As I reflected on the end of 2012, I decided to write a letter to our more than a hundred employees around the world to discuss the role profits play at TerraCycle.
TerraCycle is a social business, which means that we focus on the so-called triple bottom line: planet, people and profits. For us, this has meant creating a business model that involves capturing nonrecyclable waste — like chip bags or diaper packaging — before it goes to a landfill or incinerator and finding a way to recycle, upcycle or reuse it. Basically, we’re giving garbage a second life by creating a system for otherwise nonrecyclable waste to be recycled.
TerraCycle Ceo Tom Szaky was interviewed by Philadelphia SmartCEO Magazine about eco-entrepreneurship.
Founded in 2001 by CEO Tom Szaky, TerraCycle's anti-butt campaign, dubbed Cigarette Waste Brigade, is a essentially a war on the seemingly countless discarded cancer sticks that litter our beaches, streets, and waterways. All parts of the extinguished cigarettes—the filters, the outer plastic packaging, the inner foil packaging, the rolling paper, and, yes, even the ashes—are collected by registered "brigades," which are located all over the world. The brigades ship the cigarette detritus to TerraCycle, which then melts and recycles then into plastic lumber, pallets, bins, and ashtrays. A house, for example, could be framed from this type of recycled material.
Sponsored by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, TerraCycle's Cigarette Brigade aims to work with more than 20 million people already collecting various types of waste for them in over 20 countries.
“We certainly hope that TerraCycle is becoming a global spotlight on the issue of waste in our society!," said Albe Zakes, the company's Global VP and Media Relations. "Education and awareness are the basis of evolution and we find that many average consumers are simply unaware of the massive size and impact of waste in our consumer driven economy."
A subsidiary of the nation's second-largest cigarette maker, Reynolds American Inc., is funding a national recycling program to reward do-gooders for cleaning up tobacco waste and turn cigarette buts into pellets used to make items such as plastic shipping pallets, railroad ties, and park benches.
TerraCycle recycles the most littered item in the US: cigarette butts.
Founded in 2001 by CEO Tom Szaky, TerraCycle's anti-butt campaign, dubbed Cigarette Waste Brigade, is a essentially a war on the seemingly countless discarded cancer sticks that litter our beaches, streets, and waterways. All parts of the extinguished cigarettes—the filters, the outer plastic packaging, the inner foil packaging, the rolling paper, and, yes, even the ashes—are collected by registered "brigades," which are located all over the world. The brigades ship the cigarette detritus to TerraCycle, which then melts and recycles then into plastic lumber, pallets, bins, and ashtrays. A house, for example, could be framed from this type of recycled material.
Sponsored by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, TerraCycle's Cigarette Brigade aims to work with more than 20 million people already collecting various types of waste for them in over 20 countries.
“We certainly hope that TerraCycle is becoming a global spotlight on the issue of waste in our society!," said Albe Zakes, the company's Global VP and Media Relations. "Education and awareness are the basis of evolution and we find that many average consumers are simply unaware of the massive size and impact of waste in our consumer driven economy."
Das Generation Solidarität-Team zeigt euch ein paar Seiten für alternative, einfache und nützliche Müllverwertung.
Auf der Plattform
Terracycle.de könnt ihr euch Ideen holen, welche Gebrauchsgegenstände ihr aus eurem Abfall herstellen könnt. Ihr könnt aber auch versandkostenfrei euren eigenen Müll einsenden, der dann in Stuttgart von einem Team aus Wissenschaftlern und Designern in nachhaltige Produkte umgewandelt wird. Dafür bekommt ihr Sammelpunkte gutgeschrieben, mit denen ihr gemeinnützige Projekte unterstützen könnt.
