Recycling used to be so simple: aluminum cans, glass bottles, newspapers and paper bags. The sheer amount of disposable items has turned a garbage problem into a garbage crisis, says Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive of TerraCycle. The company's mission is recycling the previously unrecyclable, such as cigarette butts, contact lenses and chewing gum.

As consumers have become more supportive of recyclable products, the options for recycling what we used to deem trash have grown. Major manufacturers are partnering with companies such as TerraCycle to recover their (and sometimes even competitors') products. Cities and counties have ramped up recycling programs to accept a wider variety of items.

As consumers have become more supportive of recyclable products, the options for recycling what we used to deem trash have grown. Major manufacturers are partnering with companies such as TerraCycle to recover their (and sometimes even competitors’) products. Cities and counties have ramped up recycling programs to accept a wider variety of items.

By 1965, the Solid Waste Disposal Act went into effect, creating a national office to tackle solid waste, and in 1976, Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, requiring facilities to line the dumps, collect leachate for proper disposal, and vent and burn the resulting methane.

According to Tom Szaky’s The Future of Packaging, things snowballed quickly.

Tom Szaky Founder and CEO, TerraCycle “To prepare for the unpredictable and minimize risk to the company, I meet regularly with my finance team and business leads to review budgets. We look at opportunities and risks and, as a company, operate off of a ‘worst-case’ budget so that we don’t get into a situation where we’ve overspent. We also have a committee that reviews new and incremental business opportunities from all angles before they are finalized, which keeps us from overlooking a detail that could be problematic later on.”

IMPACT Day 1 panelists and speakers included: Debbie Levin (EMA President & CEO), Alan Fuerstman (Founder, Chairman & CEO, Montage International), Angus Mitchell, Catherine Gore, Chris Davenport, David Marguiles, Doug Coleman, Drew FitzGerald, Elena Carretero, Emmanuelle Chiriqui, Eric Garcetti, Fernando Nilo, Genesis Butler, Henry Pino, Jamie Margolin, Jennifer Nickerson, Joey Gonzalez, Kathy Kellogg Johnson, Karla Welch, Karrueche Tran, Kate Wilson, Kendrick Eagle, Kerri Eich, Kristina Buckley, Lance Bass, Mark Gold, Mark Yamauchi, Melissa Magsaysay, Mike Sullivan, Phil Graves, Rob Herring, Robert O’Connor, Shannon Bart, Shara Ticku, Sheila Kuehl, Tom Szaky

 

Photography by David Christopher Lee The Environmental Media Association (EMA) wrapped their 3rd Annual IMPACT Summit at The Montage Beverly Hills. IMPACT is a premier two-day sustainable business summit that focuses on the tremendous potential of a green economy. Panel highlights included “How Does Your Garden Grow”, a conversation about EMA’s School Garden Program, which was moderated by Lance Bass, and “Rise Up!”, which focused on how the youth movement is fighting climate change, moderated by Karrueche Tran. Emmanuelle Chriqui joined the “Our Most Precious Stone” panel, which focused on what the diamond industry is doing to preserve our natural resources. Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti also addressed IMPACT attendees and provided an inside look into LA’s New Green Deal. IMPACT Day 1 panelists and speakers included: Debbie Levin (EMA CEO), Alan Fuerstman (Founder, Chairman & CEO, Montage International), Angus Mitchell, Catherine Gore, Chris Davenport, David Marguiles, Doug Coleman, Drew FitzGerald, Elena Carretero, Emmanuelle Chiriqui, Eric Garcetti, Fernando Nilo, Genesis Butler, Henry Pino, Jamie Margolin, Jennifer Nickerson, Joey Gonzalez, Kathy Kellogg Johnson, Karla Welch, Karrueche Tran, Kate Wilson, Kendrick Eagle, Kerri Eich, Kristina Buckley, Lance Bass, Mark Gold, Mark Yamauchi, Melissa Magsaysay, Mike Sullivan, Phil Graves, Rob Herring, Robert O’Connor, Shannon Bart, Shara Ticku, Sheila Kuehl, Tom Szaky

 

Tom Szaky talks about making “everything recyclable” at PAC Package Innovation Disruptors Summit.

Tom Szaky, president and CEO of international recycling company TerraCycle recently gave the keynote address at the 7th annual Responsible Business Summit New York. Szaky addressed how companies are increasingly looking towards sustainable innovations to change environmental, social and governmental risks into workable business opportunities.

But Tom Szaky, the CEO and founder of TerraCycle, sees waste differently. His first legendary product was a worm-poop fertilizer for plant food, packaged in used beverage bottles. But that was just the beginning for Szaky. He realized that to become truly legendary, he needed to consider a bigger problem: how humans think about waste.