Brazil, beyond Carnaval and its taste for open source software, is doing something we should all pay attention to: Its National Policy on Solid Waste was passed last year, and has laid out an extensive range of measures to better address the disposal, recycling and reuse of waste material. Of most interest to the Packaging Digest community is this paragraph: “The National Solid Waste Policy provides for Reverse Logistics, a set of actions, procedures, and means aimed at facilitating the collection and return of solid wastes to their original producers, so that they can be treated and reused in new products–in the form of new inputs–either in their cycle or in new production cycles, so as to prevent the generation of rejects, i.e., the return of wastes (pesticides, batteries, tires, lubricating oils, and plastic bags, among others) in the post-sale and post-consumption phases.” From what I gather, this program looks to meet or exceed other similar private/public waste reduction efforts like in Europe, encompassing everything from individuals to the largest companies. These country’s examples got me thinking: What if we began taxing all use of virgin material in products as a way to increase the pace of upping the percentage of recycled and reused materials faster? It could be on the producer, the retailer or the consumer. Aside from the sky falling, as I’m sure many businesses would cry, this would encourage a broader based use of existing recycled, upcycled and directly reused components happening, and fast. Or would it?

Intellectual property  is a complicated subject. At TerraCycle, I regularly face I.P. decisions, and I have developed a point of view on them — but I would welcome some feedback. I’m particularly interested in your perspectives on unprotected design.

Having a great idea for a company is one thing. Getting the money to get it moving and growing is quite another — especially when you’ve got an unconventional product or business model that your average investor isn’t likely to recognize as an obvious winner. When we started TerraCycle as undergrads, my co-founder and I entered and won a number of business-plan competitions around America, effectively financing our business from the resulting prize money. The best thing about prize money is that it provides financing without diluting your ownership in the company; the challenge of relying on prize money is that it is relatively limited — $5,000 to $100,000, generally, and you can’t enter the same contest more than once, especially if you do well the first time.

Last week, The New York Times published an intriguing article — “As Consumers Cut Spending, ‘Green’ Products Lose Allure” — about a major decline in the sales of green products. The article makes a point I have long believed: the average consumer will not pay more for a product just because it’s green, especially during a recession.

As I’ve built TerraCycle, one of my priorities has been maintaining our unusual company culture. While I don’t believe in overdoing it — we have no pool tables, yoga studios or climbing walls — I have found a few affordable yet surprisingly effective ways to build morale and have some fun. 1. LUNCH: About a year ago we adopted a lunch program whereby we order lunch from a nearby restaurant for participating employees, changing up the menu every day. We ask for a $4 contribution per person, but the company picks up the rest. We bought plates and installed a dishwasher. The effect on productivity has been amazing. Instead of various teams taking long one- or two-hour lunch breaks (where people have to drive to a local restaurant, wait to order and then eat) everyone grabs lunch, eats and typically is back at their desks within 20 minutes or so. Funny how spending about $6 per person (on top of the $4 employee contribution) can make a difference.

At TerraCycle, while we’re trying to keep stuff out of landfills and change the way people think about waste, the ultimate goal is to make money. Over the years, I have been challenged again and again to find ways to build our revenue and refine our business model to make us profitable and to maintain aggressive growth. Along the way, we have changed our model numerous times. The original plan for TerraCycle was to develop an eco-friendly waste management company. People would pay us to take organic waste and instead of dumping it in landfills we would feed it to worms. But at the roughly $50 per ton we were paid to cart the waste, we couldn’t come close to making money (or getting a date!). By the end of one summer, our plan had evolved. We would still take organic waste and feed it to worms, but we would create most of our value and revenue by selling worm waste as premium fertilizer.

Oh lord, here we are again. Earth Day is nearly here. The roar of the trumped up press releases and tenuous links to sustainability is deafening! What started out as an impassioned celebration/day of action for the earth in 1970 has become a vehicle for companies to cash in on a growing trend. Or has it? What's your thoughts on Earth Day? On one hand it is an opportunity to spotlight behaviors and products that people can carry on with for the rest of the year. It is useful, having a focal point for such an important topic as the health of world to be brought to the awareness of people beyond those already committed. It's helped "normalize" what used to be strictly for the fringe dwellers, making it safe for mainstream people, businesses and governments to take more bold action. If only that were the extent of it.

Here we are again. Earth Day is upon us, with all its blaring, breathless press releases and tenuous connections to sustainability being made. Perhaps your own company is doing it! Every April, green becomes a topic of conversation far beyond those you’d normally expect. The jury’s still out as to whether this is a good and well, sustainable thing, focusing people’s attention on earth-positive actions, or just an annual green hurrah that gets forgotten a few days later. I see a missed opportunity here. The majority of what takes place is talk, back slapping, finger wagging, product launches, brand behavior enhancements and lifestyle actions suggestions. What about packaging? Have all these Earth Day actions helped move the needle in the world of consumer packaging towards companies using and consumers asking for more sustainable packaging? I’m sure that consumer’s interest in recycled content was born out of Earth Day. But does it go any deeper than that? Tell me, how can Earth Day be better tied to packaging? How can we increase the sophistication of your average consumer so that they know about and will ask for the increasingly sophisticated green options that are possible in packaging these days?

When I first suggested taking TerraCycle’s operations global, there was nearly a mutiny among my board members and executive team. No exaggeration, they thought I’d lost my mind. As quickly as I’d brought up the idea, it was tabled — that is, until I got a phone call in 2008 that set everything in motion. The phone call came from PepsiCo-Frito in Brazil. The company’s executives liked what we had done with Frito chip bags in the United States, and they wanted to do the same thing in Brazil. As we’ve done with many brands, we had developed national collection programs for Frito’s nonrecyclable waste, its chip bags. People all across America can collect used bags and send them to TerraCycle. We cover the cost of shipping and pay 2 cents per chip bag to the charity or school of the collector’s choice. We then take the bags and convert them into materials including branded fabrics and plastic pellets. Our team then works with major manufacturing companies to use the new stuff in their products, effectively replacing the need for virgin materials. As an example, Olivet, a major supplier to Wal-Mart, now uses “chip-bag plastic” from TerraCycle as the plastic in the coolers <http://www.terracycle.net/products/197-Olivet-Cooler>  it makes. This renders the chip bag nationally recyclable and produces a major win for the brands and their sustainability goals. The executives with PepsiCo Brazil indicated that, if we weren’t prepared to open operations there, they would pay us to teach a local company how to replicate our business. It immediately became clear to me that if we didn’t seize the opportunity in other countries, someone else would get there first, and we’d never get another chance.

When is recycling not a good idea? When is it causing more harm then other choices you could make? When you have another option such as green icon Method <http://www.methodhome.com/> 's refill packs <http://www.methodhome.com/search/products/refills> , that are much lighter, and use less packaging than buying a whole new bottle of the same product. 80-90% less. But they're not (yet) recyclable, meaning there's been only one choice when done with them: Throw them out. This I imagine has created a conflict in many of the minds of people who buy these refill packs, wanting to make a difference, but then following the clear good behavior with a supposed bad. The irony is that refill users, when impacts are compared, are doing the greener thing. But what if Method could go even further, finding a place for their refill packs? They have, in the form of the new Method Refill Brigade <http://terracycle.net/brigades/method-refill-brigade?locale=en-US> . Now, those same refill packs destined for the dump will now be used by TerraCycle <http://terracycle.net>  to make everything from bags to benches. It's already proven a success in the UK, where Kenco <http://www.kencocoffeecompany.co.uk/kencocoffeecompany2/page?PagecRef=1>  coffee's Eco Refill Brigade <http://www.terracycle.co.uk/brigades/1-The-Kenco-Eco-Refill-Brigade->  is nearly filled to capacity with people participating.