour docu-comedy Human Resources and consistent with TerraCycle’s mission, we’ve joined forces with Recycle Across America to create Recycle Right, a campaign focused on transforming recycling and improving the economics and prevalence of sustainable packaging and manufacturing.  Recycle Across America has identified a simple way to increase stagnating recycling levels in the U.S., in the form of standardized labels on recycling bins, which make it easy for people to recycle more and recycle right. To date, bins that feature the Recycle Across America standardized labels have increased recycling levels 50 percent to 100 percent. Recycling is the No. 1 action we can take for the environment, the economy, and our future on this planet. If we recycle more and recycle right, more companies will be able to start using recycled materials in their manufacturing, rather than depleting limited natural resources. Recycling right creates jobs, saves water, energy, and money, and can improve our health and the well-being of all species. Watch Human Resources every Friday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, starting Aug. 8, only on Pivot.

Létezik egy cég, amely nehezen újrahasznosítható hulladékokat gyűjt, hogy aztán használati tárgyakat készítsen belőlük, világszerte 23 országban. Az újrahasznosítással készült termékeket később online, vagy nagyobb áruházakban lehet megvásárolni. A kezdeményezés tavaly itthon is elindult, egyelőre a gyűjtési fázisban tart.

The reality docu-drama called "Human Resources" chronicles what it's like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. TerraCycle was founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton student Tom Szaky (ZAK-ee). It collects and transforms a range of hard-to-recycle items — from potato chip bags to cigarette butts — into colorful consumer products.

"Human Resources," which debuts Friday on the Pivot network, will focus not on hard-partying beachgoers but on a socially conscious recycling company. The "reality docu-drama" chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products.

"Human Resources," which debuts Friday on the Pivot network, will focus not on hard-partying beachgoers but on a socially conscious recycling company. The "reality docu-drama" chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products.

"Human Resources," which debuts Friday on the Pivot network, will focus not on hard-partying beachgoers but on a socially conscious recycling company. The "reality docu-drama" chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products.

The "reality docu-drama" chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products.

"Human Resources," which debuts Friday on the Pivot network, will focus not on hard-partying beachgoers but on a socially conscious recycling company. The "reality docu-drama" chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products.

"Human Resources," which debuts Friday on the Pivot network, will focus not on hard-partying beachgoers but on a socially conscious recycling company. The "reality docu-drama" chronicles what it is like to work at the Trenton-based company TerraCycle Inc. Founded in 2001 by then-20-year-old Princeton University student Tom Szaky, TerraCycle collects hard-to-recycle items, from potato chip bags to cigarette butts, and transforms them into colorful consumer products.