At a time when education funding is drying up, some schools are finding cash in their trash.
For several years now, school districts around Michigan and around the nation have been turning their waste streams into a revenue stream through cooperative program with TerraCycle, a Trenton, N.J. firm that buys discarded juice pouches, potato chip bags, plastic cups and other typical lunchroom debris.
TerraCycle, another green innovator, is on pace to redefine much of America’s relationship with trash. The company that began with its signature Plant Food-made from worm poop, packaged in empty Pepsi bottles and sold at the likes of Home Depot and Wal-Mart-has evolved into an innovation powerhouse that continually introduces new products made entirely from waste. Take the E-Water Trash Cans and Recycling Bins available at OfficeMax for $10.99 each and made from crushed computers and fax machines (that would otherwise end up in a landfill). Or the rain barrels and composters made from Kendall-Jackson oak wine barrels that sell for $99 each at Sam’s Club. They’re both prime examples of a company that sees opportunity where others see garbage. In so doing, TerraCycle helps us make attractive choices that are mindful of the planet and our wallets.
TerraCycle, Inc. is an international upcycling and recycling company that takes difficult to recycle packaging and turns it into affordable, eco-friendly products. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable post-consumer waste.
TerraCycle works with over 30 major brands in the U.S. (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.
Photo Credit: Austin Loukas
Terracycle recycling boxes, like the ones above, are found in Evans Hall, University Towers, Stark Learning Center, the Student Union Building, and Breiseth Hall
You’ve heard of recycled, but how about upcycled? In another effort to “go green” at Wilkes, the Students for Environmental Sustainability club has recently initiated a sustainability collection project called TerraCycle using this process of “upcycling.”
Junior Environmental Engineering majors and SES club presidents Katie Cirone and Lizzie Helsel say that TerraCycle is a company that creates and manages collection systems for a variety of hard-to-recycle waste products, such as chip bags, gum wrappers, drink pouches, writing utensils, Ziploc baggies and other items.
Tom Szaky, creator and CEO of TerraCycle, had the idea that instead of recycling waste, it could be upcycled and used for another purpose. Cirone explained how upcycling is different than recycling.
Meet-up #3 with Tom Szaky, the founder of TerraCycle
This meet-up was organized by the U.S. Embassy for its Alumni and for some reason I managed to make it this time. There are always a lot of interesting people there and since everyone is rowing in the same boat having returned from the States after working or studying there it is nice to see them from time to time. Just like the previous night’s protagonist, little did I know about the guy. I knew he was Hungarian, he was young and a CEO. I thought he must know something and therefore the meeting was promisingly interesting. I googled again. I wanted to know who he was and what his business was and how did he become so important to have a meeting organized for him.
Well, he is all over Google! He is 29, blogs for New York Times and he runs a company now present in 18 countries, he makes money out of trash and he is kind of good-looking. And a genius! Of course I was late from the meeting – as usual (I should stop being late!). I got lucky and they only started after I got there.
Tom founded TerraCycle as a freshman in uni where he made fertilizer out of wormpoop…and wrapped it in used sodabottles…and sold 100,000 of it to Wal-Mart. He realized trash was not entirely waste and it can be reused, recycled or upcycled meaning that with different technology new products can be made out of it so the level of the ever-growing trash can be reduced or even eliminated. His business is about collecting big corporates’ trash (for which he gets paid by the corporate) and then resells it to another company as raw material for which TerraCycle also gets paid. Smart! They collect pens, candy wrappers, juice pouches, bottles and – here comes the mind blower – used chewing gum and used diapers.
He says he started this because he saw a large gap in the market and now he is so successful cause he doesn’t have an adequate competitor. He thinks it is because people don’t find trash “sexy”. I think environmental consciousness IS sexy! He also adds that mostly women and children are open to such ideas, men only buy hybrid cars because of the cool factor. Is it true?
I was curious if he was collecting waste selectively at home as well but he said the company is not yet set up for private trash. Would be nice though! Tom said that TerraCycle’s mission is to eliminate trash for once and for all. Daring goal and a very respectable one. On the other hand I have one concern because in some respect I feel like that this activity legitimates the current production of stuff and wrappers instead of eliminating them. I still appreciate what TerraCycle is doing and at least they are doing something, looking for solutions is far more than most other companies are doing and I dig that.
Terracycle has both a great story and a social movement at its core, founded as it was by a Princeton University dropout who launched a business selling worm-poop compost in refurbished Coke bottles. It has built an eight-figure brand largely by leveraging the marketing power of far bigger brands, either through a bit of PR jujitsu or marketing partnerships with such big marketers as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Walmart and Target, VP Global Media Albe Zakes told the ANA in October.
The jujitsu part came when Terracycle used a trademark-infringement suit by Scotts Miracle-Gro to unleash a wave of publicity. The partnership element involved enlisting major brands in its school-based recycle and reuse programs where the brand turns such things as old CapriSun pouches into new products. Terracycle also has gotten top retailers such as Walmart and Target involved in merchandising and advertising events around its compost products in recycled containers around Earth Month in April.
Otsego Baptist Academy is one of nine area elementary schools bringing green into the fall and winter by participating in programs from TerraCycle, a recycling and upcycling company.
TerraCycle offers eco-friendly, upcycled and recycled lunchboxes as well as a way to earn money by collecting nonrecyclable food packaging for cookies, chips and juice pouches.
In addition, TerraCycle offers lunchboxes made from the wrappers that students have collected, showing students the recycling and upcycling processes in action. Olivet’s expandable cooler, sold at Walmart, has a removable hardliner made from recycled chip bags, while the Capri Sun lunchboxes are crafted from the juice pouches.
