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ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

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RWM confirms Tom Szaky as keynote speaker

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RWM has confirmed Tom Szaky, the founder of TerraCycle, will be leading a keynote seminar at the event this year. Szaky is the latest addition to the history of keynote speakers that have led seminars at RWM, including the likes of Coca-Cola European Partners and Costa Coffee. Established in 2001, TerraCycle is a world leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable post-consumer waste which would otherwise be destined for landfill or incineration. It repurposes that waste into new eco-friendly materials and products. The waste is collected through TerraCycle’s National recycling programmes, which are free fundraisers that pay schools, charities and non-profits for every piece of waste they collect and return. TerraCycle also forms working partnerships with global brands to promote and ensure a circular economy. This includes numerous high profile recent UK partnerships in October of 2018 with the likes of Walkers (Pepsico), Pringles (Kellogg’s), Mars Petcare, Colgate and Acuvue to name but a few. "There is real momentum in the UK in terms of recycling, sustainability and the circular economy so I am delighted to be speaking at RWM 2019. My keynote presentation will look at how TerraCycle is working towards Eliminating the Idea of Waste,” said Szaky CEO and Founder of TerraCycle. “By forming partnerships with leading brands and developing circular economy practices, TerraCycle makes the non-recyclable, recyclable. Plus why society needs to move from disposable to durable / reusable and TerraCycle's groundbreaking work in this area." Nick Woore, Managing Director of RWM added: “Tom Szaky is currently changing the game with the work TerraCycle do. If you’re aware of his work then this keynote should be high on your agenda, and if you don’t know who Tom is, then use this opportunity to get to know one of the finest pioneers in the waste industry today”
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We need to bin disposable items for good. Here are 5 ways to do it

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 Single-use products and packaging are convenient and affordable - and causing a growing waste crisis. Scientists have been alarmed to discover plastic pieces in locations far removed from human populations, such as the Arctic and on remote islands. Earlier this year an entire plastic bag, completely intact, was found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the ocean’s deepest point; a chilling example of plastic’s pervasiveness throughout the natural environment.
Manufacturers send products and packaging into the world that are not captured by even the most well-managed disposal systems of landfilling and incineration (let alone recycling), and these end up as litter. Making their way into marine environments, they never fully degrade, leeching chemicals, releasing greenhouse gases and breaking down into microplastics, which are mistaken by animals for food and thus penetrate the human food chain and water supplies.
It is today’s consumers, not producers, who currently bear the brunt of this waste. Developing economies are even more deeply awash in trash. That we might see more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050 is old news in light of the recent UN report that says we only have 12 years to steer ourselves away from climate catastrophe.
Plastic in and of itself isn’t the problem. Rather, it’s the fact that plastic items are actually designed to be disposable — used once, then thrown away. Every step away from durable, reusable materials such as glass and metal towards plastics and multi-compositional pouches and films - in other words, making packaging lighter and less expensive - effectively cuts the packaging’s recyclability in half.
Image: TerraCycle
This linear, take-make-dispose economic model has delivered profits, created jobs and met consumers’ desire for accessible, innovative and convenient products, all while bringing down costs for producers. But this is not sustainable.
Globalization offers hope for a change in the future of production and consumption by supporting economic growth through the transformative power of collaboration. But to move away from a disposable culture and towards a circular economy - one that favours reducing the amount of raw materials used in manufacturing, reusing materials and recovering resources - influencers must begin to integrate rather than stay in their current silos.
Companies looking to effect change and end society’s dependence on disposability must demonstrate clear benefits to consumers, businesses, governments and the environment. This will be a challenge at first. But changemakers can develop their own initiatives and deploy them across industries to future-proof against our growing waste problem.
Invest in recycling
Recycling is a reaction to the systemic issue of single-use items, overconsumption and disposability. But comprehensive recycling systems and manufacturer take-back programmes are essential to not only change how we value single-use items, but in recovering materials for new production and diverting them from landfill and litter.
Manufacturers who engage in voluntary producer responsibility through take-back programmes for consumers and pre-consumer operations can demonstrate value for their stakeholders. Supporting the market for secondary materials then incentivises governments and municipalities to better enforce recycling with more resources.
Stop producing, using and buying single-use items without reclamation systems
This one is simple, but tough. As consumers, this means watching out for plastic cutlery, toting reusable mugs to replace coffee cups, reducing online shopping (or only buying from companies that use reusable e-commerce packaging, such as RePack), and shopping for used goods. We can only buy what is available to us, so while it remains the responsibility of consumers to demand a move away from disposability, manufacturers, brands and governments must create new models for consumption.
Retailers such as restaurants and commodity stores must favour reusable goods, and the manufacturers who produce them must find new ways to deliver the value benefits of things such as disposable razors, diapers and feminine care while transferring to durable equivalents, so that consumers are willing to make the switch. This sort of value creation requires these markets supporting one another through collaboration.
Redesigning how products are made, distributed and owned to create value for manufacturers and consumers will help the shift towards a new way of thinking about product design and ownership.
Focus on product and packaging redesign as a growth strategy
Design for recyclability in the current infrastructure, and for reusability today and beyond. With the increasing popularity of premium foods and beverages packaged in glass and durable plastics, we see that consumers are willing to pay more for a product presented in high-quality packaging. A move towards more easily recycled packaging and, better yet, packaging that is reused over and over, is already underway.
Creating a durable or reusable container uses more energy and resources than creating a disposable (or single-use) container. However, over time the reusable container has a lower environmental and economic cost as it does not need to be remanufactured for every use; instead it only needs to be transported and cleaned, which levy much lower environmental and economic costs.
Innovate for the future of consumption by looking to the past
For most of the 20th century, distributors of consumable and perishable goods provided reusable containers that customers could empty and then leave on their doorsteps - such as glass milk bottles, for example. These containers flowed through a system in which the producer was responsible for them and owned them as an asset. This is in contrast to the present day, where consumers and governments are responsible for products and packaging upon possession, paying for their disposal through taxes.
In the service-based models of yore, producers offered not just delivery, but cleaning, storing and transporting their containers, which were durable and reusable. We already invite producers to our doorsteps through e-commerce delivery and subscription service models. What if consumables and durable goods came with the added value of cleaning and repair services?
Build a circular economy movement focused on abundance and prosperity
Replacing the single-use, one-way model requires a very clear demonstration of value that is comparable or exceeds that of disposable products and packaging, which are convenient, inexpensive and easy to use. Most of the innovation here lies in ensuring that reusable packaging concepts are easy to understand and accessible to those on average incomes.
Conservation and austerity are not concepts that businesses, NGOs, advocacy groups, academics and individuals take to with much effect. The movement away from disposability towards a circular economy needs to be irresistible, not just the ‘right thing to do’. Consumers and stakeholders will reward businesses that do this effectively.
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GPN Industry Insights: Waste management

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Government Product News (GPN): How has your industry’s involvement with the public sector evolved over the past few years?
Tom Szaky (TS): Regulated waste is tied at the hip of the public sector and has been since the formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  We’ve seen tremendous growth in recycling and the handling of difficult waste in recent years.  Consumers are more aware of the impact their waste has on the environment and they are demanding their leaders do something about it.  Ultimately, they want to know where their waste is going.  Communities are turning to companies like ours to answer that. GPN: What are some new innovations that have been integrated into your industry’s products recently? TS: The biggest innovation in hazardous waste has been the growth in community efforts to divert the waste.  The EPA does not require residential generators of hazardous waste to take any special steps to throw things out.  In fact, only about 2-3 percent of households properly dispose of bulbs.  A homeowner can just toss their burned-out bulbs in the general trash for pick-up, but cities and counties have begun to make an effort to divert these items from the landfill.  People are learning to take a moment and consider where their trash ends up.  When they find out that they can and should recycle, they do. Where we see the biggest innovation is in the creation of municipal drop-off locations for household hazardous waste.  Athens-Clarke County, Ga., for example, does a great job collecting these difficult to recycle products with a couple of locations.  They’re looking to divert 75 percent of all their waste from the landfill by 2020.  That is a big change that benefits their community environmentally. GPN: What is the biggest misunderstanding/myth that you think public sector professionals may believe about doing business with your industry or using your industry’s products? TS: I think that the biggest myth public officials have is that their constituents will not support expanded recycling programs.  People generally want to take care of their environment, but they don’t know how to do it.  They will make the effort to dispose of things properly if we educate them. It is becoming more important to recycle the items that are hard to recycle now, with China blocking our plastic, paper and glass.  People watch the news and hear that our trash has nowhere to go, but that isn’t necessarily true.  We just need to get the word out that there are other options available. GPN: What resources can elected officials use to educate themselves more on your industry and its importance to government operations? TS: Obviously, I would recommend elected officials contact reputable recycling firms for information on programs offered in regulated waste and recycling complex waste streams.  We understand that the problem with waste is that it is a cost that can often be irrecuperable.  To help keep cost down for groups like cities and counties, we have created business relationships that can make waste and recycling cost-effective, if not free.  They really need to research co-op programs that put the cost on someone else.  It becomes very difficult to deny a program when it doesn’t cost you very much. GPN: What should local government professionals consider most when buying and/or using products within your industry? TS: I think that government professionals should take a good look at the downstream service providers when making a decision.  All to often, decisions in the public sector are made solely on cost.  We pride ourselves on having a strong network of service providers that are ethical in their business and compliant in their service.  You see stories all the time of illegal dumping or recycling scams.  What good is saving money on one side of the operation, when you lose consumer confidence on the other?  There were just a couple of examples of this in the news.  The two big hardware chains were fined by the EPA for improperly disposing of fluorescent bulbs.  They had offered recycling programs for customers and were not actually recycling the bulbs, they were just tossing the bulbs in the trash compactor. GPN: What future developments can governments expect to see from this industry? TS: The future of hazardous waste is in the continuing tightening of the loop.  Bringing the circle in and getting industries on board with creating a waste solution, not just the waste.  In regulated waste, we’re going to see fluorescent lamp waste slowly decrease.  It will take time, as the LEDs become more popular and cheaper, the fluorescents will fade away.  But, at the same time, the next wave of regulated waste might be solar panels.  The technology there is just about 20 or 30 years old, and we’re going to start to see the early photovoltaic panels come in for disposal. Tom Szaky is the CEO of TerraCycle, which he founded in 2001 while a student at Princeton University. TerraCycle is a waste management company whose regulated waste division provides products and services to facilitate the effective and compliant management of regulated, universal and hazardous waste.
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Is This Chip Really Necessary?

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A New Year, a new resolution and probably, another futile attempt at personal development. This year, for sure, absolutely, I am determined to reduce my use of single-use plastic. Among other things, that means putting more leftovers in glass containers, swearing off plastic bottled water and—Lord knows I’ll try—trading in bags of Doritos for homemade popcorn. Why the focus on packaging? The news is loaded with articles on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, unrecyclable recyclables and growing sentiment around the world that less is more when it comes to consumer packaging. The Happi staff spent much of December on the road, at conferences and press events throughout the US. At nearly every stop, we heard experts in all household and personal product categories demanding more action to eliminate unnecessary packaging materials. Someone is already taking action. Years ago, as a teenager, Tom Szaky was appalled at the amount of material that was discarded and sent to landfills. Today, the company he founded, TerraCycle, works with some of the leading household and personal products makers in the US and around the world to uncover new ways to reuse packaging waste. Want to learn more? Visit Happi.com where Szaky is a regular contributor to our Expert’s Opinion section. Szaky isn’t the only one thinking about packaging reduction. According to Mintel, sub-zero waste will impact the beauty industry in the future (see p. 12). Seventh Generation and Procter & Gamble are rolling out lighter detergent bottles that use less material than standard packs. Read about how they’re doing it on p. 52 in this issue. The demand for less packaging is even helping bar soaps make a comeback in Europe, according to our EuroTrends Columnist Imogen Matthews (p. 28). Also this month, we report on the skin care trends that will impact 2019 (p. 41) and the household cleaning scents that make the most sense (p. 47). Back to those Doritos. During my last business meeting of 2018, the lunch buffet included a bowl of single-serve packages of snacks. After mulling the situation, recalling those images of plastic waste floating both far out in the ocean and along the shoreline, and depressing photos of autopsied seabirds loaded with microplastics, I grabbed a bag and ate the damn chips. In 2019, I swear, things will be different!
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Innovator Spotlight

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Tom Szaky is leading a recycling revolution. In a world that favors disposables and throwing things away, Szaky is asking consumers to consider where “away” is (often in the ocean, based on the growing size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch). His company, TerraCycle, is working to eliminate waste through recycling the non-recyclables of the world like dirty diapers and empty toothpaste tubes.

Sparkfund: Describe TerraCycle’s business. Tom Szaky: TerraCycle’s mission is to eliminate the idea of waste. There are multiple ways to accomplish that, including recycling hard-to-recycle items and diagnostic waste (like dirty diapers) and moving away from disposables in favor of durable supply chains. What makes something non-recyclable is cost. It costs more to collect and process certain items than the results are worth. But recycling is profitable, so while there are technical issues to solve, the main innovation is solving the financial gap. TerraCycle finds stakeholders that care more about certain waste streams and works with them to finance recycling. For example, Colgate might care more about recycling toothpaste tubes than the average company. Why is recycling important? We’re in a waste crisis: 25% of the world’s garbage ends up in the ocean and only 2% of waste is recycled. Recycling rates are decreasing, and meanwhile, everything is covered in disposable packaging. It’s a big issue, but there are not a lot of meaningful solutions. What's a best practice that a small organization could implement tomorrow? Buy products that do not become waste. You can make it easy for yourself by buying the right things, like mugs instead of disposable coffee cups. Then, for the waste you have left, support your local recycling efforts or think of working with a company like TerraCycle. What’s one accomplishment at your job you’re most proud of? A lot. It changes every day. Today, I’d say I’m most proud of our impact reducing ocean plastic. What’s one professional lesson you’ve learned the hard way? Early in our history, I was worried about what information we should tell employees. I didn’t want to burden them with the issues of the company. But that can make everything feel like a secret, which is a culture we don’t want at TerraCycle, so we went the other way and tried to be as transparent as possible. Now we have a hyper-transparent culture and there’s been a huge benefit. Every team member gets the same reports I do. I wish I would have learned that lesson sooner, but the best lessons are always learned the hard way. What’s your morning routine? I get to work at 5 or 6 a.m. and crank on my to-do list. I start very early so I can be done by 6 p.m. and head home to spend time with my two young kids. I try to avoid staying late and keep my computer off over the weekend. What helps you focus when you’re stuck? What gets me unstuck is taking a step back. I try to contemplate why the problem exists to begin with rather than accepting the problem as a fact. What’s one small thing you do every day to be sustainable? I wear the same pair of jeans for a whole year. You have to wear a pair of jeans every day for them to get a hole in the legs, so I do one pair a year. That doesn’t mean I only have one pair of jeans in my closet, because I have the other pairs with holes in them, but those are for the weekends.
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79) Tackling our waste crisis while accepting people are inherently selfish with TerraCycle's Tom Szaky

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Instead of getting people to go against their will and desires to sacrifice things for sustainability, what if we just acknowledge that most of us are selfish, and learn to play into that? How did we even get to our global waste crisis today, and what do we need to do to address this issue on a national and global level? Tom Szaky is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, an innovative company that’s becoming a global leader in recycling waste that’s traditionally difficult to recycle, shares his wisdom with us today. Let’s dive in.
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From 600 Young Global Leaders, 5 actions to create a sustainable future for all

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The World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders (YGLs) and its Alumni community committed to promising targets during their 15th Annual Summit held in San Francisco on 15-18 October 2018. The 616 YGLs from more than 85 countries around the world participated in wide-ranging discussions where ideas, innovations and trends to co-create a sustainable future for all were shared.
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