“We hope to wake up one day and become the new version of recycling, where every waste stream has a solution within the TerraCycle system.”
It all started with worms. When fed organic waste, worm ‘tea’ is produced through their excrement. One man began to bottle this concoction into used soda bottles as a natural plant food, by taking food scraps from the disposal bin at Princeton Dining Services.
That man was Tom Szaky. By the next summer, Tom met his first investor, and TerraCycle was born. As sales of the natural plant food grew, Tom began looking for new ways to reuse. His company began to take the items that nobody else wanted, cigarette butts, toothbrushes, juice cartons, expired pills and food wrappers, and explore ways or reusing anything and everything that was available.
“‘We want to be the recycling solution for everything that’s not recyclable today,’ Tom says, ‘But we don’t have all the answers yet.
This skin care brand—which is a subsidy of Johnson & Johnson — encourages customers to recycle their packages or upcycle others (that can’t be recycled) by sending them to TerraCycle, a company that collects the used bottles and turns them into tote bags.
Tom Szaky wants to be the rag-and-bone man to the world, collecting the rubbish no one else wants – cigarette butts, razors, expired pills and plastic food wrappers – and turning an enormous profit by finding new uses for it.
His US-based company TerraCycle already has rubbish collecting and recycling operations in six countries and expects to launch in 11 more (including Japan, Australia and Sweden) in the next year. He launched TerraCycle in Britain last September and in Ireland this month.
'We’re just a $40 million company at the moment,’ he says. But he plans to become the Google of garbage. 'A billion-dollar company doesn’t seem that big… why not!’
On Thursday, June 10, Robert Schucker, president of Midland Park-based R&S Landscaping, the region's premier environmentally responsible landscaping firm, visited Willard Elementary School to present a lesson on water conservation and the value of a rain barrel -- a system that provides homeowners with a consistent supply of free, fresh water for outdoor use by collecting and storing rainwater that would otherwise be lost to runoff and diverted to storm drains and streams.
Willard is ahead of the curve when it comes to teaching environmentally friendly practices. At Willard, students are learning about the importance of the environment, and have taken action through an on-site compost garden, a school-wide recycling initiative, and an ongoing partnership with TerraCycle, a company that reuses juice containers and wrappers.
As a fan of the cereal and helping the environment – I’m quite excited about this little tid-bit of news.
Malt-O-Meal are those wonderful people that make Tootie Fruities and Marshmellow Matey cereals as well as a range of other flavors.
Last week, Malt-O-Meal announced that it was teaming up with those green-friendly TerraCycle folks to help keep more cereal bags out of landfills.
To do that – they are setting up ‘brigades’ in schools all over the US where students are able to get together and collect the bags to raise money for their school.
Bags stay out of bins, TerraCycle recycles them into great new products (like backpacks) and Malt-O-Meal donates money to schools.
What do you do with your trash? There is only so much that can be recycled. What about the stuff that can't be recycled?
TerraCycle works with over thirty major brands in the US (and in a growing number of other countries) to collect used packaging and products (chip bags, candy wrappers, juice pouches, pens, toothbrushes, etc.) that would otherwise be destined for landfills.
Malt-O-Meal has announced a new partnership with TerraCycle. The partnership will create 1,250 Malt-O-Meal Cereal Bag Brigades in elementary and secondary schools across the country.
Malt-O-Meal Cereal Bag Brigades will function as collection sites for Malt-O-Meal cereal bags and help prevent a significant amount of packaging waste from going into landfills. Individuals or school groups can sign up to sponsor a Brigade, with proceeds to benefit a designated school, school-sponsored club, or school-sponsored special interest group. There is no cost to start a Brigade, and all shipping costs are paid. For every Malt-O-Meal cereal bag collected and upcycled through TerraCycle, the designated school will receive a $.02 donation from TerraCycle.
NORWAY - Girl Scout Troop 5326 recently completed a two month long recycling project in collaboration with Terracycle.
The girls in the troop earned their Forever Green patch and will receive a small check from the organization.
The purpose of the Terracycle organization is to reduce the amount of refuse that goes into the landfills; the organization then takes the refuse and turns it into useful and stylish products, backpacks, pencil cases, totes, lunch boxes, and folders. These products are available at local retail stores.
The Girl Scout troop helped by joining collection brigades: the Capri Sun Juice pouch brigade, the Lunchables Lunch kit brigade, and the Frito Lay chip bag brigade.
As many great companies do, this one started in a dorm room. Tom Szaky, now at the ripe old age of 27, is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle and was named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. magazine in 2009.
The idea of upcycling wasn't trendy at the time, and the first few years at Terracycle were rocky. Hurdles involved near bankruptcy and the hard choice of turning down a $1 million grant because the investor's principles were not in line with Szaky's idea of a truly sustainable company — now that's a man with faith in his idea!
My mother called me last night to tell me about an interesting notice on the side of her Wheat Thins box. Apparently Wheat Thins has teamed up with Terracycle to recyle their packages. My mother proceeded to tell me a bit more about it and then sent me a link to read through today. Here’s what I found in their “About Us” page:
TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. With over 50 products available at major retailers like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, OfficeMax, Petco and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the fastest growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for materials others deem garbage.
You can be a part of our eco-revolution, just sign up for one of our FREE Brigades or look for TerraCycle products at your local retailer.
