With Earth Day rapidly approaching, thoughts turn toward some of our country’s worst vices like our national obsession with the quick consumption of disposable stuff which needs a real reworking. Not only is it wasteful, but it’s completely unsustainable at our current rate.

We need forward-thinkers who can look outside of the box, creative entrepreneurs with foresight and the ability to see the big picture, companies that are daring enough to challenge the disposable mindset with product life cycles that eliminate waste . . .  a company like TerraCycle, for example, which recycles consumer waste and donates money to charities at the same time.

TerraCycle

For one ingenious start-up, all it took was a little creative thinking and some help from Mother Nature. The idea for TerraCycle was born in 2001 when Tom Szaky, a 20-year-old Princeton University freshman, observed near-miraculous results when he nourished some indoor plants with a fertilizer he had produced by feeding table scraps to some red wiggler worms.

This young fertilizer producer began with empty pockets and long hours spent shoveling rotting food behind Princeton cafeterias. But with the help of a little cash and media attention, TerraCycle began to distribute its plant food packaged in recycled soda bottles through major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot. 

With a new factory in Trenton, NJ, TerraCycle wasted no time in addressing the company’s social responsibilities and quickly became a second-chance employer for ex-convicts, veterans and parolees. The company also offered up the building to local artists as a blank canvas for urban expression.

After seeing the success of their Bottle and Can Brigade to collect used soda bottles for the fertilizer packaging, Szaky saw a real opportunity. TerraCycle soon launched the Drink Pouch Brigade, followed by the Yogurt Container Brigade, the Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade and many other product-specific “Brigades” to find new uses for specific types of waste.

How It Works

Today TerraCycle works to eliminate our idea of “waste” through 40 Brigades that facilitate collection programs for hard-to-recycle materials. Many of these Brigades offer free collection as TerraCycle pays for the shipping. The company turns the waste that it collects into affordable green products.

For most items, TerraCycle will donate $0.02 per unit collected to a charity or school of your choice. Some of the products that TerraCycle collects include energy bar wrappers, used flip-flops, yogurt containers, Ziplock bags, ink cartridges, cell phones and Huggies diaper package wrappers.

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