Waste is a problem. We’ve been helping solve it, one piece at a time, via our collection brigades for years now. Literally billions of pieces, collected by millions of people each earning 2 cents donated to the charity of people’s choice. That translates into $100,000 a month in the US alone. And we’re currently in 5 countries, aiming for 10 this year.

The end of this year has been a return to our roots for TerraCycle in many ways. First with the opening of our first retail store a few blocks from where I first had a basement “office,” and now we’re going north to Canada–where I grew up and where we had our first major sales of product, to The Home Depot and Walmart Canada. This new Canadian endeavor is, in fact, with Kraft–the first company with which we made a major agreement to collect branded waste in order to upcycle it into new products.  In two years, our US partnership withKraft on Capri Sun juice packs has resulted in more than 35,000 collection points, millions of pouches collected, and more than $250,000 donated to a variety of causes.

If you’ve read any of my articles on here, you probably know TerraCycle’s focus is on upcycling, the process of creating something of equal or greater value and quality from materials that may have otherwise been thrown away. We’ve done it by turning cookie wrappers into umbrellas, juice pouches into pencil cases, and LP records into clocks.

If you’ve read any of my articles on here, you probably know TerraCycle’s focus is on upcycling, the process of creating something of equal or greater value and quality from materials that may have otherwise been thrown away. We’ve done it by turning cookie wrappers into umbrellas, juice pouches into pencil cases, and LP records into clocks. But what would you say if I told you we’re now going to collect packaging from Huggies, and a range of Scott paper products, from toilet paper to moist wipes?

We just did something that some would say is crazy. We -- the company best known for making "worm poop" gardening products bottled in what were previously plastic soda bottles, and for turning billboards into messenger bags -- are creating products based on Huggies and Scott paper products from Kimberly-Clark. Excuse me? No, not used diapers and handy wipes, but the packaging that they came in. Oh. Yes. But you see where there might be a bit of a mental leap for people to buy products that are made from brands they associate with very unrecyclable things?

I’m returning to my roots, Canada, and learning some lessons that might be of use to us all, back here in the U.S. Though we are U.S.- based, it was Canada that gave us our first big break, Walmart Canada and The Home Depot to be precise. People thought I was foolish to buck the green business trend of starting in niche, boutique, small stores and then inch our way to larger, national chains. We held firm, knowing that a much bigger, broader impact could be made, should we be carried outside the “green bubble” of the usual suspects. And it first paid off in Canada.

We just began an interesting experiment at TerraCycle: Opening our first retail outlet and giving people a place to bring in what they'd normally mail to us as part of our collection Brigades. But that's not the most interesting part. We've decided to see what people will do when given the chance to pay whatever price they want for products. In this economy, will people intentionally undercut the price? Will they, unaware of what we really charge, which, whenever possible, is the same or lower then comparable non-green products, actually overpay for their purchase? Or, might they, knowing we're a company working hard to make as sustainable a product as possible, make a point to pay more as a show of support? Ah that, the mythical LOHAS consumer who will pay the "green tax" because a product is green (or greener) then other products. Nonsense.

Look at your toothbrush. It’s likely made of some form of plastic, rubber, and inventive design engineering, packed into a small space. After your initial decision process, where color, teeth cleaning wizardry, and perhaps recycled content and recyclability came into play, you don’t really notice it that much anymore. It’s become part of the background. Until now. Now being the start of another round of winter colds, one of the preventative practices being to throw away your toothbrush and get a new one. Hang on, you know I can’t let that be how it goes!

We just made what some may consider either a stupid move or a brilliant move, but it's definitely an interesting one -- we've opened a retail store. But that's not the part in question here. We've got solid product offerings that customers clearly want. No, what makes this launch unique is that we've decided to start out by letting people choose what to pay for their purchases. Are we nuts? Why, yes, but that's the beside the point. In other sectors, namely music and restaurants it's shown to be quite a success, drawing a lot of media attention, building good will with fans and customers, and in the end, turning out to be profitable.

This week something fairly monumental is taking place: It's Climate Week NYC, where among other things, top government leaders from 90 countries are gathering for the United Nations climate session. It's also time for things to kick into high gear for TckTckTck, an innovative global alliance of people, businesses, even faith groups, with a singular purpose: Make it abundantly clear the great importance they see in their country's leaders coming together for the pinnacle of this series of high level climate change focused discussions, COP15, happening in Copenhagen in December of this year. Impressive, but will it work? How is this different then before? I had the chance to ask this and more of Kumi Naidoo, Chair of the Global Campaigning for Climate Action (GCCA) which is organizing TckTckTck. Mr. Naidoo is a long time powerhouse when it comes forging paths to a more sustainable future. He has been a part of a number of high profile board and advisory positions with renowned institutes such as the Clinton Global Initiative, Amnesty International, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).