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Rotary Composter Media Coverage

Chicago Tribune

Recycled oak barrels (September 5, 2008)

This is sustainable gardening with class.

TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The oak barrels are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the winemaker says.

The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the composting process.

The TerraCycle rain barrel captures roof runoff from a downspout for use in the garden.

Cost: $99.

Details: Sold at some Sam's Clubs and garden centers....

Garden Ideas And Outdoor Living

TerraCycle Rotary Composter (September 4, 2008)

Made from a repurposed oak wine barrel, this tumbler produces a fine vintage of organic material. Built in thermometer helps optimize the process. $99, TerraCycle. ...

E! Magazine

OF WINE AND SOIL (September 3, 2008)

Without grapes, there’d be no wine, but without good soil, there’d be no grapes. Wine-maker Kendall-Jackson has teamed with TerraCycle, Inc. to promote healthy soil by “upcycling” its old wine barrels into rainwater and compost bins. The Rotary Composter and the Rain Barrel are made of American or French oak and bring a rustic décor to any backyard. The Rain Barrel holds 55 gallons of rainwater to use for garden and lawn watering. The Rotary Composter produces natural, mineral-rich fertilizer when filled with yard and kitchen waste. Sam’s Club and Home Depot sell both items for $99 each. —Kimberly Telker...

Sommelier Journal

Second Lives for Barrels (August 15, 2008)

TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company that manufactures eco-friendly home products entirely from waste has partnered with Kendall-Jackson winery to transform the winery;s used 55 gallon oak barrels into its two latest products: the Rain Barrel and the Rotary Composter. "We identified the unsightly look of most plastic rain barrels and composters as a major issue for homeowners who are design-savvy."...

Hugg

Interview with Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle (August 14, 2008)

You asked Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, all your trashy questions (ha ha ha, I'm so funny). And he answered them!

In a nutshell, TerraCycle takes what others call trash, upcycles those materials, and turn them into brand-spanking new products. Who thought you could make a hot little tote bag from KoolAid containers or a sweet homework folder from Capri Sun juice packs?...

Wine & Dine Radio from winefairy.com

03 Albe Zakes, Director of Public Relations, TerraCycle specializing in unique eco-friendly home products. (August 14, 2008)

Host Lynn Chamberlain interviews Albe Zakes, Director of Public Relations, TerraCycle specializing in unique eco-friendly home products, Trenton, New Jersey, partnering with Kendall-Jackson, offering refurbished KJ wine oak barrels transformed into The Rotary Composter and Rain Barrel water storage containers available at Sam's Club and Home Depot nationwide, and the just launched Free Cork Collection Program saving corks from landfills, available to interested bars, restaurants, tasting rooms, wineries and wine events. Show 728b ...

Current

Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, lets you in on the secret of eco-capitalism (August 13, 2008)

TerraCycle is a brilliant little company (although they're not so little anymore). They started out by selling "plant food" made from waste products -- worm poop bottled in old soda bottles. Today, they make everything from tote bags made from Capri Sun packages to rain barrels made from old wine barrels.

In this interview, the founder and CEO Tom Szaky talks about how they got where they are, how they come up with product design, how they make money, and how they started working with big players like Kraft and Wal-Mart....

Green Home Huddler

TerraCycle Rotary Composter (August 8, 2008)

A company in Trenton, N.J., called TerraCycle has started recyling beautiful, hand-crafted wine barrels into composters and rain barrels....

Home Notes

Finding new uses for wine barrels (July 26, 2008)

TerraCycle Inc. is recycling wine barrels from Kendall-Jackson into composters and rain barrels. The oak barrels are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the winemaker says.

The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, also speeding up the composting process....

St. Petersburg Times

From Wine To Water (July 24, 2008)

Where do old wine barrels go when they die? If you're lucky, they'll become rain barrels in your yard. TerraCycle, a New Jersey manufacturer of eco friendly home and garden products, is offering refurbished 55gallon oak barrels from Kendall- Jackson, the California winemaker, transformed into rain barrels and rotary composters. ...

Freep.com

Green garden products (July 14, 2008)

TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The oak barrels are clean and safe for outdoor use, the winemaker says.

The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the process....

LA Daily News

A way to recycle corks (July 13, 2008)

I admit, I'm not a wine drinker. But I do have a few friends who are definitely winos. You know who you are.

If you like a nice bottle of wine or two, I pose this question to you. What do you do with the corks? I'm going to assume you recycle the bottles, but what about those corks? How about joining a cork brigade? ...

The San Diego Union Tribune

OAK BARRELS RECYCLED FOR HOME (July 13, 2008)

This is sustainable gardening with class.

TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The 55-gallon oak barrels were used to make chardonnay and are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the California winemaker says.

The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the composting process. ...

PostBulletin.com

Trim work (July 12, 2008)

This is sustainable gardening with class.

TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The oak barrels are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the winemaker says.

The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the composting process...

South Bend Tribune

Oak barrels recycled for home (July 11, 2008)

This is sustainable gardening with class.

TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The oak barrels are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the winemaker says.

The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the composting process. ...

Bergan County Record

Wine barrels recycled into composters, rain barrels (July 9, 2008)

This is sustainable gardening with class.

TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The oak barrels are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the winemaker says.

The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the composting process. The TerraCycle rain barrel captures roof runoff from a downspout for use in the garden.

Each product has a suggested retail price of $99 and is sold at Sam's Clubs and some garden centers....

The Modesto Bee

Roll out the barrels (July 4, 2008)

This is sustainable gardening with class. TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The oak barrels are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the winemaker says.
The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the composting process. ...

Press Connects

Aiming for zero waste (June 29, 2008)

Imagine if you can, a world without that stinky can in the corner of the kitchen. No heaps of refuse at the curb once a week. No bill every month to haul it away. Imagine: No dumps. No landfills. No garbage trucks. No garbage. Period. Chris Burger can imagine it. In fact, the Whitney Point computer software engineer and his wife, Cindy, have made a life practice of imagining it. "Basically, we don't buy things that cannot be recycled or composted," he says. "We bring our own cloth bags and fill up at supermarkets, and also always keep one or two folded up plastic bags in a hip pocket," Burger says. "We reuse them again and again and never need new ones. They fold up very neatly." The couple always buys in bulk, and while some pharmaceuticals are "a problem," any plastic bottles...

St. Petersburg Times

Wine barrels transformed into rain barrels (June 28, 2008)

Where do old wine barrels go when they die? If you're lucky, they'll become rain barrels in your yard. TerraCycle, a New Jersey manufacturer of eco-friendly home and garden products, is offering refurbished 55-gallon oak barrels from Kendall-Jackson, the California winemaker, transformed into rain barrels and rotary composters. The rain barrels are hooked up to a downspout to store rainwater, which homeowners tap with a hose to water lawns, gardens or houseplants....

Akron Beacon Journal

Oak barrels recycled for home (June 28, 2008)

This is sustainable gardening with class. TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The oak barrels are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the winemaker says. The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the composting process. The TerraCycle rain barrel captures roof runoff from a downspout for use in the garden. Each product has a suggested retail price of $99. They're sold at the Sam's Club in Fairlawn and some garden centers....

Inform Inc.

TerraCycle™ Inc. - Raising the Bar for Eco-friendly Businesses (June 25, 2008)

In 2006 Americans generated 251 million tons of waste and recycled only 35.2% of those materials (82 million tons), according to the EPA. As landfills fill up and become scarce, efforts to implement effective recycling programs have intensified. TerraCycle™ Inc. has responded to this calling and has become the world's first company to mass produce a product that has a negative ecological footprint. ...

Plenty Magazine

From cask to composter (June 11, 2008)

Wine barrels aren't cheap. Brand new, they can cost anywhere from $300 to $800 and up, so it seems a shame not to use them after they've finished holding all that wine.

Although they've been reused in furniture making and as garden planters, I've never been impressed with the results. But there are a couple of novel ways they're being reused that I can get behind....

Rethink and Reuse

From TerraCycle: Reincarnating Wine Barrels (June 6, 2008)

My uncle sent me something interesting not too long ago: an article about reincarnating wine barrels.

A company in Trenton, N.J., called TerraCycle has started recyling beautiful, hand-crafted wine barrels into composters and rain barrels....

Life Made Easier

TerraCycle Expands.... (June 4, 2008)

Last year, I purchased a bottle of TerraCycle All Natural Liquid Fertilizer made from worm poop for the summer garden. Created from recycled material, Terracycle's products are beyond eco-friendly. They are down right genius in my opinion. Warning: I also think silly putty and the Magic Eight Ball are genius so you might not want to put too much stock in the next few lines.

Seriously though, as an individual I have made a personal commitment in recent years to reduce the amount of waste I produce. I heart nature: hiking, gardening, picnicking, swimming, fishing etc. I have never been one to take such things for granted and have no plans to start doing so anytime soon which is why I love companies like TerraCycle....

Wine Spectator

Unfiltered: Sex and the City Characters Drink Wine From the Country (June 4, 2008)

Speaking of environmental initiatives … California wine giant Kendall-Jackson goes through more than its share of oak barrels to produce their signature Chardonnays. In an attempt to dispose of retired barrels in an eco-friendly manner, they've teamed up with TerraCycle, a company that turns trash into treasure.

The company is now repurposing the barrels into spinning compost barrels and rain collection drums, available in a handful of houseware retail chains for around $100 apiece. In addition, TerraCycle recently launched a wine cork program, in which bars' and restaurants' expelled wine corks are collected, sanitized and used to make cork boards for use in schools, homes and offices....

Brand Packaging

Spinning Garbage into Gold (June 1, 2008)

Green companies think they can charge premium prices,” says TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky. And though he could probably have an easier time of it if his own eco-conscious company followed suit, Szaky says the tendency for competitors to keep green products at the high end of the price range is, in fact, helping him. “Since we’re not doing it,” he says, “we’re gaining a lot.”

Szaky launched TerraCycle as a college student in 2002, when he came up with the idea of commercializing liquid plant food made from biological waste—what he described as “worm poop”—and then poured in used soda bottles because he couldn’t afford conventional packaging. ...

San Francisco Chronicle

Kendall-Jackson barrels get new, green identity (May 27, 2008)

Old wine barrels from the Kendall-Jackson winery in Sonoma County will be taking on an environmentally friendly second life - as rainwater containers and backyard composters. ...

California Farmer

KJ Wine Barrels Find New Life (May 23, 2008)

Water conservation is a major concern across the country, and now homeowners can capture roof runoff by redirecting rainwater from any downspout into a clean used wine barrel, ready for garden use at a later time. The oak Rain Barrel is a more natural alternative to the typical plastic rainwater storage systems currently on the market. The Rotary Composter is a simple method of turning grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste into garden fertilizer. The Rotary Composter is situated on a roller system, making it easy to load and rotate, thereby speeding up the natural process. ...

The New York Times

The Goal Is to Do the Right Thing (May 21, 2008)

TERRACYCLE’S fertilizer is priced the same as its competitors’. It is on the same store shelves, from Home Depot to Wal-Mart. But comparisons stop there. The company prides itself on making a product that its co-founder, Tom Szaky, calls “green to the extreme”: its base ingredient is made by feeding trash to worms and collecting their nutrient-rich wastes, a process that he perfected using dining-hall refuse as a student at Princeton University. The product is packaged in used soda bottles, which instead of being recycled — requiring melting the plastic — are cleaned and relabeled. TerraCycle’s other products are likewise “upcycled” — a compost from an old wine barrel, a handbag from drink pouches and a bird feeder that is an upside-down two-liter soda bottle. This month,...

PR NEWSWIRE

Kendall-Jackson Wine Barrels Find New Life as Rotary Composters and Rainwater Storage (May 19, 2008)

TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company known for its unique eco-friendly home products, is now offering refurbished Kendall-Jackson wine oak barrels, transforming them into The Rotary Composter(TM) and Rain Barrel(TM) water storage containers. The wine barrels turned garden tools are made from French or American oak and are completely clean, safe and perfect for outdoor household use....

Wine & Vines

Wine Barrels Reincarnated at New Jersey Firm (May 19, 2008)

As an investor in a French stave mill, Sonoma County-based winemaker Kendall-Jackson is dedicated to selecting high-quality white oak, seasoning the staves and toasting the barrels to create high-quality vehicles for aging its popular wines. At many wineries, once these meticulously crafted casks serve their purpose, the barrels are ripped apart, sold as planters or sometimes even ground into sawdust....

Yahoo Finance

Digital 50

Low Impact Living

The Straight Poop: TerraCycle Plant Foods (April 23, 2008)

I love to tinker in my garden, and I’m an especially big fan of this company TerraCycle and their gardening products. The reason for the title of this blog is that TerraCycle fertilizers are made from worm poop! The company also has some very interesting recycled packaging. I had the good fortune to interview TerraCycle’s CEO, Tom Szaky, about chemical-free gardening and the TerraCycle story....

Rutland Herald

TerraCycle's recycling brigades raise money and eco awareness (April 13, 2008)

Reduce, reuse, recycle. It's a mantra of the 21st century. Separating our newspapers and cardboard, junk mail and office paper, magazines and catalogs, bottles and cans, and plastic bottles from the rest of our garbage has become part of our daily routines....

Fox Business

Young Guns: Go Behind the Scenes With America's Young Entrepreneurs (April 9, 2008)

Meet Tom Szaky, the 26-year-old founder of Terracycle, whose company's products and packaging are made entirely from waste. From turning down $1 million in seed capital to getting sued by MiracleGro, this fledgling fertilizer firm, which started in 2001, is already making its mark in the business world....

Homemakers Journal

TerraCycle's Rotary Composter + Solid Fertilizer (April 1, 2008)

is not only handsome. It's a great reuse for used oak wine barrels from California. And Organic Fertilizer packaged in reused milk jugs....

Homemakers Magazine

The Best for last (April 1, 2008)

Your garden will be good to grow with our roundup of great gear that goes easy on the environment...

NJ Monthly

Here's the Poop (March 25, 2008)

We predict in a few months you or your kids will want a handbag made out of Capri Sun juice bags. How do we know this? Because we saw hundreds of them being assembled at TerraCycle, the upstart Trenton company that finds creative uses for the things we know as garbage. TerraCyle is already known for its Worm Poop. The ultra rich natural fertilizer packaged in old soda bottles (not recycled, re-used bottles has been hailed as the earthy elixir for your garden. Click here for a video tour of the plant on NJ My Way and watch how the by-product of worms is processed — not as yucky as it sounds....

Nest in Style

Wine Barrel Composter (March 20, 2008)

The guys at TerraCycle were ingenious enough to construct a Rotary Composter from wine barrels on their way to the landfills. Oak wine barrels are used to age wine then thrown away after one use. Why compost you say? Making you own compost is the best way to improve your soil and rid your garden of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers forever. Read More…...

Stanford Social Innovation Review

Garden-Variety Revolution: TerraCycle turns what others leave behind into fertilizers and fashion. (March 15, 2008)

Of earthworms Charles Darwin wrote, “It may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized creatures.” With the help of a talented social entrepreneur, hard work, and good luck, earth-worms are making history again at TerraCycle Inc. in Trenton, N.J. The eco-friendly gardening supply com- pany, which turns worm castings into organic liquid plant fertilizer, is growing faster than a wonga wonga vine (Pandorea pandorana) in spring- time. It’s also affirming the green movement’s place in mainstream business. TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky runs a lean operation, using earthworms, recycled packaging, and low-rent facilities in Trenton, N.J., to make organic garden products. ...

City Line

TerraCycle Rain Barrel and Composter (February 10, 2008)

This is one of the most innovative new products we've seen at the show so far...

Green Man Radio

Tom Szaky on Greenman (January 27, 2008)

Things are pretty slow gardening wise this time of year. So I thought this would be the perfect time to let you share my latest interview with Tom Szaky. Tom, as you may remember, is the painfully young CEO of Terra Cycle. ...

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

TRYOUT: Company plants recycling seed. (January 26, 2008)

Tom Szaky had an idea five years ago to start a company that is different than most. "The fundamental basis is that we make products out of waste, and our products need to revolve around three very basic criteria: better, cheaper and greener," said Szaky, the CEO and founder of TerraCycle, a company on an environmental crusade that made its first sale in 2004. The philosophy and other strategies have paid off....

National Post

From worm poop to reused oak barrels, this company is the Earth's best buddy (January 19, 2008)

You may recall TerraCycle from its worm poop. Last year, it seemed every gardener -- every downtown gardener, at least -- was spritzing detritus from the creepy crawler on to shrubbery, hoping the organic plant food would encourage long life for the tomato bush or roses in question. Packaged in recycled soda bottles, the homespun product looked cool, too. Now the company is back with another eco-invention for the green gardener: a rain barrel and a rotary composter, pictured, made out of reused oak wine barrels. They're so much prettier and organic-looking than unsightly plastic composters. See the woodsy numbers -- and talk to the people behind the barrels and the poop (terracycle. net) -- at the Metro Home Show, on today and tomorrow at the Metro Convention Centre. Psst: They'll be in the...

Seattle Magazine

Pop Art (January 1, 2008)

With empty plastic bottles littering hte land and sea, one company has figured out how to keep them out of the landfill. Since 2001, NJ based TerraCycle has produced organic plant food from waste in waste. ...

The Monterey Herald

Entrepreneur uses compost-producing red wigglers to break down garbage — and his idea has caught fire (December 1, 2007)

Has a brilliant idea ever had such a birth? It was 2001. Tom Szaky took some freshman buddies from Princeton University to visit a friend in Montreal. While there, he discovered his pal's gonzo marijuana plants. How'd you do that? Szaky asked. Easy. Worms eating table scraps in a makeshift compost bin were producing mineral- and nutrient-rich feces, which in turn became cheap fertilizer for the pot plants. ...

The Phillidephia Inquirer

A business built on worm power (November 23, 2007)

Has a brilliant idea ever had such a birth? It was 2001. Tom Szaky took some freshman buddies from Princeton University to visit a friend in Montreal. While there, he discovered his pal's gonzo marijuana plants. How'd you do that? Szaky asked. Easy. Worms eating table scraps in a makeshift compost bin were producing mineral- and nutrient-rich feces, which in turn became cheap fertilizer for the pot plants. "I'd never thought of garbage before," says Szaky, who instantly saw dollar signs. In 2002, he dropped out of Princeton to turn liquefied "worm poop" into the centerpiece of a new organic-fertilizer business....

The Times Leader

Up and coming business starts with worms (November 18, 2007)

What started as a business plan contest at Princeton University for two students, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, has developed into a thriving business....

"After using TerraCycle on various vegetable plants for one week, the results are clearly visible. Those vegetables that had been sprayed were literally double the size of those that had not been sprayed. Also, we have been trying to grow eggplants for 4 years. For the first time, after using TerraCycle, we have eggplants that are producing fruit. I am very satisfied with this product and anticipate using it in the future."

- Tiffanie Lampasona

"I was given a basil plant, whose stem was broken, whose leaves had been served as caterpillar food. This plant, sweet smelling beauty though it was, shook in its own dust as I delicately misted its leaves, its broken stem, its bone-dry topsoil, with Terracycle plant food, gently adding water. . . And three days hence it could stand again, was my little 'greenie'. I rejoiced on a park bench with fresh pesto."

- Brandon Lafving