Fertilizer Media Coverage |
The New York Times
A Small Player Breaks Into Starbucks (July 1, 2009)
Daniel Lubetzky, a social entrepreneur who has started several food ventures, always hoped to sell his company’s KIND Fruit + Nut Bars in Starbucks Coffee stores — a chain whose values and consumers he felt meshed with his own. So in the five years since starting KIND, he took every opportunity to introduce himself to Starbucks executives, promoting his company’s success in e-mail messages to them and sending them samples of his bars.
The executives, he says, “were always very polite,” but they never bought the bars. Until now.
On Tuesday, Starbucks began selling three flavors of KIND bars at its registers as part of a campaign to revamp its menu with more healthful fare. The bars, with flavors like Mango Macadamia, are combinations of dried fruits and nuts bound...
Making Cents Out of Life
A New Way to Recycle (June 26, 2009)
See this bag? It's a crumpled up Target bag. Go here. See what that Target back turned into, thanks to TerraCycle.
I've heard about TerraCycle before; their flagship product is TerraCycle plant food. It's an organic, all natural plant food made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (reused soda bottles). Cool, right?
TerraCycle gets even cooler. They will donate money for each piece of garbage you send them, provided it's one of their specified products. Depending on the product, they donate $0.02 per candy wrapper, Kashi box, or energy bar wrapper. Details about the program here....
Hoosier Gardener
When plants get too much rain (June 25, 2009)
Glads are one of those old-fashioned plants that many modern gardeners shun, thinking the flowers worthy only of funeral arrangements.
However, these stalks of funnel-shaped flowers punctuate the summer garden with long-lasting vertical color, especially when planted in succession. ...
NJ BIZ
Tom Szaky (June 24, 2009)
Tom Szaky is building his tomorro wfrom yesterday's refuse. The chief executive of TerraCycle Inc., in Trenton, Szaky has gone from worm poop to primetime, with a television show, " Garbage Moguls," on the National Geographic Channel.
The reality show premiered in april, and followed the staff at TerraCycle as they turn trash into cash, producing new products from discarded materials.
Szaky, 27 who left Princeton University before graduating launched his company in 2001 and now has a staff of 50. His memoir, " Revolution in a Bottle," published in February, describes the company's formation from garbage cleaned from Princeton....
Justin Sachs
Interview with Tom Szaky (June 23, 2009)
I’d like to introduce Tom Szaky, author of Revolution in a Bottle and founder and CEO of TerraCycle, the company that’s working to eliminate the idea of waste. TerraCycle pays people to collect non-recyclable waste, which we then upcycle into some of the most environmentally responsible products available.
1.What do you do?
TerraCycle pays schools, churches, really any non-profit, to save non-recyclable materials from going to landfill. A great benefit is that these programs get people across the country, children and young adults in particular, to think about the small changes we can all make to live more sustainably.
2.Tell us about your new book.
Revolution in a Bottle tells TerraCycle’s story, from coming up with an original idea, through bottling worm poop...
WDBJ 7
Snack wrappers get upcycled (June 23, 2009)
Feeling guilty about that bag of potato chips or candy bar you just had for lunch? We're not talking about calories here, but the waste made by non-recyclable packaging regularly generated while snacking.
To start making a dent in this waste stream, Frito-Lay (think Lay's, Doritos, Tostitos and Cheetos) and Mars (Snickers, Winterfresh, Altoids and Pedigree) are teaming up with TerraCycle to create new, "upcycled" products from their wrappers.
Chips N' Dip
With Frito-Lay, TerraCycle will start a new recycling brigade set to collect used chip bags. These bags will become a host of products, from notebooks and folders to purses and backpacks. TerraCycle is also launching a new building product made from shredding the bags, which should launch in 2010...
Environmental Leader
Mars, TerraCycle Turn Office Coffee Waste Into New Products (June 19, 2009)
Millions of offices make coffee every day. Mars Drinks, which makes Flavia coffee, is partnering with TerraCycle to recycle all elements of the coffee-making process.
Through the partnership, Mars will encourage companies to establish “Flavia Fresh Pack Brigades” to collect spent coffee packs. After collection, the coffee grounds will be composted and sold, the pack’s plastic nozzle will be recycled and the film on the exterior of the pack will be turned into pencil cases or notebooks, according to a press release....
Philly Eco City
Terracycle or How to Turn your Trash into Gold (June 18, 2009)
The first thing that jumped at me when I arrived at Terracycle was the walls. Terracycle walls are covered with incredible murals and graffiti. Yes, why keep this typical post World War II set of warehouse buildings in West Trenton NJ in its standard industrial dread style?
I think that the daring beauty of the murals that transform Terracycle concrete walls into a kind of surrealist garden are a manifestation of the bubbling creativity and ingenuity that characterize Terracycle. Terracycle continuously finds new ways to repurpose and recycle materials that would otherwise be burnt or disposed off in garbage dumps....
Green Crier
TerraCycle (June 17, 2009)
Co-founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, TerraCycle is arguably the first-ever Eco-Capitalist corporation. Their flagship product, TerraCycle Plant Food is created by feeding organic waste to worms, liquefying their poop and packaging the liquid in reused soda bottles. As a result, TerraCycle Plant Food is the first mass-produced consumer product to have a negative environmental footprint.
"At TerraCycle, we not only limit our consumption of natural capital and minimize our waste, we actually reverse the entire process," Szaky told Green Crier. "TerraCycle consumes waste as a raw material in creating a finished product that renews natural capital. We not only limit our consumption of natural capital and minimize our waste; we actually reverse the entire process. TerraCycle...
Bressler Green
TerraCycle (June 16, 2009)
By now everyone has probably heard of TerraCycle, the NJ based company that was established in 2001 by two Princeton University Students who were inspired by a box of worms. They convert waste into home & garden products. Their goal was to be successful, ecologically & socially responsible. Their success story has been covered by every major news channel since last spring such as CNN and written up in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and a ton of other major sources. This news video tells the impressive story.
Revinabottle The latest news for Tom Szaky,CEO is the release of his book, Revolution in a Bottle (Amazon $10.20), a keynote at the Greener by Design conference in San Francisco May 09 as well as guest blogger on Treehugger. All of which are quite noteworthy accomplishments...
Packaging World
TerraCycle (June 16, 2009)
Packaging World: Did you have eco-revolutionary tendencies before you started working at TerraCycle?
Albe Zakes: I have always been aware of how my actions affect the environment and the world around me. I also love all things outdoors, from snowboarding to backpacking to rock climbing. I was involved with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPRIG) for three years in college. I started as a volunteer and eventually ran an on-campus awareness group called Environment Alert. Since working for TerraCycle in 2006, I have realized that I probably couldn't work for a company that was not environmentally responsible or striving to do so.
What are some things you've learned about packaging?
I never knew the variety of material types and design types there...
Fast Company
Terracycle's Global Expansion, First Stop Brazil (June 15, 2009)
Ultra-popular upcycling company TerraCycle is introducing its reclaimed products to the global market with a new program in Brazil. 59 Wal-Mart stores in São Paulo, Curitiba and Recife are putting up collection points for Frito-Lay chip bags, which will be shredded and turned into clipboards and bags.
In the U.S., consumers are paid by TerraCycle for their trash by the unit (2 cents per unit of waste plus shipping), but in the Brazil program, consumers will be paid by the ton. That's because there are over 500,000 people in the country who make a living by digging through landfills and sidewalk waste to find garbage to sell. ...
April Capil's Blog
Green@Google: Tom Szaky (June 15, 2009)
Tom Szaky visits Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book “Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business.” This event took place on May 21, 2009, as part of the Green@Google series.
Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton in 2002 to lead TerraCycle, a company he founded to make useful stuff out of garbage. TerraCycle is now at the forefront of the eco-capitalist movement, producing what are arguably the most environmentally friendly products in mass distribution. Through partnerships with major companies and retailers, they create products using materials that most people throw away, from worm poop fertilizer and gardening supplies to juice pouch tote bags and pencil cases. TerraCycles growth has been rapid but perilous, filled with seemingly...
Green and Gorgeous
Interview with George W. Chevalier of Terracycle (June 12, 2009)
We've talked before about Terracycle's innovative recycling programs
and their products made of recycled materials in their raw state. George Chevalier will join us to talk about the new partnerships Terracycle has made and what drove the founders to create a company built on trash -- literally....
The Vancouver Sun
Everything old is new again -- only it's better the second time (June 12, 2009)
We can all recite the three-Rs mantra in our sleep: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. But there's now a new movement in the eco-world aimed at curtailing the amount of trash we dump in the landfill.
The buzzword these days is upcycling, which means taking something old and giving it a new purpose.
Wikipedia defines it as "the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value."
A term coined by environmentalists William McDonough and Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, upcycling is "the conversion of items that have outlived their commercial usefulness into new things that are functional or beautiful or both," according to Up cycle Canada (upcycle.ca)....
Live 5 News
Snack wrappers get upcycled (June 12, 2009)
Feeling guilty about that bag of potato chips or candy bar you just had for lunch? We're not talking about calories here, but the waste made by non-recyclable packaging regularly generated while snacking.
To start making a dent in this waste stream, Frito-Lay (think Lay's, Doritos, Tostitos and Cheetos) and Mars (Snickers, Winterfresh, Altoids and Pedigree) are teaming up with TerraCycle to create new, "upcycled" products from their wrappers....
Duke's Ford Library
Book Review: Revolution in a bottle … (June 10, 2009)
Once I carried some bags of semi-composted leaf litter from our neighbor’s curb to mulch a new garden bed in front of our house. The neighbor was furious. “I paid good money for those bags,” he shouted.
So when I read in Tom Szaky’s Revolution in a Bottle, that his neighbors called the police because he took plastic bottles out of their recycling bins on the curb, I was totally sympathetic. But I was already hooked on this account of the first product in the world that was made entirely from and packaged entirely in waste.
Author Szaky dropped out of Princeton in 2002 and founded a company that makes products from waste. Szaky’s company TerraCycle uses worms to recycle garbage into fertilizer, which is bottled into used plastic liters found in the trash. This is the story...
Fresh Plaza
US: New recycling opportunities from potato chip packaging (June 10, 2009)
New versatile uses of packaging waste materials from potato chip packets may potentially help companies reduce their environmental impacts according to US-based recycling group Terracycle.
Terracycle, recycler and supplier of food and beverage packaging since 2003, claims a new partnership with Frito Lay highlights ongoing projects with some of most prominent global consumer goods groups to more provide mutually beneficial sustainability drives. Terracycle's Albe Zakes says chip packet waste materials have the potential to be used for various end-of-life applications like bags, pencil cases and even building products.
The new partnership comes at a time when snack groups are under growing pressure to reduce the environmental impacts of their operations in areas like landfill...
Mommy has to Work
TerraCycle (June 10, 2009)
Another thing I'm doing to help the environment is collecting these items for Terracycle. Terracycle is a company that makes totes, lunch boxes, purse and more, from recycled materials. I saw them on Planet Green ( a new channel on Directv) and went to their website to see what it was about. I signed up to be a collector. In return for the wrappers and juice pouches Terracycle will donate $.02 per wrapper/pouch to my son's school. They want me to send in 50-100 at a time, so I've been asking friends and family to help collect. I want to buy one their products- maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas. :)
Any way, check it out, maybe you can sign up too. They limit their collectors so act fast!!...
Squidoo
TerraCycle Products (June 10, 2009)
You should have heard the name already. TerraCycle Products is becoming known for leading the way in making useful things from trash and packing it in trash. Tom Szaky, Princeton College drop out took a vision and turned it into a reality when he got the idea to make worm poop, liquified it, pack it in used soda bottles and calling it plant food. And you know what? It worked! TerraCycle did not stop there......
Fredrick News Post
Composting becomes a way of life (June 8, 2009)
There's another box in the cafeteria to collect foil juice boxes. They're worth 2 cents apiece through the TerraCycle program, and the Green Team is collecting these to raise money for supplies.
"We're trying to put back into the Earth what we take out of it," said custodian Larry Johnson.
"You can see it's working pretty good," he said, as he opened the composter, which sits outside the cafeteria....
WTop
Composting becomes a way of life (June 8, 2009)
New Market -- New Market Elementary School has found a way to turn some garbage into gold -- black gold, that is.
The school has its own food composting tumbler. It's the only school in Frederick County so far to undertake composting.
Since January, all cooked and uncooked vegetable scraps from lunches have been loaded into the composter, mixed with some grass clippings and mineral supplement, and turned into dark, crumbly compost.
The school's Green Team, which includes fourth- and fifth-graders, teachers and custodians, spreads that compost on its newly dug gardens. Leftover compost will be bagged up and sold to people in the community as a fundraiser....
Europe Press Social
La compañía Mars producirá nuevos productos a partir de artículos reciclados con la ayuda de TerraCycle (June 8, 2009)
La compañía Mars y la empresa de reciclado TerraCycle han llegado a un acuerdo de colaboración para producir productos de consumo de alta calidad mediante la reutilización de los envases y excedentes utilizados por más de una veintena de marcas de la empresa de alimentación.
Por ello, TerraCycle reutilizará los envases empleados en las operaciones de producción de Mars, Incorporated de Estados Unidos, con los que fabricará diversos productos como soportes de teléfonos móviles, piezas para portátiles o bolsas de mensajería, lo que contribuirá a reducir la cantidad de residuos.
Por su parte, la compañía patrocinará los 'Programas de Brigadas' de TerraCycle, una serie de jornadas donde las empresas reciclan sus envases usados y los hacen llegar a TerraCycle....
Raise a Green Dog
A b-e-a-u-tiful and safe lawn for you and your green dog! (June 4, 2009)
Then just last week, the great folks at Terracycle sent us some of their amazing concentrated, liquefied worm poop — nature's premier fertilizer — packaged in a used 1-liter recycled soda bottle. So we couldn't wait to try it out. That's me with the Worm Poo in the pic!
The other day Mum got busy spraying. I have to say that in just a few days we've seen a difference. An area of the lawn that is filled with rock and clay, and suffered a lot last year, is looking oh so much better. We can't wait to see what the next week brings. And we have a little left over that we'll be spraying again in a couple of weeks....
Now Toronto Magazine
Dangerous downspout? (June 4, 2009)
If you’re feeling cautious but willing, you could just water your fruit-?bearing veggies like tomatoes/cukes/peppers with the stuff (instead of your root or leafy veggies), since they absorb fewer contaminants like lead.
By the way, you can get yourself a rain barrel from any hardware store these days. (President’s Choice even makes one.) Some are designed to look like planters, others are collapsible, and most are just plastic vessels made in the pattern of old-?fashioned wooden barrels. The city will sell you one for $85. TerraCycle even makes some out of old wine barrels. Look for them soon in select Home Depots....
Today's Facility Manager
Pushback On Packaging (June 3, 2009)
In 2001, Tom Szaky, then a freshman at Princeton University, founded TerraCycle in hopes of building an eco-capitalist company built on waste. The company’s first product was an organic fertilizer (Worm Poop), made from composted ingredients and packaged in a reused one-gallon milk jug. The lawn and garden care line has expanded, and, several years ago, Szaky set his sights on expanding the reuse concept to grow his business.
Today, the company is working with an increasing number of manufacturers (a majority food companies) to collect defective or surplus product packaging from their plants; these are then transformed into items such tote bags and pencil cases. Retailers such as Home Depot, Office Max, and Walgreens are selling the products in their stores. Companies that TerraCycle...
Barkzilla
Eco-Capitalism Goes Pet Friendly! (June 2, 2009)
Princeton University students Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer drew inspiration for their company from a box of worms. They started small -- first demonstrating the feasibility of their idea by reprocessing solid waste from dining halls at Princeton University -- before tackling bigger challenges. Today, TerraCycle is a case study of eco-capitalism success and demonstrates that "a company [can] be financially successful while being ecologically and socially responsible."
While their flagship product is TerraCycle Plant Food, they have recently expanded their line to include pet products which include: Yard Odor Remover, Stain & Odor Remover, Trash Can Protector Spray, Stool Destroyer, Hard Floor & Surface Cleaner, All-Natural Dig Stop & Bird Feeder. Natural and non-toxic (a big plus for...
Interior Design
Pratt and TerraCycle Team-Up For Green Design Competition (June 2, 2009)
Partnering with worm waste repurposer TerraCycle, famed New York design school Pratt Institute's Center for Sustainable Design recently launched Upcycle, a competition that challenged the school's industrial design students with creating consumer products from materials heading to the landfill.
The competition resulted in two grand-prize winners—including undergrad Morgan Street's plastic bag vases made from sandwich bags—and two runner-ups for designs in the categories of manufacturability and material transformation. Undergrad Naima Frankel took home the other top prize, for manufacturability, for her jewelry designs crafted from melted soda caps, vinyl records, toothbrushes, Target gift cards, wine corks, and more of those ubiquitous plastic sandwich bags.
The...
Ready Made
Garbage Mogul (June 2, 2009)
Garbage collection isn't the typical go to career for a young intellectual. Meet the exception: tom Szaky, 27, who dropped out of Princeton to turn mounds of trash into piles of cash. He is the cofounder of TerraCycle a company that turns waste into products for the home and garden.
While Szaky cares deeply about the environment , he happily admits that he also loves to make money. His company gives equal weight to saving the planet and making giant profits- a rare combination in the business world....
Birds and Blooms
JUNE (June 2, 2009)
50 people will win a bird feeder from TerraCycle (left). These bird feeders are made from recycled plastic bottles and filled with a wild bird mix. Hang it from a tree branch, hook or railing, wherever you want to watch birds!
Who is TerraCycle? TerraCycle is an eco-friendly company that sells items that are made of recycled materials. Their garden items include their trademarked worm poop as well as all-natural, all-organic fertilizers. To learn more about TerraCycle, visit their Web site. Check out their products at www.shopONLYgreen.com.
flexit planter
JULY
10 people will win a FLEXIT planter from Garden-Aire (right). These planters are a unique new concept that allows gardeners to put flowers just about anywhere. Simply attach the planter with SmartStrap, fill it...
Vegetarian Times
e-Waste, Deleted (June 2, 2009)
Crafted from 100 percent e-waste, TerraCycle Urban Art Pots give new life to old computers and fax machines. “E-waste is a huge issue with stuff becoming obsolete so quickly,” says TerraCycle spokesman George Chevalier.
“We address that problem with these pots, while giving local [graffiti] artists a legal place to do their art.” Each hand-painted 8-inch pot is unique. $10; terracycle.net. —GABRIELLE...
Green Muze
Interview With Tom Szaky (June 1, 2009)
Tom Szaky is rapidly turning into the eco-rock star of the sustainable business movement and it all started with compost. This 27 year old Hungarian native was attending Princeton University when he started rethinking the waste paradigm.
He started by selling compost (Worm Gin) as a high-grade plant fertilizer (rumor has it the compost epiphany came after trying to find a better way to grow pot) and after compost sales took off, he quit school, invested his savings in TerraCycle and the rest is green history.
We caught up with Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle to ask him a few questions about his expanding sustainable empire....
Bakery & Snacks
Frito-Lay cooperation targets cost value from crisp packet waste (June 1, 2009)
Packaging waste derived from snack goods like potato chip packets may provide manufacturers with versatile new ways to cut their environmental impacts by using the materials in bags, pencil cases and even building products, says one US-based group.
TerraCycle, a US-based supplier of products derived from packaging waste, claims a new partnership with snack group Frito Lay reflects ongoing work with some of the world’s leading consumer goods groups to more provide mutually beneficial sustainability drives.
With snack groups coming under growing pressure to reduce the environmental impacts of their operations in areas like landfill waste, TerraCycle’s Albe Zakes suggests crisp packets have major potential for numerous end-of-life applications. ...
Social Venture Network
TerraCycle (June 1, 2009)
Tom Szaky, 27, is the Founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Inc., producer of the world's first product made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (used plastic bottles.) TerraCycle has twice won the Home Depot Environmental Stewardship Award for being the most eco-friendly product sold at Home Depot. In 2006, Inc. Magazine named TerraCycle, "The Coolest Little Start-Up in America!" That same year Tom was named the "#1 CEO in America Under 30", in 2007 Tom was named a Top Innovator by the Social Venture Network and in 2008 he was named top Brand Innovator by Brandpackaging Magazine.
Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1982, Tom emigrated with his family as political refugees from Hungary to Holland. In 1989 he and his family again emigrated from Holland to Canada. At age 14 he started...
Over Coffee
Our strawberries love TerraCycle's worm poop! (May 26, 2009)
Our strawberries love TerraCycle's worm poop!
Recently the kind folks at TerraCycle sent me a variety of their products to try including their infamous Worm Poop in a spray bottle. I immediately feed all my plants, inside and out, with Mother Nature's Purest Sustained-Release Plant Food and they loved it!
Worm castings (i.e. worm poop) are a potent, all-natural, eco-friendly plant food. Worms consume dead plant matter, and in doing so, they excrete a natural fertilizer known as castings which is rich in nitrate nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that is an ideal food for the plants....
Natural Health News
Something Exciting This Way Comes (May 22, 2009)
Over the past few years I've developed a great relationship with TerraCycle. The Garbage Moguls were so kind to donate some of their worm poop fertilizer for one of the prizes at my non-toxic home and garden talk at last Friday at GreenFair.
Now they've got something new going on and it's going to be big.
My friends at TerraCycle will be meeting with Pepsi next week about this exciting new project. This collaboration means a great expansion for their projects, room for more people to recycle the bags and earn some money for their favorite organization. (We'd be happy to receive donations for CHI.)...
Bracebridge Examiner
Bottle collecting by BMLSS team helps African children (May 22, 2009)
A local exercise in collecting discarded bottles has gone a long way toward helping some deserving children in Africa.
Much has been said about the environmental impact plastic bottles have on filling up landfill sites and littering area streets.
To help combat this, an eco-team from Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School (BMLSS) has been collecting bottles to help support a scout troop in Kenya.
The team is part of TerraCycle’s bottle brigade, which works to collect bottles that are put to new use as containers for TerraCycle’s Worm Poop Fertilizer, an eco-friendly natural product for plants....
Greener Package
Talking trash with an eco-revolutionary (May 21, 2009)
A Q&A with Albe Zakes, eco-revolutionary and vp media relations for TerraCycle, which turns old packaging into new products.
Packaging World: Did you have eco-revolutionary tendencies before you started working at TerraCycle?
Zakes: I have always been very aware of how my actions affect the environment and the world around me. I also love all things outdoors, from snowboarding to backpacking to rock climbing. I was involved with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) for three years in college. I started as a volunteer and eventually ran an on-campus awareness group called Environment Alert. Since working for TerraCycle in 2006, I have realized that I probably couldn’t work for a company that was not environmentally responsible or striving to do so....
Reuters
Greener by Design: Terracycle's Ultimate Solution (May 21, 2009)
No one could accuse Terracycle's Tom Szaky of thinking small.
"Our goal is to become the ultimate solution to all waste globally," he told attendees at Greener by Design 2009 this morning. "We want to become recycling 2.0."
Despite being possibly the most ambitious goal there is, Szaky has made a significant case for it also being practical.
In the last month, Terracycle has announced partnerships with Frito-Lay and Mars to take wrappers and make new products from them, but those are just the tip of the mountain of waste that Terracycle has tackled in the past six year...
Packaging Digest
FRITO-LAY NORTH AMERICA; It's In the Bag: Packaging From Major Snack Brands Gets a New Purpose (May 21, 2009)
Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo, announced a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upcycling company that will take used packaging from Frito-Lay snack products and turn them into affordable, quality goods. Through this joint program, consumers and local community groups can earn money by collecting the used packaging, and at the same time redirect packaging from landfills.
Over the past few years, the company's packaging initiatives have made some significant strides. This includes reducing the amount of plastic in packaging by 10% and over the last five years eliminating 12 million pounds of materials used to make the snack bags. This month, the company announced that in 2010 its SunChips brand will be introducing a fully compostable bag made from plant-based renewable...
Green Talk
TerraCycle turns your Frito-Lay Wrappers into Chic Tote Bags (May 20, 2009)
When I was a kid, I used to love putting Fritos in my peanut butter sandwich. I was so addicted to Fritos that I ate them through college. My usual college lunch was a tuna sandwich, Fritos, and a diet coke. Real healthy, right? Heck, I was young so who cared, right? I must have thrown away hundreds of Frito-Lay packages over my (um) years. Let’s just say lots of years.
Then as I finished college, my sister and I thought Doritos were amazing. Fritos took a backseat to the new cool kid on the block. After law school, I cleaned up my act and stopped eating chips. It was either that or I might as well as stapled them to my hips because that is where they were going to land anyways. You can’t just eat one…...
Green Biz
Greener by Design: Terracycle's Ultimate Solution (May 20, 2009)
No one could accuse Terracycle's Tom Szaky of thinking small.
"Our goal is to become the ultimate solution to all waste globally," he told attendees at Greener by Design 2009 this morning. "We want to become recycling 2.0."
Despite being possibly the most ambitious goal there is, Szaky has made a significant case for it also being practical.
...
Mixed Greens Village
Check out TerraCycle (May 19, 2009)
Everyday across the globe, we are creating waste...from the wrappers on the foods we eat...to the leftover scraps we do not eat...our garbage piles up! This waste then needs to be taken away at a cost to our wallets and our environment. The common argument is, "We have to live somehow."
A company by the name of TerraCycle is in business to change this. What started out as a "worm poop" (vermicomposting) company has grown to a re-creation company--they make bags out of juice pouches, eco-friendly cleaning products sold in recycled bottles, and so much more. Visit their website and read their story...you will not only be amazed by what they have discovered, but you will be inspired to become part of the effort to create zero waste on our planet. Look for their products and join the...
Goal For The Green
A “Garbage Mogul” Turns Trash Into Gold! (May 19, 2009)
Well, here it is Saturday again. I don’t know if you agree but, most Saturday evenings, there is just nothing on TV. At least, that is what I thought last weekend, when I convinced my husband to watch “The Garbage Moguls,” on the science channel. So, here I was watching this program, mouth hanging open in utter amazement, thinking UNBELIEVABLE!
If you didn’t know, this week has been National Compost week. Most people that are into gardening, know that worm castings (vermicompost) is like black gold for your garden. I know this to be true, by working at a local worm farm, where developmentally disabled adults maintain the worm bins. They chop after market fruits and vegetables, feed the worms, and then dry, sift and bag the castings. You then, can make your own worm...
The Good Human
TerraCycle To Recycle Chip Packaging Into Bags - And You Can Win One! (May 19, 2009)
I have written about TerraCycle a few times in the past because I truly believe in what these guys are doing - taking our trash and making them into usable products that are affordable for everyone. At the same time, consumers and local community groups can earn money by collecting the used packaging for TerraCycle, while keeping packaging from landfills. It’s truly a win-win for everyone involved, and their next project will just reinforce this fact.
TerraCycle and Frito-Lay have formed a partnership that will take used packaging and turn them into affordable goods. The company is asking buyers to form “Chip Bag Brigades”, and for every bag a brigade collects and sends to TerraCycle, Frito-Lay will donate two cents to their charity of choice. Initially, there will be 1,000...
Packaging World
Talking at length with an eco-revolutionary (May 19, 2009)
A Q&A with Albe Zakes, eco-revolutionary and vp media relations for TerraCycle, which turns old packaging into new products.
Packaging World: Did you have eco-revolutionary tendencies before you started working at TerraCycle?
Zakes: I have always been very aware of how my actions affect the environment and the world around me. I also love all things outdoors, from snowboarding to backpacking to rock climbing. I was involved with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) for three years in college. I started as a volunteer and eventually ran an on-campus awareness group called Environment Alert. Since working for TerraCycle in 2006, I have realized that I probably couldn’t work for a company that was not environmentally responsible or striving to do so....
Smart Family Tips
Featured Do-Gooder: TerraCycle Part 2 (May 15, 2009)
I’ve written about TerraCycle before, but there are some updates that I’d like to make you aware of. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of TerraCycle, and I’m excited about their growth. The company is changing the way we perceive waste and finding innovative uses for our “trash.”
The Book:
In Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business, Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, explains how he co-founded the company as a freshman at Princeton and tracks the amazing growth the company has seen over the last five years. I’ve just finished reading the book myself (I won it in a giveaway at The Good Human) and I found it fascinating. TerraCycle has become successful because Tom and the other members of the team have been able to re-envision what “waste”...
The Street Insider
It's In The Bag: Packaging From Major Snack Brands Gets A New Purpose (May 15, 2009)
PLANO, Texas, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo, today announced a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upcycling company that will take used packaging from Frito-Lay snack products and turn them into affordable, quality goods. Through this joint program, consumers and local community groups can earn money by collecting the used packaging, and at the same time redirect packaging from landfills.
Over the past few years, the company's packaging initiatives have made some significant strides. This includes reducing the amount of plastic in packaging by 10% and over the last five years eliminating 12 million pounds of materials used to make the snack bags. This month, the company announced that in 2010 its SunChips brand will be introducing a fully...
Trenton Times
Science nonfiction (May 14, 2009)
Tapping into American ingenuity, through concentrated and coordinated scientific research or the aha! moment of a latter-day Edison, is the key in the quest for innovation.
And don't think it can't happen. Consider the humble beginnings of TerraCycle Inc. The company began in Trenton with worm droppings and a dream and has evolved in less than a decade to become perhaps the quintessential model of eco-capitalism. From selling garden fertilizer (courtesy of the worms) in used plastic bottles, the little company that could has partnered with some of the country's largest manufacturers to "upcycle" wrappers, boxes and containers into everything from cell phone holders to backpacks to eco-friendly fire starters. ...
One Green Mommy
Terracycle Update (May 14, 2009)
I went to a local home and garden store today to get the final plants for our newly-planted garden. I was hoping that they would carry Terracycle's natural worm poop fertilizer. That's right! I was actually looking for worm poop! Unfortunately, they didn't carry it, but I poked around the Terracycle site and found which other stores do carry it.
I had been getting a little itchy about Terracycle recently since I had left a few voicemails and e-mails about a recent batch of pouches we sent in, and received no feedback. However, I really do like the company and want to cut them some slack. (Could be the New Jersey connection, or the fact that I love how they started! Either way, it doesn't matter!)
...
About.com
TerraCycle Inc - My kind of company (May 14, 2009)
If there was ever a company to really respect and admire it would have to be TerraCycle Inc. I have been kind of passively on-the-lookout for their product after hearing about their legal battle with lawn care giant Scotts/Miracle-Gro a couple of years ago. I finally stumbled upon it hidden amongst the racks of big name lawn care brands at my local big box store. After seeing their signature recycled soda bottle containers and jumbo "worm poop" lettering, I couldn't resist trying their liquid lawn fertilizer.
TerraCycle seems to be nothing less than the purest, safest, most natural, organic fertilizer there is. Worm castings and organic matter are the very stuff that grows most of the plants on this planet. It's safe to handle and apply. It's safe for children and pets, and doesn't...
Women's Times
TerraCycle.Net (May 14, 2009)
Get money for every Frito bag you throw out! TerraCycle is two opportunities in one: the company accepts a wide variety of used packaging materials which can be mailed to the company for cash redemption- a gret way to turn trash into treasure for any charity, school, or organization. Some of these wrappers are transformed into chich recycled acessories the company sells on its site-pencil cases, clocks, bags and more. Other items are made of eco-friendly materials and packaged in recycled containers, like the compost-tea plant fertilizer packaged in soda bottles....
The Trentonian
Recycling kids in Hamilton partner with TerraCycle (May 14, 2009)
At Our Lady of Sarrows School in Hamilton, Students have formed a recycling club, and their partnership with Trenton-based TerraCycle is showing the kids that saving the planet can pay off in more ways than one.
Through the club, students in fifth through eighth grade have signed on to form one of TerraCycle's garbage " Brigades," in which their task is to collect used juice pouches and cookie and snack wrappers as raw materials for the company to transform or " upcycle", into new consumer goods. ...
Wingfoot
Join the Bear Naked Brigade (May 14, 2009)
Last March, we told you about the Wrapper Brigade, a joint venture of the TerraCycle company (makers of all-natural fertilizers, home case and office products) and Clif Bar that worked to upcycle used energy bar wrappers by turning them into useful accessories such as totes, office products and shower curtains. The program has proved to be a big success, and in January of this year, TerraCycle announced that the program kept over a half million wrappers out of landfills in 2008, while simultaneously helping to raise 11,000 for a number of non-profit organizations. the program gained further momentum with the addition of balance bar as a participating sponsor. ...
Rockford's News Leader
Snack wrappers get upcycled (May 13, 2009)
Feeling guilty about that bag of potato chips or candy bar you just had for lunch? We're not talking about calories here, but the waste made by non-recyclable packaging regularly generated while snacking.
To start making a dent in this waste stream, Frito-Lay (think Lay's, Doritos, Tostitos and Cheetos) and Mars (Snickers, Winterfresh, Altoids and Pedigree) are teaming up with TerraCycle to create new, "upcycled" products from their wrappers....
Park Howell
Eco-Capitalism: How to Build a Small Empire from Worm Droppings (May 13, 2009)
What better way to follow-up Earth Hour as we move towards Earth Day than with a spotlight on one the world’s leading eco-capitalists: TerraCycle.
Essentially, Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, upcycles trash and turns it into new products. We’re not talking just plastics, cans and glass. We’re talking just about everything.
They got their start by feeding organic waste to worms, liquefying their poop and packaging it in reused soda bottles....
Green Jersey
TerraCycle’s Tom Szaky in Princeton Thursday (May 12, 2009)
On Thursday, Princeton’s Labyrinth Books hosts Tom Szaky, the cool, young CEO whose business is garbage.
Szaky, CEO and co-founder of Trenton-based TerraCycle, is at the forefront of a new generation of eco-capitalists. His TerraCycle Plant Food, fertilizer made from worm waste and packaged in old soda bottles, is available at the country’s biggest chains; bottles are topped with companies’ unwanted spray-bottle triggers and packed in mislabeled cardboard boxes. TerraCycle, based in Trenton, now sells dozens of other products too and is turning a handsome profit — all from stuff people would have otherwise thrown away.
In his book “Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business,” Szaky tells the story of his business, which Inc. magazine...
Jackie's Crazy Ideas
Terracycle, Inc. uses creativity and trash (yes, I said trash) to make their products. (May 12, 2009)
Remember the old saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” ? Well, Terracycle Inc has taken that notion one step further. They take our trash and make usefull things out of it. But wait, it gets better. They than SELL IT BACK TO US! Genius! The Home Depot, Walmart and Target are a few of the big names that carry Terracycle Inc’s products. Some of products that you may have seen or heard of are:
Worm Poop Fertalizer- Liquefied worm poop bottled in used (but cleaned) soda bottles and re packaged w/ Terracycle’s Label.
Drink Pouch Backpack- A backpack made from empty drink pouches (think Capri Sun). Actually Terracycle makes a bunch of stuff from used/empty drink pouches....
Time Off
Cash From Trash (May 12, 2009)
On a hot Princeton night in June 2001, Tom Szaky imagined wearing a suit at an investment bank and equated it with a gulag.
That image, along with his fear of personally repaying a business loan, motivated him to complete the task at hand- the disgusting, repulsive, nauseating task at hand....
Progressive Democrats of America
Life Among the Eco-Capitalists: A Revolution Takes Hold in New Jersey (May 12, 2009)
Somewhere between California and Hawaii is a big plastic trash dump floating in the ocean. Twice the size of Texas, it's known as the "Pacific Trash Vortex."
Spiral-shaped currents concentrate thousands of acres of non-biodegradable plastic waste. Birds and fish that get tangled up in the mass die with stomachs full of plastic. High-speed, high-tech modern life is not exactly working in sync with Mother Earth here. Maybe that's why the global ecosystem is on the verge of collapse.
But don't get bummed out! The Pacific Trash Vortex is one of the many things that inspires Tom Szaky (pronounced "Zackie"). He's the scruffy 30-year-old CEO and founder of America's most kick-ass green company.
...
Over Coffee
Book review and giveaway: Revolution in a bottle (May 12, 2009)
A while back I told you about the book I was reading. I also told you that it was way too good of a book for me to keep to myself so after I was done reading it I was going to pass it along to one of you. Well, that is not quite what I am going to do. I am going to give you the chance to win a new, has not been read before, Revolution in a Bottle; the story of how TerraCycle began, book of your own!
Last week I received a surprise package in the mail from the very cool folks at TerraCycle (I seriously love these guys, they crack me up). In my surprise package was a bottle of my very own Worm Poop (and other great goodies that I will be reviewing soon) and a new, un-read book! (Thanks guys, you are the best!) My son was very happy about this too cuz now he gets to keep my copy for...
Give it to me Raw
Garbage Mogul Makes Millions From Trash (May 12, 2009)
With a brilliant business model built around recycling, TerraCycle will either go big or go broke.
In a sprawling former suitcase factory in New Jersey, a camera crew is filming entrepreneur Tom Szaky and his company, TerraCycle, for a new reality TV show. Ten of the recycling firm's 46 employees sit around a table awaiting Szaky's next challenge. "So, guys," says Szaky, reaching into the pocket of his corduroy jacket and tossing a used toothbrush onto the table. "What are we going to do with this?"
...
Packaging World
Trash talk with TerraCycle (May 11, 2009)
In this 12-minute Podcast with PW technical editor Rick Lingle, Zakes discusses the following updates:
Click to Enlarge
CLICK TO ENLARGE
• Its upcycling initiative with Kraft, including the incredibly successful Capri Sun program;
• Status of its flagship product, Worm Poop plant food, which represents about 35% of company sales;
• Effects of the recession on its products and plans;
• The plans for its new e-commerce site, TerraCycleshop.com;
• The "circular" messaging the company expects to gain through its new School Fundraiser program launching September 2009. ...
Packaging News
Refills get on-shelf road test (May 11, 2009)
Jesus turned water into wine. But now one Australian company is turning wine into water with its reusable packaging. Reschke wine bottles use a glass stopper and a removable paper label so that when the wine has been drunk, the bottle can be reused for water.
Second in the reduce, reuse, recycle trilogy, reusable packaging is a great idea that hasn’t really hit the mainstream. It predates recycling and the green agenda, with the traditional milkman and returnable beer bottles classic examples of packaging reuse. Logistics, consumer convenience and arguments around pack minimization versus recyclability have, in the past, proved to be stumbling blocks. But consumers are increasingly aware of, and willing to act on, environmental issues. Is now the time to bring back reusable packaging?
...
Pacific Free Press
Eco-Capitalism and the Great Pacific Trash Vortex (May 11, 2009)
Somewhere between California and Hawaii is a big plastic trash dump floating in the ocean. Twice the size of Texas, it's known as the "Pacific Trash Vortex."
Spiral-shaped currents concentrate thousands of acres of non-biodegradable plastic waste. Birds and fish that get tangled up in the mass die with stomachs full of plastic. High-speed, high-tech modern life is not exactly working in sync with Mother Earth here. Maybe that's why the global ecosystem is on the verge of collapse. But don't get bummed out! The Pacific Trash Vortex is one of the many things that inspires Tom Szaky (pronounced "Zackie"). He's the scruffy 30-year-old CEO and founder of America's most kick-ass green company.
TerraCycle makes good-looking products out of garbage. It sells hip messenger bags...
Central Jersey Packet Publications
Trash From Cash TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky’s book on eco-capitalism might help plant more trees than it cuts down (May 7, 2009)
ON a hot Princeton night in June 2001, Tom Szaky imagined wearing a suit at an investment bank and equated it with a gulag.
That image, along with his fear of personally repaying a business loan, motivated him to complete the task at hand — the disgusting, repulsive, nauseating task at hand.
Mr. Szaky and a friend — both Princeton University students — were emptying a dozen 55-gallon barrels of decomposing waste and leftovers from Wilcox Dining Hall. They shoveled the sludge into the $20,000 worm-compost machine Mr. Szaky had bought with borrowed money.
...
Healthy Bliss
Earn $ for your school by Terracycling! (May 7, 2009)
Earn $ for your school by Terracycling!
Want to earn money for your school while helping the environment? You can do both by joining a Terracycle Brigade!
healthy bliss Earn $ for your school by Terracycling!
Terracycle is a unique company that takes "garbage" and turns it into usable products through a process called upcycling.
* Transforms used wine barrels into composters and rain barrels
* Fills used soda bottles with worm poop
* Crushes computers and fax machines into pots
* Makes kites from cookie wrappers
...
TCT Business Solutions
Coffee with Tracey (May 7, 2009)
Tom Szaky, 27, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TerraCycle, Inc., producer of the world's first product made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (used plastic bottles.) TerraCycle has twice won the Home Depot Environmental Stewardship Award for being the most eco-friendly product sold at Home Depot. In 2006 an Inc. Magazine cover story named TerraCycle “The Coolest Little Start-Up in America!” That same year Tom was named the “#1 CEO in America Under 30” in the Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 Awards, beating billionaire Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg. Imagine a social entrepreneur who donates more money to charities every year than he takes home, beating out a billionaire dot-com founder!
Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1982, Tom emigrated with his family...
That Darn Girl
Terracycle in effort to... (May 6, 2009)
In efforts to practice what I preach I am going green...
Start small...think BIG! I live in a apartment now I just need to find a way to compost my own trash without smelling up the place.
Today...
Go to goodwill purchase 100% recycled planters...
Buy tomato plants, strawberry planters and cilantro...
Make a big big mess...
Tada...
I also used a new and up coming exciting fertilizer (worm poop)...
I have been researching this Co for my class...
They are smarter than should be legal...
Terracycle......
Alternet
Life Among the Eco-Capitalists: A Revolution Takes Hold in New Jersey (May 6, 2009)
Somewhere between California and Hawaii is a big plastic trash dump floating in the ocean. Twice the size of Texas, it's known as the "Pacific Trash Vortex."
Spiral-shaped currents concentrate thousands of acres of non-biodegradable plastic waste. Birds and fish that get tangled up in the mass die with stomachs full of plastic. High-speed, high-tech modern life is not exactly working in sync with Mother Earth here. Maybe that's why the global ecosystem is on the verge of collapse.
But don't get bummed out! The Pacific Trash Vortex is one of the many things that inspires Tom Szaky (pronounced "Zackie"). He's the scruffy 30-year-old CEO and founder of America's most kick-ass green company....
Over Coffee
Congratulations to the Capri Sun-Terracycle Winners (May 5, 2009)
3 R Fridays | Eco PR Welcomed | About Me | My Healthy Bliss Posts| Links| Fav Posts/Guest Posts
Sunday, May 3
Congratulations to the Capri Sun-Terracycle Winners
Winner #1: Laney said... I also love the drink pouch messenger bag and the drink pouch tote
Winner #2: Donna said... "Every year BILLIONS of drink pouches end up in dumpsters and landfills across America."
Congratulations! I hope you love your backpack, pencil pouch, and folder that were previously CapriSun drink pouches but are now unique items for you to enjoy!
Thanks to everyone who entered. I hope that you all become TerraCyclers!...
Idea Marketers
Green Nation Gardens Enjoying Huge Success With TerraCycle Products (May 4, 2009)
Every so often an idea comes along that is destined for greatness. When that idea is good for people, good for the planet and good for the economy, it could very well reshape the entire way we live and do business. Tom Zsaky, founder of TerraCycle has done just that, and the products that TerraCycle products is creating a whole new way of living appropriately known as Eco-Capitalism.
GreenNationGardens.com names TerraCycle Their Flagship Line of Products. ...
The Resource Action Programs Blog
You Know What They Say, “One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure” (May 4, 2009)
A friend of mine runs the organic division of Mars, Inc. called Seeds of Change. He handed me a DVD to watch last weekend about a company Mars, Inc. has recently started to work with called TerraCycle (www.terracycle.net). This company uses items that would wind up in the landfill (such as juice, candy, cookie, chip wrappers) to manufacture products, like backpacks, tote bags, kites, etc.
Terra Cycle’s co-founders, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, felt that a company could be financially successful while being ecologically and socially responsible. Boy are they proving that to be true!...
Jacksonville Advantage
Small business owners learn how vision and flexibility are win-win combo (May 4, 2009)
Only the future will tell if the 27-year-old casually attired keynote speaker at the 17th Annual Small Business Week
Celebration will be the next Bill Gates. But the audience of about 350 small business owners left the luncheon presentation acknowledging that Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, Inc., had a great thing going. The concept he virtually invented—upcycling—could revolutionize waste management as his company, which has no direct competitors, continues to grow.
His success can be attributed to creative problem solving, discipline to remaining true to his cause, and flexibility to grow in new but related directions.
Szaky, an entrepreneur who started his first company in Web design when he was only 14, was born in Hungary and immigrated to the United States via...
Rachael Ray
Designers Create Cool Products out of Trash! (May 4, 2009)
Tiffany is a good friend of mine, who has a company called Replay Ground. She’s also the chief “design junkie” for a terrific company called Terracycle, founded by an incredible Greentrepreneur Tom Szaky and together they are on a mission to get rid of the concept of waste. Whatever the trash, Terracyle tries to create cool, unique and fun product out of it. You’ve gotta love these people – salt of the earth.
Anyway, Tiffany called me and asked me to judge the first annual Terracycle and Pratt Institute UPCYCLE design competition. When you UPcycle, instead of reusing something as the same thing like you do when you REcycle, you are actually turning it into something better. How clever!...
South Coast Today
Is America a landfill of opportunity? (May 4, 2009)
Forget everything you know about recycling and dumpster diving. "Garbage Moguls" (9 p.m., National Geographic) looks at entrepreneurs and innovators who see gold in them thar landfills. Major retailers have embraced their efforts to turn trash into cash.
Wal-Mart sells their line of kites made entirely out of old cookie wrappers. "Moguls" focuses on the office squabbles and tensions between the artistic types and money people, engineers and marketers. It may be the first show of any type to document a meeting between Wal-Mart's notoriously stingy buyers and a group of venders selling products made entirely out of garbage....
Employee Benefits - Daily Diversion
Wish You Were Here: Mars Drinks forms partnership to be cleaner and greener (May 4, 2009)
It's rare that a company could combine two things I truly love -- coffee and promoting greener living -- but it seems Mars drinks has done it.
Mars Drinks, makers of single-serve beverages served in offices and law firms around the country, is partnering with TerraCycle to help decrease the amount of waste from its packaging. TerraCycle will take used FLAVIA fresh packs and turn them into high-quality office products such as pencil cases and notebooks — and compost coffee grounds once they’ve been brewed....
The New Green Economy
The Power of Compost (May 4, 2009)
Compost Awareness Week runs from Sunday May 3rd to Saturday May 9th and if you are not currently someone who composts, now is a great time to get started. Composting is one of the simplest and most interesting ways that you can get involved with lifecycle thinking and it provides you with a cost-free method of producing healthier and tastier fruits and vegetables in your garden this year.
Lifecycle thinking is one of the keys to the New Green Economy and will inspire your personal life, your creativity, and your business development strategies.
Terracycle Rotary Composter
Take for example Terracycle's Rotary Composter which, while providing a useful and attractive composting device, is also a form of "product composting" itself. The composter is made from Napa Valley...
What They Think
TerraCycle - Waste as a Raw Material (April 30, 2009)
It’s exactly that perspective that has provided Tom Szaky an almost unlimited source of extremely low cost raw materials for the dozens of products that TerraCycle manufacturers.
Revolution in a BottleSzaky tells the story of TerraCycle in Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business, (Portfolio Trade, 2009). He’s young, hyper-active, and smart!
In the beginning… there were worms. And the worms did what worms do, eating and making worm castings (a polite way of saying “worm poop). Tom convinced a handful of friends and schoolmates that an army of worms could turn lunchroom waste into a marketable fertilizer and TerraCycle was founded...
The HR Capitalist
Managing Fear in a Landscape of Layoffs and The Van Down By The River... (April 30, 2009)
For some leaders, the paranoia is a kind of blessing. "The world's best innovation comes from the greatest desperation," says Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, a Trenton (N.J.) company that makes organic fertilizer and other planet-friendly products. Times are tough for TerraCycle, as they are for a lot of companies that supply hard-pressed retailers. "We have no money to hire anyone," says Szaky. He put the challenge out to his charges: Do more with less. Amp up sales without spending any money.
Of course, some managers are open to letting the fear work it's magic. You know the type of magic, like employees sleeping in their back seats rather than at a Best Western:...
New York Times
‘Upcycling’ for Not-So-Green Consumers (April 30, 2009)
By most accounts, a growing number of consumers appear willing to pay the so-called “green premium” for environmentally friendly products.
A report released in January by the Boston Consulting Group, for example, found that of 4,000 consumers surveyed worldwide, almost a third said they were willing to ante up a bit more for green products — especially for fresh and prepared foods, and large appliances.
That survey, conducted last October, dovetails with previous consumer studies....
Catholic Online
Entrepreneur blazes new trail with old packages (April 28, 2009)
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT) - In 2003, an investor offered 21-year-old Princeton dropout Tom Szaky a million bucks.
Szaky turned him down.
Not that he didn't need the money. He was sleeping in a makeshift office, showering in the gym, and pondering a cash balance of zero.
The guy wanted Szaky to lose the environmental pitch with his business plan, except that was the plan. ...
The Florida Times Union
Collect your water in a rain barrel (April 27, 2009)
It's fresher, it's natural and it's free.
Rainwater collection in rain barrels is one good way to help keep your garden, grass and wallet green, said Devon Ritch of Earth Works, a landscape and garden center on Jacksonville's Southside.
"This way you can save the water to use when you most need it," she said, "especially now that we're not getting as much rain as we used to in the afternoons."...
Green Review
The Depression bites (April 27, 2009)
While most governments are still playing around with the terminology and still will not call it the big “D” word the common man in the street knows that we are already in a depression, regardless of what the power brokers and politicians are trying to tell us.
Car production in the United Kingdom alone has fallen by two-thirds over the last year, that is to say in the time from March 2008 to March 2009.
...
Olive & Beans
TerraCycle. (April 27, 2009)
Most (hopefully, all!) of us are in the habit of recycling paper, plastic, cans and glass containers. Now we take another step towards reducing waste by registering with TerraCycle, a company which has paired up with a few green retailers in their quest to recycle even more empty packaging which usually ends up in the garbage.
Sign up with TerraCycle to send in your yogurt containers, empty juice/drink pouches, energy bar wrappers and soda bottles. The company will supply you with large bags for the wrappers and boxes for the yogurt containers and bottles. When you?ve filled the provided containers, just send the prepaid packages back to TerraCycle and they will donate money to various causes for each returned wrapper and container....
MAKE
New TV show, Garbage Moguls, Features Crafty Tiffany Threadgould (April 27, 2009)
Longtime recycling maven and CRAFT contributor Tiffany Threadgould is a busy, busy girl these days.
Besides running her really clever recycling and reuse company, RePlayGround, she's working on articles for Craftzine.com, writing a book, and is one of the stars (yes, I said it, she's a star!) of the new show Garbage Moguls, in which she works as a product designer for the company Terracycle.
The company is taking garbage and making useful things out of this trash, thereby robbing the landfill of more content. Terracycle is home to a lot of different personalities, who keep you highly entertained for the hour-long show. There's plenty of research and development, a look into the process of brainstorming, some bickering, flirting, failure, and some redemption to boot. Above...
THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Plants from seed are easy but require care (April 27, 2009)
Question: I started some tomatoes, peppers, basil and a few different flowers from seed a few weeks ago in my living room. I have them under lights and they are looking pretty good. I'd like to know when to start fertilizing them, what I should use to do it, and how often. Any other suggestions to help them along?
Answer: Starting your own seeds is very rewarding and allows you to grow many more varieties than are available at the average nursery. I'm glad you are using a lighting system vs. putting them on the windowsill. The light from most windows is very uneven and usually not enough to keep seedlings from getting pale and leggy. A simple florescent shop light hung from chains works fine, and the fancy, more expensive grow light systems also can be used on blooming plants during...
Miami Herald
Entrepreneur blazes new trail with old packages (April 27, 2009)
In 2003, an investor offered 21-year-old Princeton dropout Tom Szaky a million bucks.
Szaky turned him down.
Not that he didn't need the money. He was sleeping in a makeshift office, showering in the gym, and pondering a cash balance of zero.
The guy wanted Szaky to lose the environmental pitch with his business plan, except that was the plan.
Today, Szaky is glad he didn't give in....
The Ithaca Journal
Author of 'Revolution in a Bottle' to speak at Ithaca College tonight (April 24, 2009)
An Earth Week presentation titled "TerraCycle: Revolution in a Bottle" will be held at 7 p.m. today, in Textor 102, Ithaca College.
The talk will be by Tom Szaky. Szaky's newly released book "Revolution in a Bottle: From Worm Poop to a Garbage Empire That Is Redefining Green Business" will be available for sale.
The book tells the story of how Szaky, while a freshman at Princeton, collected dining hall garbage, fed it to worms and turned the resulting waste products into liquefied plant food packaged in recycled soda bottles. TerraCycle Plant Food is now available in every Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Whole Foods store in the country. The TerraCycle products include garbage cans made from crushed computers and handbags made from recycled energy bar wrappers and juice pouches....
AJC
Machine gets good seed-soil contact (April 24, 2009)
Q: You mention “vertical mowing” on your Web site. What the heck is that? Is a vertical mower the same as a dethatching machine?
A: Yes, it’s the same thing. The machine has several small blades on a horizontal shaft. As the shaft turns, the blades cut thin grooves in the soil, raising and shredding any thatch.
Combined with a seed hopper, this machine is excellent for getting good seed-soil contact when planting a lawn.
On the other hand, I rarely see lawns that need dethatching, contrary to the common advice of neighbors and poorly trained lawn technicians....
The Rider News
Eco-Rep Green Corner: Web sites keep the Earth in mind (April 24, 2009)
Terracycle (www.terracycle.net) is a company that takes trash from other people and repurposes it into other useful goods before the recycling process takes place. Terracycle produces anything from reusable bags out of used Capri-Sun drink packets to recycling bins made out of e-waste (computer waste). Eco-sumo (www.ecosumo.com) is another online retailer that sells eco-friendly products ranging from furniture to clothing and shoes for both men and women.
With people going to video sites like YouTube all the time for not only entertainment, but news and education, there is a green counterpart online. GoGreenTube (www.gogreentube.com) is a Web site similar to YouTube with users posting videos about anything green, such as recycling, EarthHour and reasons to stop using coal for energy....
Live Journal
Garbage Moguls: The Trashiest Reality TV Show Ever (April 24, 2009)
They may be too young to understand why they would not be allowed to watch TV for a week, but 25 children at a kindergarten are willing to give it a try. Garbage Moguls: The Trashiest Reality TV Show Ever [preview] ...
Reality shows are often classified as trashy TV. Now things have come full circle with a reality program focusing on you guessed it garbage. Garbage Moguls, premiering today on The National Geographic Channel, follows a team from upcycling startup Terracycle as they take different waste products and figure out how to turn them into products that can be sold to retailers. Terracycle, founded ... Garbage Moguls: The Trashiest Reality TV Show Ever...
Say No To Plastic
* MISSION * PLASTIC FACTS * CONTRIBUTE * OCEAN KEEPERS * WORKING WITH BUSINESS OPRAH’S EARTH DAY SHOW - MUCH MORE THAN TALK - BRAVO! (April 24, 2009)
OPRAH’S EARTH DAY SHOW - MUCH MORE THAN TALK - BRAVO!
Lots of people and corporations talk about Earth Day and do little else.
Over at MSNBC while they are talking about “Green is Universal” their anchor people and morning on-air personalities sip out of plastic bottles and cups.
17th Annual Women in Entertainment Power 100 Breakfast
Today, Oprah aired a magnificent show that FOCUSED on many of the plastic topics I have been blogging about for months. In particular, she talked about the infamous garbage patch in the Pacific.
Go to her site at www.Oprah.com . . . NOW! There are wonderful resources for you and your family to share. The following resources are from her website. You will also find money saving tips while going green, tips about...
4 Kids & Us
EVER GREEN: tv's 'Garbage Moguls' premieres tonight (April 24, 2009)
the home furnishings aisles at Target (you'll find the circuit board frames and vinyl record clocks CEO Tom Szaky tries to sell to Office Max in "Garbage Moguls"), and the fertilizer that launched the company can be found at Walmart and Home Depot. ...
Mixergy
How To Inspire People To Be Passionate About Your Business. - With Tom Szaky (April 24, 2009)
So you know that nobody cares about your business right? (It’s okay, they don’t care about mine either. They care about themselves.) Want to learn how to get them passionate about what you’re building?
Listen to my interview with Tom Szaky, who founded TerraCycle in college, based on the idea of selling worm poop. In the program, Tom taught how to get employees, customers and press to rally around a startup....
South Coast Today
Is America a landfill of opportunity? (April 24, 2009)
Forget everything you know about recycling and dumpster diving. "Garbage Moguls" (9 p.m., National Geographic) looks at entrepreneurs and innovators who see gold in them thar landfills. Major retailers have embraced their efforts to turn trash into cash.
Wal-Mart sells their line of kites made entirely out of old cookie wrappers. "Moguls" focuses on the office squabbles and tensions between the artistic types and money people, engineers and marketers. It may be the first show of any type to document a meeting between Wal-Mart's notoriously stingy buyers and a group of venders selling products made entirely out of garbage....
Recycling Post
Book Review & Giveaway-Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business. (April 24, 2009)
This giveaway has ended. It’s time for another giveaway, and this time it is for a copy of the new book from the founder of TerraCycle, Tom Szaky. Back in August of last year, I wrote a post about a few of the products that TerraCycle makes out of our waste stream, and I have been following their amazing growth since then. If you have not heard of them before, you will soon enough - their products are showing up everywhere, from Whole Foods to the biggest of the big-box stores. This new book, Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business, is an amazing story of how Szaky took an idea for selling worm poop as fertilizer while at Princeton all the way to the giant green company they are today. I read it in just a few sessions as I had trouble putting it down. So many...
Tonic!
An Interview With a Garbage Mogul! (April 23, 2009)
TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky had a revolutionary idea back in 2001, during his freshman year at Princeton. What if you could make a useful product entirely out of garbage?
He came up with the first product, a fertilizer made from worm poop, and packaged in soda bottles that they “liberated” from neighborhood cycling bins. Just a few years later, TerraCycle is a multi-million dollar company on the leading edge of repurposing materials that other people see as waste into useful, effective and eco-friendly products....
EcoPreneurist
“Garbage Moguls” - A new reality show about Terracycle (April 22, 2009)
Paul Smith wrote a series of articles about Terracyle last year. Founded by Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer in 2001 while students at Princeton, Terra Cycle started as a way to spread the benefits of vermicomposting (that is, composting with worms) to a larger audience. Szaky and Beyer were eventually able to earn startup funds, and by 2004, Home Depot was carrying Terra Cycle Plant Food on their website.
Today the story has developed much further. The Terracyle team now visits landfills on a routine basis to collect whatever garbage they can find, for ultimate conversion into usable products. With computer bags made from billboards, pencils made from rolled newspaper and kites made from Oreo cookie wrappers, Terracycle now has regular sales appointments at major retailers like Office Max...
Star News
EVER GREEN: TV's 'Garbage Moguls' premieres tonight (April 22, 2009)
"Garbage Moguls," premiering tonight on National Geographic Channel, peeks behind the scenes at Terracycle, a company of self-described "eco-capitalists."
The television special tracks the Terracycle team's progress on bringing two prototypes from mere ideas to products on the shelves of mass retailers Walmart and Office Max. Although viewers get to see the creation of kites made of Oreo wrappers and a messenger bag made of old billboards and seatbelts, the program is more about watching the zany characters at work at Terracycle....
The Hub
"Garbage Moguls" (April 22, 2009)
9 p.m., National Geographic Channel. Tom Szaky was a Princeton freshman when he hatched his plan for TerraCycle, which makes things entirely out of garbage. Now, at 27, he says he wants to prove "you can make a boatload of money and save the world."...
The Inspired Economist
Talking Trash on Earth Day (April 22, 2009)
The Inspired Economist recently published a story about Funding Factory, a company that provides funding through recycling. Ecopreneurist has featured several stories about recycling startups. However, even with all the buzz, IBISWorld, an industry research firm tell us that recycling is expected to decline significantly in 2009 - after five years of strong growth.
“Falling prices have put the recycling industry on the scrapheap this year,” explained George Van Horn, senior analyst with IBISWorld. “It is the thirteenth biggest revenue loser in 2009, and is expected to plummet a drastic 20 percent.”
Growing at an annualized rate of 6.3 percent for the past five years to 2008, Recycling Facilities is one of the few industries in the “green sector” to observe...
Scooter McGavin
Previewing Garbage Moguls (April 22, 2009)
Today is Earth Day which begs the question: why are you even on your computer? Okay, rule number one of being eco-friendly is don’t beat yourself up when you do something not so eco-friendly. I can rest in the solace that I am currently on a Hybrid computer that uses seventy percent energy than a regular desktop. And certainly do not feel bad if you fire up the television tonight to see Garbage Moguls at 9:00 on the National Geographic Channel.
The special follows a company, TerraCycle, who tries to turn garbage into cash. Their current projects include trying to create a kite made of used Oreo wrappers that they are trying to sell to Walmart. The other is to make a laptop carrier out of billboards and seat belts in hopes that Office Max will order them....
ABC
Upcycling: CEO Turns Trash Into Cash (April 22, 2009)
On this Earth Day, when many people are thinking about recycling and deciding on just one thing they can do to become more eco-friendly, one 27-year-old entrepreneur has managed to turn his dreams of a greener Earth into money in the bank.
TerraCycle's Tom Szasky explains how he made a profit out of garbage.
Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, has a tale of ultimate eco-capitalism. To Szaky, another man's trash literally is his treasure.
"I don't see garbage anymore. I just see cash," he said. ...
TreeHugger
Garbage Moguls, the TerraCycle Reality TV Show! (April 21, 2009)
After 3 years of pitching networks, meeting with various producers, and all of the other Hollywood headaches,TerraCycle finally has our own Reality TV Show. Garbage Moguls, which debut's on National Geographic Channel on Earth Day, April 22, at 9pm EST and 9pm PST, follows our team at TerraCycle as we take waste like Oreo Wrappers and Coca-Cola Billboards, figure out how to upcycle them into products like kites and messenger bags, and finally sell them to a major retailers like Wal-Mart and Office Max. Check out more info after the jump.
Our hope with the series is to bring awareness around trash and waste in a fun and exciting way, and highlight what one can do with it. Perhaps this show may become a vehicle to take upcycling mainstream? I'd love to hear your opinion though. If...
EcoSilly
Garbage Moguls, the TerraCycle Reality TV Show! (April 21, 2009)
Garbage Moguls, the TerraCycle Reality TV Show!
After 3 years of pitching networks, meeting with various producers, and all of the other Hollywood headaches,TerraCycle finally has our own Reality TV Show. Garbage Moguls, which debut’s on National Geographic Channel on Earth Day, April 22, at 9pm EST and 9pm PST, follows our team at TerraCycle as we take waste like Oreo Wrappers and Coca-Cola Billboards, figure out how to upcycle them into … ...
Alt Tech Foundation
10 Tips from an Eco-Capitalist: Tom Szaky Shares TerraCycle's Secrets to Success (April 21, 2009)
Tom Szaky has created a new form of capitalism, eco-capitalism, in which waste is re-conceptualized as a raw material and becomes an economic driver. In his new book, "Revolution in a Bottle," Szaky reveals the secrets to TerraCycle's success as well as its twists and turns along the way to becoming a national consumer products company, renowned for creating products from -- and packaged in -- waste.
I first learned of TerraCycle when reading "Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World" by CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, Gary Hirshberg. I was so intrigued by the company, I requested an interview with Szaky and to my astonishment he agreed (this was at the very start of my still fresh blogging career -- you can read that article here). And, full disclosure here, as a result of...
The Good Human
Book Review & Giveaway-Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business. (April 21, 2009)
It’s time for another giveaway, and this time it is for a copy of the new book from the founder of TerraCycle, Tom Szaky. Back in August of last year, I wrote a post about a few of the products that TerraCycle makes out of our waste stream, and I have been following their amazing growth since then. If you have not heard of them before, you will soon enough - their products are showing up everywhere, from Whole Foods to the biggest of the big-box stores. This new book, Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business, is an amazing story of how Szaky took an idea for selling worm poop as fertilizer while at Princeton all the way to the giant green company they are today. I read it in just a few sessions as I had trouble putting it down. So many books I read about companies...
Washington Post
Early Briefing: Ready to Watch TV on Your Phone? (April 21, 2009)
Mars, the candy giant based in McLean, said that to reduce trash at its U.S. factories it will partner with TerraCycle, a New Jersey company that makes products out of waste such as packaging. Mars said TerraCycle will take surplus packaging used in making more than 20 Mars brands. TerraCycle creates a variety of products out of such waste, including cellphone holders and laptop sleeves.
Internet data analysis provider ComScore named Kenneth Tarpey as chief financial officer, replacing John Green. Green will take on the role of executive vice president and head of the Reston-based firm's human capital department. Tarpey most recently served as CFO of video surveillance software provider ObjectVideo....
Earth Times
College Drop Out Redefining Intersection between Business and the Environment (April 20, 2009)
27-year-old college drop out turned CEO, Tom Szaky's new book “REVOLUTION IN A BOTTLE: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business” hit shelves April 2009 as a paperback original. The first of it's kind, this book is an upcycling vehicle. For each returnable book cover sent in, Bear Naked Granola plants a tree in conjunction with The Arbor Day Foundation.
Szaky dropped out of Princeton in 2002 to lead a startup that makes useful stuff out of garbage. Now TerraCycle is a leader of the eco-capitalist movement, with products like worm poop fertilizer and tote bags made from used juice pouches....
Trust Pony
Earth Day Giveaway! Upcycled Drink Pouch Tote by Terracycle (April 20, 2009)
Schools and non-profits get two cents for each juice pouch they turn over to Terracycle, which scours, sorts, then double-stitches them into bags. Last year alone, 42 million pouches were saved from the landfill and made into funky, durable bags like these—great for overnights, camping supplies, beach necessities and more.
Incidentally, the story of the young “eco-capitalists” behind Terracycle is fascinating enough to warrant its own TV show, Garbage Moguls, which debuts on Earth Day (Wednesday) evening on the National Geographic Channel. The company was founded by a Princeton student so taken by a friend’s worm box that he quit school to make all-natural, all-organic worm-poop plant food packaged in a bag made from reused soda bottles. Products created from and packaged...
Green Daily
Terracycle Green Pet Products - GreenDaily Giveaway Reminder! (April 20, 2009)
Do you have a pet? A love of natural cleaning products? If so, you'll be crazy about the new TerraCycle line of pet cleaning products.
TerraCycle partnered with PETCO to create a new line of natural and nontoxic pet products. They're even packaged in repurposed plastic bottles -- the first line of pet products ever.
We're giving away a "basket" of these products to one lucky winner, including:
* Yard Odor Remover
* Stain & Odor Remover
* Trash Can Protector Spray
* Skunk Odor Remover -- the pet equivalent of a fire extinguisher – hopefully you never have to use it!
* Bird Feeder
...
Mixergy
Upcoming Live Interview: How To Be An Eco-Capitalist, With Tom Szaky, Founder of TerraCycle (April 20, 2009)
I need you to join me in this live interview so we can learn how to build businesses that change the world. I’m not talking about sitting around and singing kumbaya, while being upset that peole don’t recycle enough. This is about how to build a real business THAT MAKES FINANCIAL SENSE, while having an impact THAT YOU CAN BE PROUD OF.
Join me in this live interview and ask your questions....
The Trentonian
Daft recyclers shoot pilot to air on ‘National Geographic’ (April 20, 2009)
TRENTON — TerraCycle, the city’s little eco-friendly start-up that’s not so little anymore, is well on its way toward its goal of redefining the concept of waste in this country, and it’s now embarking on a new mission — to dominate the media.
Earlier this month, the company’s founder and CEO, Tom Szaky, released a book called “Revolution in a Bottle.” It details his company’s aim to save the world while turning a profit.
On Wednesday, Earth Day, the National Geographic Channel will air an hour-long documentary that could serve as a pilot episode for a new TerraCycle reality show....
Bliss Tree
Win a Capri Sun Green Package (April 20, 2009)
Pledge to be green and win! Capri Sun has teamed up with TerraCycle, a company who has pioneered the concept that any material can be reused and made into something of value, to create the drink Pouch Brigades. The free collection program allows kids, parents and teachers to work together to eliminate waste by collecting used Capri Sun and other drink pouches to raise extra funds for their local schools, churches and community groups.
* Each year, billions of drink pouches are sent to dumpsters and landfills across the U.S
* There are currently over 14,500 participating Drink Pouch Brigade locations in the U.S.
* For every juice pouch collected and sent to TerraCycle, Capri Sun donates 2 cents back to the community
* The used drink pouches are then repurposed...
Replayground
Garbage Moguls! Premiering this Earth Day! (April 20, 2009)
Celebrate Earth Day with me and all of my TerraCycle friends!
Garbage Moguls is a new show on the National Geographic channel that follows TerraCycle through all of the crazy chaos that happens with our product development. This first episode has us creating kites out of cookie wrappers and messenger bags out of old billboards. How do we do it? Well, that's what your TV is for.
Catch us this Wednesday, 9pm, on the National Geographic network.
And check out the Garbage website, too - there are even some DIY projects I helped with - turning cookie wrappers into a wallet and beaded jewelry....
Fox News
Stocking the Drawers With Sustainable Supplies (April 20, 2009)
About every few months, my cache of writing and class supplies—pens, notepads, folders, printer paper—begins to run low, which means it’s time to visit the nearby big-box office supply store.
In months and years past, as I’ve run through thousands of pages of notebook paper and innumerable pens, I’ve developed a few personal favorites—the Pilot G2 gel pen, Office Max brand legal pads, the 6”x9” Steno Pads for reporting. But as I approached the office supplies aisle in the nearby Office Max earlier this morning, I noticed an entire section of “green,” recycled, curiously eccentric pens and notebooks and even staplers.
So, in the spirit of month of green living, I did a little investigating for my college-aged readers and myself on the new wave of eco-friendly...
Shallow Nation
National Geographic: Garbage Moguls Video, Photos (Earth Day 4-22-09) (April 20, 2009)
Watch National Geographic Garbage Moguls video and photos here. The documentary, presented on Earth Day, April 22, 2009 at 9 p.m. ET/PT chronicles the efforts of a New Jersey company, TerraCycle, helmed by a 27-year-old CEO, Tom Szaky, with a staff of more than 50, who literally turn trash into cash.
Tom Szaky established the company in his dorm room while he was a freshman at Princeton. It was actually the second company the Hungarian born and Canadian-raised Szarky had established; at 14 he had a web design business. It has since become a multimillion dollar company that employs more than 50 people and whose clients include Wal-Mart, OfficeMax, Home Depot and Target. ...
Pajama Mommy Community
Capri Sun Drink Pouch Brigade and Giveaway (April 20, 2009)
Did you know that almost any material can be reused and made into something of value? Capri Sun has teamed up with TerraCycle to create the Drink Pouch Brigade. The Drink Pouch Brigade is a free collection program, which allows kids, parents, and teachers to work together to eliminate waste by collecting Capri Sun pouches to raise funds for their schools and churches. It is hard to believe that each year, billions of drink pouches are sent to landfills to just sit. Capri Sun wants to raise awareness about recycling and reusing. For each juice pouch collected and sent to TerraCycle, Capri Sun will donate 2 cents back to the community. The collection of the drink pouches are being sent to TerraCycle, who takes the pouches and reuses them to make cool and fashionable accessories such as pencil...
Russet House
Green Tip of the Day (April 20, 2009)
Energy bars are convenient, sure, but what about the 800 million wrappers discarded each year? Now they and other selected junk can be sent to, TerraCycle, a company that's making big business out of household garbage.
* Collect your wrappers, juice pouches, and plastic yogurt containers, send them to TerraCycle and see them reincarnated as purses, backpacks, and planter pots on the shelves of Target and Home Depot. ...
Reduce Footprints
Earth Day ... (April 20, 2009)
Another activity taking place this Earth Day is a television program on the National Geographic Channel about a fabulous, new company called TerraCycle. This is a company that produces products entirely made of waste. Since its inception, it has saved over 70 million drink pouches, 10.5 million cookie wrappers, and 3.1 million plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill.
I first learned about TerraCycle awhile back and was truly impressed. Not only have they created an entire business model based on ... well ... garbage, they have also taken their "green" message to schools, teaching children that walking gently on the earth is a good thing. They are an example of creativity and enthusiasm ... and they give me hope for the future. Here is a brief video that will give you a little...
Dave Walker
The TV week ahead, April 19-25: New animated comedy, 'Garbage Moguls,' 'Trouble the Water' (April 20, 2009)
"Sit Down, Shut up," series premier, 8:30 p.m. Sunday (April 19). A new sort-of-animated series set in a high school from "Arrested Devlopment" creator Mitchell Hurwitz, who's employed several of his "AD" players (Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Henry Winkler) as voice talent.
"Garbage Moguls," 8 p.m. Wednesday (April 22), National Geographic Channel. To honor Earth Day, NGC looks at a company of "eco-capitalists" who are looking to make treasure out of trash. ...
The EcoChic
TerraCycle on TV (April 17, 2009)
If you’ve been a regular here at The Eco Chic you know that I’m very fond of a company in New Jersey that is the king of upcycling. TerraCycle takes our garbage and turns it into products that we can all use. From reusing plastic bottles to package their worm poop fertilizer to reusing wine barrells by turning them into rain barrels TerraCycle really knows how to get creative with trash.
I was speaking with George over at TerraCycle this week and he sent me a link to their new show, Garbage Moguls, that aires on the National Geographic Channel the evening of Earth Day. Check out this funny clip to see what it’s all about. I have my DVR set to record it since I’ll be out of town.
...
Well Fed
Eco-Capitalism at Work (April 16, 2009)
I was in OfficeMax the other day and saw a whole display of TerraCycle products. I grabbed the pencils and went on my way. Checking out the website, I sat and watched the video on their story page. Three years of perseverance, worm poop and reused soda bottles… and voila! The first-ever Eco-Capitalist company.
TerraCycle might have began with plant food, but their product base has expanded way more than that. ...
Triple Pundit
Can the Recycling System Be Upgraded? (April 16, 2009)
Are things like Tetrapaks and Dannon/Stonyfield yogurt recyclable today? Yes and no. Here’s why: There are a few recycling centers that accept Tetrapaks and yogurt cups, but they are the exception. Most recycling centers do not except these materials, and those that do are so few and far between that only a small percentage of the American population can participate.
This creates a few problems: First, companies like Tetrapak and Dannon cannot state on their package that their product is recyclable since there is only service in a few communities. Second, a company like Tetrapak, that has invested millions to build Tetrapak recycling centers, cannot get any credit for their investment and continue to get bad PR for producing a non-recyclable product....
Mother Nature Network
Wine corks, recycled (April 15, 2009)
No, I didn’t count them — but these collected wine corks were really starting to take up too much space in my apartment. I was collecting them in individual wine glasses — and running out of wine glasses –
So today they’ll be mailed off to the Terracycle Cork Brigade, to become mats and other upcycled products that’ll hopefully not be too fugly.
There are, of course, other ways to upcycle corks — one of the easiest ways being to throw them in the compost, if your corks are indeed made of real cork and you have a home composter. My sister’s way’s illustrated below. We are, as you may’ve guessed, very different people.
...
Green LA Girl
Upcycling my wine corks (April 15, 2009)
No, I didn’t count them — but these collected wine corks were really starting to take up too much space in my apartment. I was collecting them in individual wine glasses — and running out of wine glasses –
So today they’ll be mailed off to the Terracycle Cork Brigade, to become mats and other upcycled products that’ll hopefully not be too fugly.
There are, of course, other ways to upcycle corks — covered in my Recycling for winos post. My sister’s way’s illustrated below. We are, as you may’ve guessed, very different people.
What do you do with your own corks?...
Inc.
The Coolest Little Start up in America (April 15, 2009)
Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton to lead a startup that makes useful stuff out of garbage. Now TerraCycle is a leader of the eco-capitalist movement, with products like worm poop fertilizer and tote bags made from juice pouches.
Revolution in a Bottle is a rollicking tale of entrepreneurial adventure and an essential guide to creating a company that's good for people, good for profits, and good for the planet.
"Hugely entertaining."
- Library Journal...
Daily Greenz
Green Reading: Revolution In a Bottle (April 15, 2009)
The last time we wrote about TerraCycle it was about their announcement that they would be setting up recycling bins for traditionally non-recyclable items at a variety of major chain stores around the country, including Home Depot and OfficeMax. Today’s post isn’t so much about the little green company that could, but about its founder, Tom Szaky, and his new book, Revolution In a Bottle (printed on 100% recycled materials).
The book is a must-read if you run (or are hoping to one day run) your own green business, but Szaky’s observations on the blending of the business world and the environmental world are interesting enough to keep even those with no green business involvement reading. Hungarian-born Szaky’s quick rise to become one of the top young entrepreneurs is pretty...
Triple Pundit
Terracycle CEO to You: Please Tear the Cover Off My Book (April 15, 2009)
It's not often that the author of a book tells you he wants more people tearing off the cover, but that's just what Tom Szaky, CEO of Terracycle and author of Revolution In A Bottle, wants. This surprisingly has not been well covered in reviews says Szaky. It's a bit hard to miss, with orange ink inside drawing your attention to what turns out to be a would be envelope when turned inside out to send back Bear Naked Granola packaging, to be made into kites and umbrellas.
It's a perfect example of Terracycle's driving motivation - making the making of more planet friendly choices simple and easy to do, at an identical or cheaper price then the toxic conventional options.
The origin stories of startups are frequently interesting, but it's safe to say that few business ideas...
Green Daily
Terracycle Green Pet Products - GreenDaily Giveaway! (April 14, 2009)
We all try to keep our environmental footprint light, and ideally our pets would benefit from that, too. But sometimes accidents happen, and that's when you need the products -- and occasionally a hazmat suit -- to clean them up.
Terracycle, the company that practically invented zero footprint, has partnered up with PETCO to create a new line of natural and nontoxic pet products. Even better, this is the world's first line of pet products packaged in repurposed plastic bottles.
Now you can have a fresh and clean home, a healthy and happy pet, and be environmentally responsible! ...
Follow Green
Terracycle Green Pet Products - GreenDaily Giveaway! (April 14, 2009)
We all try to keep our environmental footprint light, and ideally our pets would benefit from that, too. But sometimes accidents happen, and that’s when you need the products — and occasionally a hazmat suit — to clean them up. Terracycle, the company that practically invented zero footprint, has partnered up with PETCO to create a new line of natural and nontoxic pet products. Even better, this is the world’s first line of pet products packaged in repurposed plastic bottles.Now you can have a fresh and clean home, a healthy and happy pet, and be environmentally responsible! To help green one lucky “pet parent”, we’re giving away a “basket” of the Terracycle pet line, including:
Yard Odor Remover
Stain & Odor Remover
Trash Can Protector Spray
Skunk Odor Remover...
Sustainable Is Good
Revolution in a Bottle How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business (April 14, 2009)
TerraCycle's CEO Tom Szaky is a person who garners lots of interest from those in green business because he's taken a company and grown it beyond people's expectations and through a number of significant challenges. Today, TerraCycle is doing very well and continues to diversify its product offerings beyond the plant food and fertilizers that put it on the map.
Szaky's new book Revolution in a Bottle, is of particular interest to anyone looking to go into business for themselves. He candidly recounts the last few years of challenges and triumphs and how he handled them. ...
Publishers Weekly
Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business (April 14, 2009)
Szaky tells the rags-to-riches story of how his business TerraCycle, which the college dropout founded in 2002, used an environmentally-conscious business plan to develop and market what is now the “best-known organic fertilizer product in the country.” Captivated with the idea of letting earthworms consume ordinary household garbage, Szaky left Princeton after his freshman year, launching his business by purchasing a $40,000 worm-compost machine, then negotiating a supply of waste from the student dining hall. Along with a partner and some student volunteers, he spent back-breaking hours feeding maggoty garbage into the machine and looking for ways to cash in on his vision. The company's progress involved courting potential investors (emphasis on “potential”), drumming up press coverage...
Planet Trash
Revolution in a Bottle (April 14, 2009)
I’m reading a great book which was provided to me from Penguin Books. It is the story of Tom Szaky who dropped out of Princeton to start TerraCycle. His green business takes food wastes and red wiggler worms and makes natural fertilizer. It sounds easy, but it is not. I have only read through Chapter 5, and I am blown away by the amount of venture capital that the undertaking is requiring to be successful.
While he is receiving his food wastes for nothing, or folks pay him to take it away, an enormous amount of money is still needed to keep the business afloat.
The aim of the book is to show how we can use our wastes efficiently. My self-employed mind right now is stuck on the fact that to make money we need money....
Planet Trash
Revolution in a Bottle, Part 2 (April 14, 2009)
I finished reading this book about TerraCycle. I’ll never look at something I throw away the same way again. I will be wondering how I can reuse it. I highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in reducing the amount of garbage they produce.
And as soon as I finish off my MiracleGro plant food, I’ll be purchasing some worm poop from TerraCycle.
...
My Green Projects and Education
Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Redefines Green Business (April 13, 2009)
The book Revolution in a Bottle, hit the streets this week. It follows the story of TerraCycle from our beginnings in my dorm room, shoveling maggot filled organic waste, to creating products we sold to Wal-MartScryve Corporate Social Responsibility Rating and other major big box retailers, getting sued by Scotts and creating “sponsored waste” programs to upcycle branded waste. It also offers insights on how we approach media and pursue new opportunities. Read on to catch an excerpt from the book.
TerraCycle’s story is one of getting people interested and involved. One of the lessons I have learned over the years, is people have to care about your business to support your efforts. This has helped differentiate TerraCycle from many other companies over the years. After all,...
Everyday Trash
Eco-capitalism (April 13, 2009)
“We take waste, we add design and produce mass merchandise,”says TerraCycle founder and CEO Tom Szaky in the opening of his new show, Garbage Moguls. “I don’t see garbage, I see cash.”
He’s a soundbitey guy, that Szaky, which is probably an element of TerraCycle’s success. The man knows how to bottle charm.
After watching a sneak peak of the first episode—airs at 9pm ET/PT on Wednesday, April 22 a.k.a. Earth Day—I can honestly say it’s a show I would watch [If I got the National Geographic Channel. Which I did, until this week when my sister and I decided we couldn't afford cable anymore]. It’s like Ace of Cakes, if you’ve ever seen that gem about a punk rock baker runing a fancy cakemaking service with his friends. Only better, because this reality...
National Geographic Channel
Garbage Moguls (April 10, 2009)
Remind MeNEXT PRIMETIME AIRINGNEXT PRIMETIME AIRINGNEXT PRIMETIME AIRINGNEXT PRIMETIME AIRINGNEXT PRIMETIME AIRINGNEXT PRIMETIME AIRINGWED APR 22 9P WED APR 22 8P WED APR 22 7P WED APR 22 9P WED APR 22 8P WED APR 22 6P
Recycling gets a makeover with a quirky group of young "eco-capitalists" at TerraCycle, Inc. Using only materials found in the trash, the team will transform cereal boxes into notebooks, newspaper into pencils and cookie wrappers into kites....
Women's Lifestyle
From Drink Pouch to Backpack (April 10, 2009)
One Company has found a way to turn wrappers into practical but fun accessories: think Kool-Aid purses, Oreo backpacks and Honest Kids pencil bags, all made from recycled- or in this case, upcycled - wrappers from popular products found inside a kid's lunch bag....
Fashion Windows
A Dress Made of Capri Sun Pouches (April 9, 2009)
DALLAS, Apr 8, 2009 / FW/ — We’ve seen a dress made of zippers; there is also a dress made of cranberries; how about a dress made of Capri Sun pouches, as in Capri Sun, your favorite drink.
Commissioned by Capri Sun and TerraCycle, green designer Justina Blakeney of Compai created a one-of-a kind dress designed entirely from CAPRI SUN drink pouches. The unique dress was unveiled during the CAPRI SUN Ready to Re-Wear Runway Show at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade in Florida.
With Anna Sophia Robb, star of Disney feature film ‘Race to Witch Mountain’ hosting the show, CAPRI SUN Ready to Re-Wear Runway Show featured clothing from Bloomingdale’s and accessories crafted by TerraCycle from used CAPRI SUN drink pouches –- pouches that used to go to landfills...
Low Budget Green
If it can’t be recycled it can be TERRACYCLED. (April 8, 2009)
TerraCycle embodies Low Budget Green. They pioneered the concept of making a product from garbage to make it cost less and stop trash from ending up in a landfill. So simple, So genius. Their original product was pure waste, leftover cafeteria food, which was fed to worms producing high quality fertilizer, but having spent all their start up capitol making the product they had no money to package it. To solve this dilemma they collected used soda bottles and trigger spray tops and had a product made entirely of waste. The quality of this product made it valuable, what it’s made from made it cheap, the perfect Low Budget Green solution.
Being a fan of urban gardening this is a great product but not entirely useful in daily life. TerraCycle took the idea of their fertilizer packaging...
LA Pretty
Filthy and gorgeous for Earth Day (April 8, 2009)
After TerraCycle helped us get Eco-Pretty we have been all about being green, especially since Earth Day is right around the corner on April 22. So we're excited about their new TV show, Garbage Moguls airing on the National Geographic channel that will take everyday trash and turn it into something spectacular.
The show follows the ups and downs of the TerraCycle team on the edge of billion-dollar success - and bankruptcy - all while trying to make the earth a better place. Garbage Moguls tracks the theam's work on two prototypes: a messenger bag for OfficeMax - made from old billboard materials and seat belts - and a kite made entirely of Oreo wrappers for Wal-Mart. Viewers witness the zany brainstorming ideas (a Slip 'N Slide made of wrappers?), the uphill battles and the real-life...
Greenopolis
Is recycling worth it? (April 7, 2009)
The idea of finding value in what people are willing to pay to get rid of is one the fundamental backbones of eco-capitalism. (Tom Szaky, TerraCycle)
In the recycling model plastic has a positive value because it can be sold as a commodity and future traded, probably, even. But in order to do that one has to destroy the shape and reduce the plastic to a form that is useful for something new. The shape has, in a sense, negative value. All the recycling of that kind takes time and energy, which is the reason why people argue back and forth whether it is really an environmental plus to recycle plastic bottles (and other plastic containers). Not only is energy expended in transforming a soda bottle into a usable material, there is also the cost of the trucks and the diesel fuel they...
Care
Indoor Air Quailty (April 7, 2009)
by George Chevalier
Anybody with allergies, chronic sinus problems, or other health issues will testify that the smallest change in their environment can escalate these ailments. Indoor air quality is of particular concern in these cases, and simply necessary to remain healthy. It is vital to consider any products used in the home or office that may have an effect on air quality. Particulates from spray deodorant, hair spray, cleaning products, adhesives, etc. can accumulate, making indoor spaces unbearable for allergy sufferers. Even choosing carpet over hard flooring can negatively affect indoor air quality, as the fibers hold particulates and the underlying padding breaks down into nasty dust....
Quadsville
Take cookie wrappers to Habitat ReStore (April 7, 2009)
If you're a good recycler – faithfully dropping your plastics, tin, glass and paper into bins – you may occasionally wince at the stuff that still doesn't make it.
Stuff like cookie and drink box wrappers, chip bags, bottle corks or yogurt cups.
Now there's a company, TerraCycle, that will collect those, too.
I learned about this by reading the newsletter for Habitat ReStore, the nonprofit Davenport busi-ness that sells new and gently used building materials at a discount.
ReStore is encouraging its customers to drop off Nabisco brand cookie wrappers, such as those for Oreos, at its store at 3629 Mississippi Ave....
San Francisco Examiner
Recycling the cork from your wine is made easier (April 6, 2009)
Helping save wine bottle corks from ending up in a landfill is as easy as dining out or visiting a grocery store.
At issue is what happens after a cork is yanked out of a bottle of wine. Turns out corks can be ground up and turned into other products, including flooring and wall coverings.
David Lawrence, left, of Luna Vineyards, and Maren Goebert of WTN Services dump wine corks into a bin that will be sent to Portugal for recycling at a collection facility in Napa, Calif. Something fresh is popping up in wine country, a save-the-cork program that puts a new twist on recycling. AP
“All of a sudden we found that we had a product that had another life in it,” says Roger Archey, program manager of the ReCORK America program that has signed up nearly 200 wineries,...
City Renewed
TerraCycle: A new way to think about trash (April 6, 2009)
So, traditionally when we think about reusing trash we think about recycling; a process that can be loosely described as taking trash in the form of a bottle, paper, bag, etc. and creating a new bottle, paper, or bag down the road. Well, a young entrepreneur/Princeton drop-out has become very successful by getting even more creative and more eco-friendly with his re-use of trash.
Tom Szaky and his co-founder Jon Beyer started their creative trash concept, now called TerraCycle, with worm poop…that’s right worm poop. As the story goes, some of their friends were finding incredible gardening success using worms to breakdown organic food waste and create nutrient rich soil. Tom and Jon saw this as a great opportunity: take worms and trash and create a plant fertilizer…so they...
Star Ledger
TerraCycle looks to transform U.S. habits by creating useful products (April 6, 2009)
About the only things not reused in Tom Szaky's quirky but growing eco-friendly company are the building's cinder block walls.
On first appearance, Szaky's 6-year-old startup, TerraCycle, looks like a derelict auto body shop. Located on a desolate industrial stretch near downtown Trenton, its black and green exterior is covered with spray-paint murals. ...
BusinessWeek
Job Anxiety: Workers Are Really Working Up a Sweat (April 6, 2009)
For some leaders, the paranoia is a kind of blessing. "The world's best innovation comes from the greatest desperation," says Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, a Trenton (N.J.) company that makes organic fertilizer and other planet-friendly products. Times are tough for TerraCycle, as they are for a lot of companies that supply hard-pressed retailers. "We have no money to hire anyone," says Szaky. He put the challenge out to his charges: Do more with less. Amp up sales without spending any money.
So the TerraCyclers decided to become their own marketing machines, hitting the road and visiting stores in person. Normally, when TerraCycle staffers visit far-flung Wal-Marts (WMT) and Home Depots (HD) to check on displays and chat up customers, they take a plane, stay in a hotel, and expense...
Daily Entrepreneur Tips
Keep it Simple - Like Poop (April 6, 2009)
Today’s tip comes from Tom Szaky. Tom dropped out of Princeton to sell worm poop to retailers including The Home Depot. TerraCycle now works with companies on corporate social responsibility efforts. Szaky’s new book
Keep it simple no matter how complex your business.
I only have a few rules for running TerraCycle, based on my knowledge that consumers want a good quality product but will not pay a green premium, even in good economic times. These simple rules drive everything we do in a typical business day, from developing new products, to building partnerships with manufacturers and retailers. “Revolution in a Bottle” describes our entertaining journey....
Life Of Stubby
More Ways to Recycle From Terracycle (April 6, 2009)
Last month, Terracycle rolled out collection bins in stores to make it easier for people to recycle. The bins are in places you shop all the time like Petco, OfficeMax, Best Buy, and Home Depot, but for now they are just in the New York and New Jersey area. This three month pilot program is just the beginning of a nationwide plan to have bins in 10,000 retail locations nationwide by this time next year.
Each store will have bins specific to their items. This just makes sense since you would not be recycling something at Petco that you bought at Home Depot. Terracycle also only wants specific items that they can use now or that they are developing a need for.
...
TreeHugger
Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Redefines Green Business (April 2, 2009)
My book, Revolution in a Bottle, hit the streets this week. It follows the story of TerraCycle from our beginnings in my dorm room, shoveling maggot filled organic waste, to creating products we sold to Wal-Mart and other major big box retailers, getting sued by Scotts and creating “sponsored waste” programs to upcycle branded waste. It also offers insights on how we approach media and pursue new opportunities. Read on to catch an excerpt from the book.
In many ways, what follows are lessons I learned on the job as an untrained and highly instinctual entrepreneur. TerraCycle taught me extreme forms of bootstrapping, and many of the innovations for which we are known were responses to failures of initial attempts in packaging, marketing, product development and even investor...
Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
An Interview With Tom Szaky Of TerraCycle (April 2, 2009)
I had the good fortune of interviewing Tom Szaky, a TPE extraordinaire and founder of TerraCycle. His company is making a variety of products, all out of garbage. They aren’t recycling a little here and a little there. Tom’s company is in fact producing all their products from 100% waste materials. His is an amazing guy, with an amazing story. Here are parts from my interview:
Mike Michalowicz: Tom, I understand you started your business, TerraCycle, back in 2001 and it has received an amazing amount of accolades for its innovative approach. Tell me exactly what you do.
Tom Szaky: TerraCycle makes organic lawn & garden fertilizers, hand painted e-waste flower pots, office and school supplies, eco-friendly cleaning supplies, pet products, home décor items, billboard...
The Thrid Sector
17th Annual Small Business Week Celebration (April 2, 2009)
Tom Szaky is co-founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Inc., producer of the world's first products made from, and packaged in, waste. Although he is only 26, Szaky has been featured in virtually every major media outlet from "60 Minutes" to the Wall Street Journal (5 times) and dubbed the "Coolest Startup In America" by Inc. magazine. Tom's book, Revolution in a Bottle, was released in February.
Don't miss Tom's amazing keynote address at the 17th Annual Small Business Week Celebration. This event culminates in the presentation of the prestigious SBA Small Business Week and Top Lender award
...
Inc.
Revolution in a Bottle (April 1, 2009)
My book, Revolution in a Bottle, hit the streets this week. It is a quick read that is meant to flow more like a novel, less like a business book. It follows the story of TerraCycle from our beginnings in my dorm room, shoveling maggot filled organic waste, to creating products we sold to Wal-Mart and other major big box retailers, getting sued by Scotts, and creating "sponsored waste" programs to upcycle branded waste. It also offers insights on how we approach media and pursue new opportunities. Here's are two excerpts from the introduction:
TerraCycle would never have succeeded if we had started it in another country. America is a land of unique opportunity, and it happens to produce disproportionate amounts of waste. A maverick with a big idea can go further in America than in...
Green Biz
Trashing The Idea of Waste (April 1, 2009)
Since 2001, Terracycle has been changing the perception of what is trash, using worms to make fertilizer and reappropriating food wrappers, pop bottles, vinyl records and, with it's latest program, saw blades, cat food bags and more, to upcycle waste into new products.
Terracycle's founder Tom Szaky spoke with GreenBiz Radio about the thought process behind giving trash a new life and why end-of-life must be considered at the start of every design.
Szaky will be one of the keynote speakers at GreenBiz.com's Greener by Design conference May 19-20 in San Francisco, and recently published a book, "Revolution in a Bottle."...
ABC News
SIP: Wineries Uncork Recycling Effort (April 1, 2009)
Something fresh is popping up in wine country, a save-the-cork effort that puts a new twist on recycling.
"All of a sudden we found that we had a product that had another life in it," says Roger Archey, program manager of the ReCORK America program that has signed up nearly 200 wineries, restaurants and retailers on the West Coast.
At issue is what happens after a cork is yanked out of a bottle of wine. Turns out corks can be ground up and turned into other products, including flooring and wall coverings....
The Trentonian
Garbage Moguls (April 1, 2009)
The founder of the city;s greenest business, TerraCycle, has penned a narrative of his company's rise as a model for other environmentally minded businesses.
The book, Tom Szaky's " Revolution in a Bottle" has its official release today, and the entrepreneur-turned-author hopes it can provide a roadmap for those keeping in mind those with the triple bottom line of remaining environmentally and socially conscious while still turning a profit....
Houston Style Magazine
It’s Easy Being Green! (April 1, 2009)
What can one family do to protect the environment and make a difference? Plenty, says FamilyFun magazine. The FamilyFun Volunteers Contest: Green Edition honors families that work together to help the environment. FamilyFun magazine, in conjunction with the HandsOn Network and Kim Sams, administrator of the DisneyWorldwide Conservation Fund, selected five winning families, each awarded $5,000 for the charity of their choice from The Walt Disney Company.
From collecting recyclables to creating an elementary-school garden, the winning “eco-families” discovered fun, innovative ways to nurture the planet. The winners, along with 25 FamilyFun reader-submitted ways to go green, are featured in the April 2009 issue of FamilyFun magazine and are available on FamilyFun’s Web site, FamilyFun.com/magazine...
Fox Business
CAPRI SUN, TerraCycle Make Green Fashion Statement for a Worthy Cause (April 1, 2009)
MIAMI, Mar 31, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----CAPRI SUN juice drink pouches have long been a favorite beverage for kids everywhere; they might become a favorite thing to wear now, too.
CAPRI SUN and TerraCycle, the eco-company that has pioneered the concept that any disposable material can be reused and created into something of value, have teamed up with green designer Justina Blakeney of Compai to create a one-of-a kind dress designed entirely from CAPRI SUN drink pouches. And, it's now being auctioned online for charity at www.ebaygivingworks.com. All proceeds from the auction, which will run through April 4, will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
The unique dress was recently unveiled as part of the CAPRI SUN Ready to Re-Wear Runway Show at the Boys & Girls Clubs...
Fort Mills Times
SIP: Wineries uncork recycling effort (April 1, 2009)
NAPA, Calif. — Something fresh is popping up in wine country, a save-the-cork effort that puts a new twist on recycling.
"All of a sudden we found that we had a product that had another life in it," says Roger Archey, program manager of the ReCORK America program that has signed up nearly 200 wineries, restaurants and retailers on the West Coast.
Senior Shield from the Lt. Governors Office on Aging
At issue is what happens after a cork is yanked out of a bottle of wine. Turns out corks can be ground up and turned into other products, including flooring and wall coverings....
Fashion Fille
Prom-Arama (April 1, 2009)
Capri Sun and TerraCycle may have the answer to every teen (and parents) heartfelt prom dress wish and it's available now on ebay until Saturday, April 4th. TerraCycle, an eco-friendly company formed around the concept that everything can be reused, teamed up with Capri Sun and fashion designer Justina Blakeney of LA’s Compai, known for rehabilitating “used and abused” clothing, to create a truly one of a kind dress made out of more than 130 Capri Sun drink pouches. And what high schooler didn’t love drinking Capri Sun as a kid?
The only dress of its kind, the 100% green design was unveiled by Race to Witch Mountain Star AnnaSophia Robb during Miami fashion week’s “Ready to Re-Wear Runway Fashion Show” on March 25th. There are currently no plans for the dress to be...
The Hour
Wineries uncork recycling effort (April 1, 2009)
NAPA, Calif. -- Something fresh is popping up in wine country, a save-the-cork effort that puts a new twist on recycling.
"All of a sudden we found that we had a product that had another life in it," says Roger Archey, program manager of the ReCORK America program that has signed up nearly 200 wineries, restaurants and retailers on the West Coast.
At issue is what happens after a cork is yanked out of a bottle of wine. Turns out corks can be ground up and turned into other products, including flooring and wall coverings....
Daily Press
SIP: Wineries uncork recycling effort (April 1, 2009)
NAPA, Calif. (AP) -- Something fresh is popping up in wine country, a save-the-cork effort that puts a new twist on recycling.
"All of a sudden we found that we had a product that had another life in it," says Roger Archey, program manager of the ReCORK America program that has signed up nearly 200 wineries, restaurants and retailers on the West Coast.
At issue is what happens after a cork is yanked out of a bottle of wine. Turns out corks can be ground up and turned into other products, including flooring and wall coverings....
Green Living Review
REVOLUTION IN A BOTTLE – Book Review (April 1, 2009)
Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton in 2002 to lead a startup company that makes useful stuff out of what other people consider nothing but garbage. Now TerraCycle is a leader of the eco-capitalist movement, which produces worm poop fertilizer and tote bags made from used juice pack and other products made from waste.
The author tells a fascinating tale on a number of levels – personal, business, and environmental.
...
Earth Times
CAPRI SUN, TerraCycle Make Green Fashion Statement for a Worthy Cause (March 31, 2009)
MIAMI - (Business Wire) CAPRI SUN juice drink pouches have long been a favorite beverage for kids everywhere; they might become a favorite thing to wear now, too.
CAPRI SUN and TerraCycle, the eco-company that has pioneered the concept that any disposable material can be reused and created into something of value, have teamed up with green designer Justina Blakeney of Compai to create a one-of-a kind dress designed entirely from CAPRI SUN drink pouches. And, it’s now being auctioned online for charity at www.ebaygivingworks.com. All proceeds from the auction, which will run through April 4, will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. ...
Akron Ohio Moms
Teaching Kids to Go Green (March 31, 2009)
TerraCycle makes recycling easy, fun & lets kids see how good recycling can be for the earth, a
favorite charity or their school!!caprisunbag
Sign up to collect soda bottles, yogurt containers, drink pouches or cookie wrappers (among other items as well). They will send you boxes & bags for you & your kids to fill and return. TerraCycle then turns your trash into flowerpots, messenger bags & bottles for plant food, which you can buy on the the site. They will also donate up to six cents per recycled item to your kid’s school or favorite charity!!...
Princeton Magazine
One man's trash (March 31, 2009)
"You always hope, but you never really believe it until it happens," said the 27-year-old of dropping out of college in 2002 in order to run a green business, the foundation of which is trash.
Yes, trash. TerraCycle diverts waste destined for landfills and upcycles it into products running the gamut of organic cleaning supplies to reusable bags, to plant food. The products themselves are made almost completely out of garbage. Cleaners are packaged in used soda bottles and the spray tops are discards from manufacturing companies. Garden pots and trash cans are made entirely out of e-waste, namely crushed computers. The Retote is a reusable tote bag created from discarded plastic shopping bags. Szaky said that since they've started manufacturing it 2.5 million plastic bags have already...
Andrew Detmers
EcoCapitalist (March 30, 2009)
It seems that all I hear about these days is the recession. Although I believe it is important to understand its cause and to recover I would like to hear more about how we keep from it happening again. Because I don't hear it enough I thought you are probably in the same boat, so I went looking. The most interesting story I found focused on TerraCycle which is a manufacturing company who's products are made entirely from garbage....
Wall Street Journal
Greedy Self-Interest Will Save Earth (March 30, 2009)
I enjoyed David A. Price's review of "Revolution in a Bottle" (Bookshelf, March 11). It tells eco-capitalist Tom Szaky's account of the birth of TerraCycle, his "upcycling" company that marries environmentalism and price-conscious consumerism by building consumer products from waste material. It reminds me that indeed there is nothing new under the sun.
The head of one of the more prosperous families in the southwest Philadelphia neighborhood where I grew up owned a junkyard in West Philadelphia. In the parlance of the day, he was a junk man. Apparently, he made a pretty good living doing it....
EcoFrenzy
10 Tips from an Eco-Capitalist: Tom Szaky Shares TerraCycle’s Secrets to Success (March 30, 2009)
Tom Szaky has created a new form of capitalism, eco-capitalism, in which waste is re-conceptualized as a raw material and becomes an economic driver. In his new book, “Revolution in a Bottle,” Szaky reveals the secrets to TerraCycle’s success as well as its twists and turns along the way to becoming a national consumer products company, renowned for creating products from — and packaged in — waste.
I first learned of TerraCycle when reading “Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World” by CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, Gary Hirshberg. I was so intrigued by the company, I requested an interview with Szaky and to my astonishment he agreed (this was at the very start of my still fresh blogging career — you can read that article here). And, full disclosure here, as...
Park Howell
Eco-Capitalism: How to Build a Small Empire from Worm Droppings (March 30, 2009)
What better way to follow-up Earth Hour as we move towards Earth Day than with a spotlight on one the world’s leading eco-capitalists: TerraCycle.
Essentially, Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, upcycles trash and turns it into new products. We’re not talking just plastics, cans and glass. We’re talking just about everything.
They got their start by feeding organic waste to worms, liquefying their poop and packaging it in reused soda bottles...
Associated content
Uncork Recycling Efforts with Wine Corks (March 30, 2009)
Wine Corks Can Be Used for Other Things
Other uses for used wine corks have been found. This has spurred a recycling effort for them. Save the cork effort is putting a new look on recycling. This effort began just 18 months go. However, as it has grown quickly on the West Coast, it has now carried over to the
East coast as well.
It takes 300,000 corks to make one ton. Collecting these can take time and be cost consuming. Corks can not be used over for new fresh bottles of wine. Sealing bottles of wine with a cork is a one and done thing. It turns out that corks can be ground up and used for flooring and wall products. Recycling companies are looking for companies that are experimenting with using corks in other ways as well....
The Moment Blog
Anne on the Move | Red Hook, Brooklyn (March 27, 2009)
You might have heard of Terracycle — Tom Szaky’s worm poop story is now part of eco-folklore! Now, the first free-standing store dedicated to Terracycle’s all-natural, all-organic, all-recycled products has opened in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Appropriately called Waste Nought, the store sells everything from kid-size backpacks made from recycled Capri Sun juice pouches and flowerpots made from e-waste (think old computers and fax machines) to all-purpose house cleaner and bird feeders packaged in discarded soda bottles. Waste Nought is also trying to encourage neighborhood “up-cycling” by producing local products from local waste (for example: collecting candle remnants from local restaurants, re-casting them, then selling them back to restaurants)....
EcoFashion
TerraCycle (March 27, 2009)
The TerraCycle Story…
…is a tale of ultimate Eco-Capitalism. The company’s flagship product, TerraCycle Plant Food™, is an all-natural, all-organic, ‘goof-proof’ liquid plant food made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (reused soda bottles)!
It all started in 2001 when two Princeton University students set out to change the way people do business. Inspired by a box of worms, these students had a dream: a company could be financially successful while being ecologically and socially responsible....
Matt Castille
Garbage mogul: TerraCycle’s plan to make millions from trash (March 27, 2009)
TRENTON, N.J. (Fortune Small Business) -- In a sprawling former suitcase factory in New Jersey, a camera crew is filming entrepreneur Tom Szaky and his company, TerraCycle, for a new reality TV show. Ten of the recycling firm's 46 employees sit around a table awaiting Szaky's next challenge. "So, guys," says Szaky, reaching into the pocket of his corduroy jacket and tossing a used toothbrush onto the table. "What are we going to do with this?"
You could ask the same question about every piece of trash in this 250,000-square-foot warehouse. Those boxes of Capri Sun juice pouches will become pencil cases. Circuit boards will be reincarnated as picture frames and clocks. Oreo wrappers will morph into kites. ...
CNBC
Revolutionaries Have to Dream Big! (March 27, 2009)
This Guest Blog was written by Tom Szaky author of, "Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business" and CEO of TerraCycle.
As the CEO of an environmentally focused company I end up in many debates or discussions about “green” business. How being environmentally responsible is or isn’t defined, what limitations the movement faces and what the future holds for green companies and green products or services. ...
WRAL
SIP: Wineries uncork recycling effort (March 27, 2009)
NAPA, Calif. — Something fresh is popping up in wine country, a save-the-cork effort that puts a new twist on recycling.
"All of a sudden we found that we had a product that had another life in it," says Roger Archey, program manager of the ReCORK America program that has signed up nearly 200 wineries, restaurants and retailers on the West Coast.
At issue is what happens after a cork is yanked out of a bottle of wine. Turns out corks can be ground up and turned into other products, including flooring and wall coverings....
Retire Rich
TerraCycle...the Wal-mart of Garbage. (March 26, 2009)
A new reality TV, Garbage Moguls, show airing on the National Geographic channel.
Ten of the recycling firm's 46 employees sit around a table awaiting Szaky's next challenge. "So, guys," says Szaky, reaching into the pocket of his corduroy jacket and tossing a used toothbrush onto the table. "What are we going to do with this?"
You could ask the same question about every piece of trash in this 250,000-square-foot warehouse. Those boxes of Capri Sun juice pouches will become pencil cases. Circuit boards will be reincarnated as picture frames and clocks. Oreo wrappers will morph into kites. ...
Smart Brief
One man's trash (March 26, 2009)
Tom Szaky has an unusual ambition: "We want to be the Wal-Mart of garbage," says the 26-year-old founder of TerraCycle, a company that converts post-consumer waste into tote bags and picture frames. Szaky has 17,000 "trash brigades" searching for garbage and a reality show about to launch on the National Geographic Channel. What he doesn't have yet are profits. TerraCycle lost $3.5 million last year, and fundraising is a constant concern. CNNMoney.com/Fortune Small Business (03/25) ...
Planet Good Radio
Innovative Business Model: TerraCycle (March 26, 2009)
Interview with Tom Szaky - In 2001, as a college freshman, Tom founded TerraCycle in hopes of building a new, more responsible way of doing business. TerraCycle (www.terracycle.net) represents a new generation of company, putting as much emphasis on its social and environmental impact as its profits. TerraCycle has revolutionized the industry by making eco-friendly and affordable products from waste...
GreenerDesign
10 Tips from an Eco-Capitalist: Tom Szaky Shares TerraCycle's Secrets to Success (March 25, 2009)
Tom Szaky has created a new form of capitalism, eco-capitalism, in which waste is re-conceptualized as a raw material and becomes an economic driver. In his new book, "Revolution in a Bottle," Szaky reveals the secrets to TerraCycle's success as well as its twists and turns along the way to becoming a national consumer products company, renowned for creating products from -- and packaged in -- waste.
I first learned of TerraCycle when reading "Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World" by CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, Gary Hirshberg. I was so intrigued by the company, I requested an interview with Szaky and to my astonishment he agreed (this was at the very start of my still fresh blogging career -- you can read that article here). And, full disclosure here, as a result of...
Green Daily
"Revolution in a Bottle" Book Review"Revolution in a Bottle" Book Review (March 25, 2009)
A few weeks ago I wrote about office supplies from Terracycle, the company that makes cool things out of garbage. TerraCycle tracked me down and offered an advance copy of their founder, Tom Szaky's, new book, Revolution in a Bottle.
I actually read the whole thing, which is rare for a business book. Usually you just read the first two chapters, skim the middle, then read the last chapter. But this is such a wacky ride -- and at 200 pages, doable in an evening -- that you will keep reading to see what happens next.
...
EcoSilly
"Revolution in a Bottle" Book Review (March 25, 2009)
A few weeks ago I wrote about office supplies from Terracycle, the company that makes cool things out of garbage. TerraCycle tracked me down and offered an advance copy of their founder, Tom Szaky’s, new book, Revolution in a Bottle.
I actually read the whole thing, which is rare for a business book. Usually you just read the first two chapters, skim the middle, then read the last chapter. But this is such a wacky ride — and at 200 pages, doable in an evening — that you will keep reading to see what happens next.
It’s a fun read, mainly because it’s the story of how Tom dropped out of Princeton to make and market worm poop and somehow created a successful, cutting-edge green company while sticking to his principles. ...
CNN
Garbage mogul makes millions from trash (March 25, 2009)
TRENTON, N.J. (Fortune Small Business) -- In a sprawling former suitcase factory in New Jersey, a camera crew is filming entrepreneur Tom Szaky and his company, TerraCycle, for a new reality TV show. Ten of the recycling firm's 46 employees sit around a table awaiting Szaky's next challenge. "So, guys," says Szaky, reaching into the pocket of his corduroy jacket and tossing a used toothbrush onto the table. "What are we going to do with this?"
You could ask the same question about every piece of trash in this 250,000-square-foot warehouse. Those boxes of Capri Sun juice pouches will become pencil cases. Circuit boards will be reincarnated as picture frames and clocks. Oreo wrappers will morph into kites.
"We want to be the Wal-Mart of garbage," says Szaky, 26. Today's...
Everyday Trash
Garbage Moguls (March 25, 2009)
DVR alert for anyone who gets the National Geographic Channel! A new show called “Garbage Moguls” will launch next month (timed with Earth Day). The premise: follow around Tom Szaky, the 27-year-old CEO of TerraCycle who started his empire selling worm poop as organic plant food from his Princeton dorm room before dropping out to move on to larger ventures—like partnering with major companies to upcycle their trash into products he sells (and sometimes even getting paid by the companies to take their trash in the first place).
Prediction: That dude in the striped sweater has runaway reality star smeared all over him, Steve-O meets Matther Lillard’s character from Hackers meets Leila’s lunatic vegan ex.
I’ve been endeared to the TerraCycle story since reading...
Green LA Girl
A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag. (March 25, 2009)
Today’s freebie’s a copy of Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business by Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of eco-company TerraCycle.
Read my review to learn about how the author went from growing weed to shoveling shit to running a big successful eco-friendly company. ...
Surfers Digest
“Revolution in a Bottle” Book Review (March 25, 2009)
A few weeks ago I wrote about office supplies from Terracycle, the company that makes cool things out of garbage. TerraCycle tracked me down and offered an advance copy of their founder, Tom Szaky's, new book, Revolution in a Bottle.
I actually read the whole thing, which is rare for a business book. Usually you just read the first two chapters, skim the middle, then read the last chapter. But this is such a wacky ride -- and at 200 pages, doable in an evening -- that you will keep reading to see what happens next....
Consumer Goods Technology
TerraCycle Show Premiers on National Geographic (March 24, 2009)
Kites from Oreo cookie wrappers. Spiral notebooks from old cereal boxes. Pencils from rolled newspaper. Coming to a superstore near you are products made entirely of garbage. Now, a new National Geographic Channel (NGC) special, premiering on Earth Day, takes a look at the quirky young "eco-capitalists" at the company, TerraCycle Inc., who are making this concept happen; rummaging through dumpsters and landfills for materials, brainstorming innovative products … and hoping to make millions.
"Garbage is a man-made idea, and we've created garbage because we haven't created solutions for it," explains CEO for TerraCycle, Tom Szaky. "We take waste, we add design and produce mass merchandise." Once just a dorm-room operation, TerraCycle has grown from two employees to more than 50 and...
Mother Nature Network
Revolution in a Bottle (March 24, 2009)
Smoke pot, drop out of college, scoop poop for a living, literally. That sounds like a cautionary anti-drug message, but Tom Szaky, who really did toke up a green worm poop business idea then drop out of Princeton to pursue it, is now the proud CEO of Terracycle, a famous eco-business that started out bottling worm poop fertilizer and today churns out a new upcycled product a week.
Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot — all these huge chain megastores carry Terracycle products, whether it’s the upcycled juice box pencil case, the disposable-made-reusable plastic tote bag, or eco-friendly window cleaner. All of this started, though, with Tom learning that worm poop made his pot plant thrive — and coming up with a half-baked business idea. And Tom’s new book, Revolution in a Bottle:...
Green LA Girl
Book review: Revolution in a Bottle — Pot-inspired eco-capitalism (March 24, 2009)
Smoke pot, drop out of college, scoop shit for a living, literally. That sounds like a cautionary anti-drug message, but Tom Szaky, who really did toke up a green worm poop business idea then drop out of Princeton to pursue it, is now the proud CEO of Terracycle, a famous eco-business that started out bottling worm poop fertilizer and today churns out a new upcycled product a week.
Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot — All these huge chain megastores carry Terracycle products, whether it’s the upcycled juice box pencil case, the disposable-made-reusable plastic tote bag, or eco-friendly window cleaner. All of this started, though, with Tom learning that worm poop made his pot plant thrive — and coming up with a half-baked business idea. And Tom’s new book, Revolution in a Bottle:...
The Green Lady
TerraCycle - The Worm Poop People (March 24, 2009)
In case readers have not yet heard of TerraCycle, Inc., the fantastic Ecofriendly company in NJ that makes the most wonderful fertilizer from worm droppings - they are the Worm Poop people, TheGardenLady wants to tell you about them. Please check out their website.
Many TV programs have not only been talking about TerraCycle Inc.’s fertilizer but recently they have had many featured stories about TerraCycle’s newest Ecofriendly endeavor- recycling your trash.
TerraCycle wants some of your trash to help keep this trash out of landfills and are recycling this trash into new and useful products. TerraCycle wants you to recycle your old soil / fertilizer bags, your old chip bags, your old yogurt containers along with many other items by giving it to them. One place you...
Fox News
TerraCycle on FOX news (March 24, 2009)
TerraCycle Trash for Cash segment on FOX news ...
NJBiz
TerraCycle founder's new book tells the green venture's story (March 23, 2009)
In 2002, Princeton freshman Tom Szaky was shoveling garbage from the university’s dining halls into a composter for earthworms to dine upon.
Six years later, he leads Trenton-based TerraCycle, a green enterprise that turns worm poop into organic plant food, and recycles consumer product packaging — soda bottles, Oreo wrappers, Kool-aid pouches — into backpacks and purses.
In his new book, “Revolution in a Bottle,” Szaky tells the story of how he and a few friends turned a dorm-room venture into a business with 50 employees and sales of $6 million. In frank detail, he discusses the challenges he faced: raising money without losing control of the business; talking his way onto the shelves of Home Depot and Wal-Mart; recruiting unpaid college interns; and getting...
TreeHugger
4 Radical Solutions to Packaging Waste (March 23, 2009)
As CEO of TerraCycle, I'm constantly thinking about how to solve problems with waste. From bottle bills to packaging taxes, nothing is too out-there to me. I've come up with four radical solutions that could help curb the problem. Click through for my concepts and let me know your reactions and alternative ideas.
1. Tax Non-Standard Packaging
One reason why so few things are recyclable is because of the variety of packaging forms (different composite materials) and styles. If packaging were more standardized, a much greater amount of packaging waste could be recycled. Should we create a standard and tax those brands that use non-standard packaging?
...
City Paper
Revolution in a Bottle (March 23, 2009)
Those totes made from recycled Target bags show just how far Tom Szaky and his company, TerraCycle, have come from being vendors of worm poop. But don't call that original product by its name, "vermicompost," says Szaky, or you'll scare off the big-box buyers who seem to have proved his theory that folks will buy earth-friendly if it's competitively priced, readily available and aesthetically pleasing. He is generous with his details of the early years: Anybody with the fortitude to live in a questionable part of Trenton with 30 or so of your closest intern pals could easily follow his path. The part he glosses over is how fuel prices affect things like shipping oak compost barrels from California, and how the overall downturn in spending has affected his company....
(Eco)nomizing
Terracycle (March 23, 2009)
Two Princeton students started Terracycle back in 2001. It started as a business model to sell organic plant food with no waste (recycled packaging etc). The company is now a huge operation that collects all sorts of product waste (cookie wrappers, drink pouches, cell phones) and turns them into new useable products. A great site for school kids especially since they would gather the materials (chips bags) then once they have a certain amount they send it in using the free postage, and 2 cents for each wrapper goes to the non-profit of their choice (could be their own school). It appears that brands/companies have to agree to this - so only certain wrappers are accepted (for example Nabisco is one of the collaborators). So, certainly there is some advertising involved. That’s part of the...
Craftzine
Checkin' In: Recycling Maven Tiffany Threadgould (March 23, 2009)
Giving voice to the voiceless, Tiffany Threadgould is a true advocate for junk. Not for making it, of course, but re-making it. In her own words, "After all, garbage has feelings, too." The girl has a knack for taking overlooked items bound for the recycling bin, and making them useful as well as stylish. We checked in with Tiffany recently to see what she's been up to, but first let's take a look at what Tiffany has contributed to the pages of CRAFT magazine.
Tiffany made her CRAFT debut back in Volume 03, when she asked us to take another look at plastic bottles and taught us how to revise them into "pop art" in the form of a soap dish, trinket dish, photo cuff, and vase:
"I've been designing projects galore for TerraCycle, the eco-company that started off making worm...
Triple Pundit
Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Redefines Green Business (March 17, 2009)
My book, Revolution in a Bottle, hit the streets this week. It is a quick read that is meant to flow more like a novel, less like a business book. It follows the story of TerraCycle from our beginnings in my dorm room, shoveling maggot filled organic waste to creating products we sold to Wal-Mart and other major big box retailers, getting sued by Scotts and creating “sponsored waste” programs to upcycle branded waste. It also offers insights on how we approach media and pursue new opportunities. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:
While it has not always led to the “right” decision, I have learned that I must always trust my gut. Sometimes this has led to hiring people without requisite experience but who have turned out to be gems as they developed their art. In some...
WSJ: From Dorm Room to Wal-Mart
Campus Entrepreneurship (March 17, 2009)
David A. Price at the WSJ reviews the autobiography of Terracycle founder Tom Szaky. He is a clear favorite in social entrepreneurship circles and it looks like he is a guy worth getting to know. Pretty interesting stuff. From the review:
One of the more colorful of these is Tom Szaky, the 27-year-old co-founder and chief executive of Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle. At $8 million in revenue in 2008 — on sales of household items like bathroom cleaners, notebooks and plant food — his company is minuscule by the standards of the consumer-products industry. Nonetheless, TerraCycle’s story should get many an executive’s mental gears turning. It’s not every dorm-room operation that grows to the point of selling its products through Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Target. Rarer still...
Blog of Lowe Moscow
TerraCycle collects non-recyclables at big-box stores (March 17, 2009)
TerraCycle and its ever-expanding list of eco-innovations have once again caught our eye. Not satisfied with simply making eco-fertilizer from organic waste and worm poop or turning old wrappers into eco-chic bags and accessories, the US-based company has now introduced a non-recyclable packaging collection system in several American big-box chain stores.
The collection project first began in 2007, letting the public (most often civic groups or schools) set up collection points for packaging and other waste. TerraCycle donates USD 0.02–0.06 to the charity of the collector’s choice for each unit that enters the system. The benefit for TerraCycle: a warm, fuzzy planet-saving glow, and a source of raw material for the upcycled products it sells, including pencil cases, lunch boxes...
Wall Street Journal
From Dorm Room to Wal-Mart (March 12, 2009)
In July, back when the Dow was still over 11000, an editor at the San Francisco Chronicle cheered the recession: Financial meltdown, she wrote, is good for the planet. Less money means less buying; less buying means a greener world.
Seems like a pretty dour way of looking at things -- and none too well thought out. Sure, we'll be spending less, but some of the first products to take a hit will be the premium-priced, green-friendly ones. (Indeed, sales of Toyota's Prius fell 28.6% in January compared with the same month last year.)
[Business Bookshelf]
A handful of eco-capitalists, though, have taken on the daunting task of marrying environmentalism to price-conscious consumerism. One of the more colorful of these is Tom Szaky, the 27-year-old co-founder and chief executive...
Gardening How - To
Honorable Mention (March 12, 2009)
Tote bag, seed starters, art pots, bird feeder, and deer repellent from TerraCycle, www.TerraCycle.net value 65$...
Wall Street Journal
From Dorm Room to Wal-Mart (March 11, 2009)
In July, back when the Dow was still over 11000, an editor at the San Francisco Chronicle cheered the recession: Financial meltdown, she wrote, is good for the planet. Less money means less buying; less buying means a greener world.
Seems like a pretty dour way of looking at things -- and none too well thought out. Sure, we'll be spending less, but some of the first products to take a hit will be the premium-priced, green-friendly ones. (Indeed, sales of Toyota's Prius fell 28.6% in January compared with the same month last year.)
[Business Bookshelf]
A handful of eco-capitalists, though, have taken on the daunting task of marrying environmentalism to price-conscious consumerism. One of the more colorful of these is Tom Szaky, the 27-year-old co-founder and chief executive...
We Love Your Walls
Upcycling Packaging: A New Business Concept (March 11, 2009)
Entrepreneurialism is alive and well in America. Just ask Tom Szaky, the founder of TerraCycle.
His big idea: a commercialized liquid plant food made from biological waste—or as Szaky calls it “worm poop”, in reused soda bottles from school recycling programs, after making donations for them. Cleaning the bottles, slapping homey labels on them, and fitting them with trigger sprays other manufacturers couldn’t use, or didn’t want, enabled Szaky to finally bring his product to market.
In a recent Brand Packaging article dubbed: “Spinning Garbage into Gold”, Szaky shares some terrific ideas that ought to inspire a new generation of business owners.
Szaky dropped out of Princeton and worked at the new business for three years until finally securing...
Today's Parent Fl
Free Upcycling Programs Help Kids, Communities And Environment (March 11, 2009)
Families, schools and non-profits nationwide are joining TerraCycle’s free packaging return programs as a way to raise money through the collection of hard-to-recycle items such as drink pouches, cookie wrappers and yogurt cups.
The collection programs, called Brigades, divert packaging waste from landfills and help raise consumer awareness about recycling. By encouraging people to rethink ‘what is waste,’ TerraCycle is making it simple for consumers to have a positive impact on the environment. With a monetary reward as incentive to recycle, the Brigades raise money for a charitable organization of the collector’s choice. Participation is free and all shipping costs are paid. Sign up today at www.terracycle.net/brigades.
The programs are a fun and easy way for...
Greenzer
GreenTip: TerraCycle It (March 10, 2009)
You may have seen TerraCycle Plant Food on the shelf at your local Home Depot; it’s the liquefied worm poop fertilizer packaged in a used soda bottle with an end-run sprayer top, the feature product from a brand that’s gotten plenty of attention for being one of the greenest around. The purpose behind TerraCycle products is simple: Make everything–and they do mean everything–from waste, whether it’s the contents, like the lovely-sounding liquefied worm poor, or the product itself, like the lunch box made from used drink pouches.
While seeking out TerraCycle products for use in your home is one good way to get involved with a company who’s truly focused on reducing by reusing, you can also keep an eye out for TerraCycle collection bins that will soon be appearing in major...
Dieline
Upcycling Packaging: A New Business Concept (March 10, 2009)
Entrepreneurialism is alive and well in America. Just ask Tom Szaky, the founder of TerraCycle.
His big idea: a commercialized liquid plant food made from biological waste—or as Szaky calls it “worm poop”, in reused soda bottles from school recycling programs, after making donations for them. Cleaning the bottles, slapping homey labels on them, and fitting them with trigger sprays other manufacturers couldn’t use, or didn’t want, enabled Szaky to finally bring his product to market.
In a recent Brand Packaging article dubbed: “Spinning Garbage into Gold”, Szaky shares some terrific ideas that ought to inspire a new generation of business owners....
Coloradoan
Add green to your pocket (March 10, 2009)
If you have access to garbage, even if it is just building up in your garage, you may have a viable way of making some money by following the model of TerraCycle.
Their business model helps turn trash into cash by taking what normally would be discarded and reinventing it. They turn disposable bags into reusable shopping totes and juice pouches into lunch boxes. This option takes a bit more creativity, but could cost very little.
You never know what could be the next big hit unless you give it a try. See examples and learn more at TerraCycle.net.
...
This Green Life
Gone to the Birds (March 9, 2009)
A while back I wrote a blog entry about “worm poop tea,” or liquid plant food made from waste, by the company TerraCycle. In the meantime TerraCycle has come out with a huge list of recycled products. Including, cool tote bags made from old drink pouches, fire logs made from 100% wax cardboard waste and a huge list of office supplies made from used newspaper, old Oreo wrappers and pretty much anything else you can think of. In one word ingenious. I now want to own one of everything on their product list.
I recently received their new TerraCycle Wild Bird Premium Feeder. It’s fashioned out of an old 2-liter bottle and the base is made out of recycled plastic. The product carries a Zerofootprint™ Seal....
America's Best
Part of Their Nature (March 9, 2009)
Tom Szaky has often been told that he is crazy. At age 19, he dropped out of Princeton to start TerraCycle, a business revolving around selling an all-organic liquid plant food made from worm feces—and no, that's not a typo. When he first started out, he had a hard time raising capital and people often laughed him right out of the office. But things soon changed when he won a business-plan contest and the company took off. In 2006, TerraCycle was named "The Coolest Little Start-up in America" by Inc. magazine.
Located in Trenton, New Jersey, TerraCycle is a very unique company in that it manufactures affordable, potent, organic products that are not only made from waste, but are also packaged entirely in waste. All of the products are packaged in used soda bottles or other recyclable...
The Daily Green
TerraCycle Turns Circuit Boards and Records Into Cool Coasters, Picture Frames and Clocks (March 9, 2009)
Innovative, New Jersey-based recycled products company TerraCycle has launched a new line of funky items, "upcycled" from e-waste and old vinyl records (remember those? I have lots of 'em I still enjoy, so hands off those guys). These join TerraCycle's other offerings of plant fertilizer, cleaning products, flower pots, messenger bags, pens and other items, made entirely from recycled materials (including the packaging).
terracycle recycled coasters from circuit boards
I love TerraCycle's recycled circuit board coasters, since I'm a geek, and I like technology as much as the next Star Trek TNG fan. When I brought a few home the other day, my roommate (who is also a little geeky but also hot and a musician) went wild over them, since she too spends too much time on her laptop. The coasters...
CNN
Cashing in on trash (March 6, 2009)
A college dropout shows how he's turning trash into cash. CNN's Betty Nguyen reports....
Tell It to Al
Trash for cash (March 5, 2009)
I occassionally try to write an uplifting column about business success, particularly in these bleak times.
Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle Inc. in Trenton, N.J., fits this bill.
OK, so he sells woom poop and stuff he makes out of garbage.
But his revenues are growing and he’s bagging deals with huge companies including Kraft Foods Inc. and PepsiCo Inc’s Frito-Lay division. And he appears to have former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott eating out of his filthy, wormy hands....
Birds and Blooms
Where's Webster? (March 5, 2009)
MARCH CONTEST
30 people will each win a seed starting kit from Terracycle (right). Contest runs from March 1 to March 31, 2009. Winners will be randomly drawn on or around April 1, 2009.
Who is Terracycle? Terracycle works to find innovative ways to make unique products from recycled material. To learn more about Terracycle and their products, visit their Web site. ...
Green Daily
Terracycle - Pens Made of Paper and Corn (March 4, 2009)
Terracylce is a super cool company that takes trash -- and worse, i.e. worm poop -- and turns it into useful items, like bags, lawn and garden items, and fertilizer from the worm poop.
I was in Office Max the other day and discovered the latest addition, a line of recycled office products. In many cases the items, themselves are recyclable. In other cases, like the binder which is made of paper and recycled steel, they ask you to send the product back for repurposing when you're done with them. Talk about a dedication to keeping materials out of landfills!
...
Wend Blog
TerraCycle: Making Stuff From Trash is Cool (March 4, 2009)
According to the EPA, in 1960 the average American, produced 2.7 pounds of waste per day. In 2003 that number had increased to an eye-popping 4.5 pounds. That’s why the founders of Terracycle decided to do something productive with trash: make things that are not only functional, but lucrative as well.
From pencil cases to worm poop fertilizers to corn pens, Terracycle takes used wrappers, packaging and other waste to turn it into usable products. Maybe the coolest part about Terracycle’s business is that consumers can take part in the process as well by sending in their own waste. Are you a Clif Bar junkie? Save those wrappers, get collection bags from Terracycle and soon, an item that you otherwise would have thrown away, gets turned into a bag. Terracycle accepts a variety...
Vince Blog
Terracycle! (March 4, 2009)
Terracycle! Oh it is such a sweet word. I’ve looked into it and they’re doing some amazing stuff. I recommend that you take a look at it for yourself and you just might be amazed as I was of what you might find. I’ve got a couple of videos, but it doesn’t even start to describe all the cool products they have. They’re trying pretty darn hard to recycle used items that no one would really think about and turn them into useable items. The best part? They’re doing it by environmentally friendly means and the products are pretty amazing and unique. Let’s just take a look at a couple of these products. They carry bags, cleaners, office supplies, pots, and lawn and garden materials. I’m interested and you should be too.
In lawn and garden, terracycle sells all purpose plant...
Clean Power TV
Terracycle recycling bins raise money for schools and profit (March 4, 2009)
Recycling bins harvest the raw materials that are turned into products at Terracycle. Founder & CEO Tom Szaky accurately boasts, “We make products out of garbage.” From their signature worm poop fertilizer (packaged in recycled soda bottles) to rain barrels (from used wine barrels) to pencil cases and bags (from used juice pouches) and more.
The benefits of Terracycle’s business model multiply many times over: garbage collection teams raise money for schools and charities, while saving recyclable waste from being deposited in landfills, while making a handsome profit for the company, and offering you affordable green products that are often cheaper than the traditional products. The products are readily available at large retailers everywhere....
Home Tips Guide
TerraCycle Wants To Upcycle Your Junk Everywhere (March 4, 2009)
TerraCycle has been on the forefront of upcycling, reinventing everything from candy wrappers to yogurt containers as new, functional products. Now the company is escalating their upcycling efforts with a new program that will collect even more waste items from major chain stores everywhere.
According to GreenBiz, TerraCycle will placing bins in major chains like Petco, Home Depot and OfficeMax to collect used items that customers wish to recycle or dispose of. Each store will...
Success
Going for the Green (March 4, 2009)
When TerraCycle co-founder Tom Szaky left his Canadian home to study at Princeton University, he didn't know that, less than a year later he would be knee-deep in garbage- literally. Visiting friends in Montreal and seeing their plants flourish with the addition of worm excrement, Szaky got an idea: He would start a company selling fertilizer created by feeding organic waste to the res wigglers and collecting the product. He called the company TerraCycle...
Denver Post
Lewis: Mogul aims to make millions from garbage (March 4, 2009)
Tom Szaky had a billion worms eating cafeteria scraps and squeezing out four tons of worm poop a day when I first ran into him in 2007.
He'd pour the worm waste into used soda bottles, wrap colorful labels around them, and sell them as plant food to Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and other big-box stores.
Szaky, now 27, dropped out of Princeton University and maxed out all of his credit cards to do this.
Today, his company, TerraCycle Inc. of Trenton, N.J., has spread worm poop to 10,000 major retail outlets across North America. But now he outsources worm-pooping operations to worm farmers in North Carolina so that his company can focus on garbage. ...
Fox Business
Al Lewis: Garbage Mogul Bags Big Deals (March 4, 2009)
Tom Szaky had a billion worms eating cafeteria scraps and squeezing out four tons of worm poop a day when I first ran into him in 2007.
He'd pour the worm waste into used soda bottles, wrap colorful labels around them, and sell them as plant food to Wal-Mart (WMT: 47.95, 0.59, 1.25%), Target (TGT: 26.67, 0.78, 3.01%), Home Depot (HD: 18.862, -0.038, -0.2%) and other big-box stores.
Szaky, now 27, dropped out of Princeton University and maxed out all of his credit cards to do this....
The Great Epoque
TerraCycle: waste at the base of a éco-capitalism (February 27, 2009)
In 2007, the Americans generated 254 million tons of waste domestic and cumbersome. If the rate of recycling and composting doubled since 1990, spending 16% to 33%,137 million tons of waste still came to block the American landfills in 2007. The remainder is incinerated.
...
Green Biz
Terracycle Sets Up Waste Collection Bins in Home Depot, Petco (February 26, 2009)
Terracycle, the company that makes fertilizer from worm poop and tote bags from food wrappers, continues to find ways to use non-recyclable items, and this month is rolling out collection bins for products specific to various chain stores.
Petco, OfficeMax, Home Depot and Best Buy stores are some of the retailers in the New York and New Jersey area that will have the collection bins set up in the coming three months for the pilot phase of the program. By mid-2010, Terracycle hopes to have collection bins in 10,000 locations.
...
Azurblau
Second Hand made in the USA (February 26, 2009)
Sie kennen Vintage-Kleider aus Second-Hand-Shops und den so genannten Trash Look als Modetrend rebellischer Teenager sowie ausgewachsener Designer. Aber bestimmt kennen Sie noch nicht die geniale Kombination beider Grundgedanken, mit der sich die Öko-Firma TerraCycle aus New Jersey derzeit ein goldenes Näschen verdient. Sie verwandelt die amerikanischen Straßen in Goldgruben.
TerraCycle sammelt Müll und recycelt nicht nur Abfall, sondern verarbeitet ihn zu modischen Accessoires bzw. bereitet weggeworfene Produkte zu neuen auf, die wieder verkauft werden. TerraCycle ist hierzulande am ehesten vergleichbar mit dem Grünen Punkt, jedoch wäre es neu, wenn man in Deutschland ein modisches Statement mit dem Tragen eines Grünen Punktes am Hemdskragen setzen könnte....
Green Grown And Sexy
TerraCycle (February 25, 2009)
Terracycle creates amazing products from recycled goods. Terracycle began in 2001. Two Princeton University students (now co-founders of Terracycle) Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, inspired by a worm box, set out to prove that a business could financially succeed while being ecologically and socially responsible. So far, so good.
The Terracycle Company first began the company selling eco-lawn and gardening products. The products were created out of recycled soda bottles, yogurts cups etc. The company continued by producing all natural cleaners in upcycled soda bottles. Naturally, the natural cleaning ingredients have never been tested on animals and are biodegradable. ...
Bucyrus Telegraph Forum
The straight poop on a great idea (February 24, 2009)
He was sharing eco-ideas through "Greening Your Garden While Protecting the Planet." As he moved through his Power Point with alacrity, he paused for an occasional story. The one that sent me spinning was related to a product called TerraCycle.
A couple of young men -- Princeton University students -- got this crazy idea to take worm poop and market it. Joe told the story in some length, but the bottom line is that they knew this was a precious commodity. The guys managed to produce it.
A need for containers launched them into going through trash Dumpsters to round up soda bottles to market the moist substance. After that, they contacted companies that already shipped consumer goods, asking for cardboard wastes. Soon, businesses were paying the young men money to haul...
Riding With No Hands
Mama’s got a brand new (used) bag… *giveaway* (February 24, 2009)
I first heard of TerraCycle about a year ago or so, when I opened an issue of Newsweek to see an offer from Target for a free Retote in exchange for mailing in plastic Target shopping bags to TerraCycle. I happened to have several plastic Target bags in my cabinet, so I stuffed them in the makeshift envelope and sent it away. Just a few weeks later I received a coupon in the mail for my free Retote and picked one up at Target soon thereafter. That a was big turning point for me, because it was the very first reusable shopping bag I ever owned. Thanks to that little nudge from TerraCycle I now rarely use plastic bags and have changed some of my family’s other habits in an effort to go green. If you’ve never heard of TerraCycle, I’m thrilled to introduce you to this wonderful company! If...
Mother Nature Network
TerraCycle redefines American trash (February 23, 2009)
If there were one company on pace to redefine America’s relationship with its trash, it would be Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle. 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 rainbarrels 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...
Organic Gardening
ENTER TO WIN a Seed Starting Kit from TerraCycle, Inc (February 23, 2009)
Easy-to-Use: Ready-to-use, just plant your seed and grow
Eco-friendly: Packaged in a tray made from 100% recycled paper and contains pure worm poop (which is made from organic waste)
Where to use: Indoors or in a greenhouse
How to use: Place your seed in the cell, water frequently and watch it grow. Once it is ready to transplant simply rip off the cell and plant the entire cell. The tray will biodegrade over time.
...
American Institute of Graphic Arts
Design A Future Perfect: Cause & Effect (February 23, 2009)
Tricycle Inc. in Chattanooga transformed the interiors industry by improving efficiency and waste reduction in sampling programs. Printed swatches which retained the appearance of the physical sample were used first to promote carpet samples; interior designers would only order physical samples at the very end of the decision making process. Rockport Publishers' book designer for SustainAble kept all the make-readies from the proofing phase to re-use for the book's cover. Bloomberg collaborated with industrial design firm MIO to find a way to re-use old company business cards from employees around the world and turned out a stool design for offices that was functional and sustainable. Twist's sponge packaging can be re-made into a bird feeder or mobile and Terracycle founded the company on...
Tech Geer
TerraCycle Brings Innovative, Fun Recycled Green Products (February 23, 2009)
According to Tom Szaky, co-founder of New Jersey-based TerraCycle, “Garbage is opportunity, rubbish is great.” Every component of TerraCycle’s products — tote, messenger and lunch bags; office supplies; garden supplies and more — comes from rubbish. “Our contents are rubbish, and we package it directly in rubbish,” explains Szaky.
The company’s flagship product, TerraCycle Plant Food, is an all-natural, all-organic, ‘goof-proof’ liquid plant food made from waste (worm poop). It is packaged in reused soda bottles, so every product on the shelves can look a bit different, turning mass-reproduction capitalism a bit on its head. (You can find their products at Whole Foods, Home Depot, Wal-Mart and elsewhere). ...
Confessions of Complusive Crafter
Weekly Green (February 23, 2009)
TerraCycle, Inc. where you can send in yogurt containers, drink pouches, toasted chip bags, wine corks and even energy bar wrappers for $$$. It may be only a few cents a container but hey, it’s monies! TerraCycle began making Terra Cycle Plant Food™, an all-natural, all-organic, liquid plant food made from worm poop and packaged in reused soda bottles! They make fun recycled things that you can purchase at places like Target, Gardener’s Supply Company, Ideal TrueValue and Clean Air Gardening. ...
Tacoma Green Mama
TerraCycle (February 23, 2009)
Enter TerraCycle (www.terracycle.net). I learned about this company recently. They have a great story on their web site. They're a pair of Princeton grads who decided to start a company to maximize the "triple bottom line." Basically, there are three bottom lines a company can (and should) be concerned about: profit, people, and environment. Conventional wisdom says that the only way to maximize profit is to in some way shortchange people and the environment. That's why none of the most socially conscious companies out there (e.g., Whole Foods, Seventh Generation), while profitable to a degree, are among the top 500 companies in America.
These guys thought they could figure out a way. They started by making fertilizer, but have branched out into a range of gardening supplies, as...
Lollies Garden
Starting Over (February 23, 2009)
Almost all the lettuce seedlings were dying so I decided to dump all the bad Hyponex soil and start from scratch. What a mess - I'm not capable of doing anything on the neat side. Soil was all over the kitchen. Good thing I have the Dyson. It picked up almost all the soil on the floor. I mixed Miracle Grow potting mix (not soil) with 1/3 Perlite and replanted a few of the spinach seedlings I had saved and scattered the mesclun seeds. I figured 2 weeks wasted is better than waiting a few more weeks and having them all die. The soil was just too heavy and the seedlings were all damping off and falling over. Hopefully this will work well until it's warm enough to bring the plants outside.
On a good note, this Terracycle plant food is terrific. One of my houseplants is a Yucca and it...
Home Grown Peppers
Germinating Hot Pepper Seeds (February 9, 2009)
Warmth is the biggest key in successfully germinating the chile pepper seeds. If you have a very warm spot in your home, like on a radiator, you may be good to go. For the rest of us, a seed germination mat is the best way to safely and gently warm the soil.
Something else I’ve found very useful, which surprised me in my trials, is using Terracycle. Terracycle is a gentle liquid fertilizer made from worm castings. After I moisten my seed-starting mix normally, I plant my seeds. After lightly covering my seeds with more soil mix, I spray Terracyle on the soil to dampen. Then, I give the soil a spritz every 2 or 3 days, to keep things moist.
Between the heat mat and the Terracycle, I’ve been able to shave time off the normal germination period, between 2 and 7 days....
Green Garden
Top ten tips for greening your yard this fall: (February 9, 2009)
Help your lawn make it through the cold and blustery months by winterizing it with fertilizer. Fertilizers help the lawn store vital nutrients that help root development and results in a fuller growth in the spring. Terracycle has a natural lawn fertilizer made from worm poop (sounds gross but works great).
6. Take some time to consider your spring flower garden. Who doesn’t like tulips, daffodils, and irises? It’s best to plant bulbs in late September so they will root well before the ground freezes.
7. Place some all-natural bird feeders out for our feathered friends. Tie a string on a pinecone, slather the pine cone with peanut butter then roll it in birdseed. Hang from a nearby branch and watch the birds flock to their feast. ...
Celsias
Terracycle and the Lesson From Eco-Capitalism (January 29, 2009)
Some people are not yet comfortable with using the term social enterprise. They prefer to stick to classical labels that make consumers feel at ease, especially in countries like the US where people have very strong ideas about what is right and wrong in economics.
One of these people is Tom Szaky, who co-started and runs Terracycle (terrible website, btw…). The company’s flagship product, TerraCycle Plant Food , is an all-natural, all-organic, ‘goof-proof’ liquid plant food made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (reused soda bottles). They claim to be the first ones in the world to - rather than recycle plastic containers - simply re-use them in all their different shapes and sell them directly in shops. But Tom has more than just recycling lessons for us all....
Sam Goes Green
TerraCycle.Net (January 21, 2009)
This is a great site and an interesting way to start a modest fundraiser. Terracycle is a company that creates products such as tote bags, book bags, pencil cases, environmental products, school binders, recycle cans, pens, pencils, and other assorted office supplies all using things that people will normally throw away. And they will PAY YOU to send these items to them. I know! I said PAY YOU! Okay the catch is they ask that you send it in bulk which is understandable. But they PAY YOU 2cents for each of the following items, juice pouches, energy bar wrappers, yogurt cups, cookie wrappers, and wine bottle corks.
They PAY YOU 6 cents for the soda bottles, yes I said PAY YOU 6 cents, that is one more penny than what you would get back in the store. But they only take the 20 oz. bottles...
Green House Decor
Products Made From Waste (January 20, 2009)
First of all, you should just know that I love worm poop. Letting worms compost our food scraps and then gifting us with an awesome fertilizer is just well, pretty awesome. So it’s no wonder that I totally dig a company whose very first product made from waste was indeed worm poop.
Since its fertile start, Terracycle has grown to include so many cool products such as bags created from used drink pouches and office supplies all made from things headed for the trash. Many of their products reuse soda bottles for packaging and they even make a flower pot from 100% e-waste (such as crushed computers and fax machines). I’m not even sure how the hell that is possible but what an awesome way to redirect that trash....
Design NJ
Greener Grass (January 19, 2009)
As residents of the Garden State, we take particular pride in our landscaping. According to the New Jersey Environmental Center, however, the pesticides and gas-guzzling lawn mowers we use contribute to air pollution and lead to numerous health problems, including cancers. The good news is that some products are now available to help clean the air we breathe and give our lawns and gardens a healthier eco footprint.
Man’s Best Friend. Worms? Yes. The trail they leave behind will make your lawn and garden perform better. Terracycle in West Trenton produces organic liquid fertilizer derived from worm droppings. The nutrient-filled fertilizer is available in all-purpose, flower-specific, seed starter, potting mix, and lawn-care formats. Recycled soft drink bottles and milk jugs make...
Smart Family Tips
Featured Do-Gooder: TerraCycle (January 16, 2009)
On Fridays SmartFamilyTips will feature an organization that is a “Do-Gooder”: a group that works to help both people and the environment. The Do-Gooders may be companies, nonprofits, or any organized group that focuses its efforts on making the world a better place.
TerraCycle was born in 2001 by two Princeton University students, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer. According to the company’s website, Szaky and Beyer wanted to create a company that “could be financially successful while being ecologically and socially responsible.” It all started with worm poop, a key ingredient in creating their first product: TerraCycle Plant Food™. Since its launch, they’ve created many more in several categories. A few of their lawn and garden products include:...
Audubon South Carolina
Confluence of Compost (January 14, 2009)
This month's Audubon magazine has a short piece (p. 54) on composting kitchen waste. Additionally, our appetite for paper and the diminishing northern forest are highlighted.
Finally, we saw a piece on television regarding TerraCycle, Inc.'s "Worm Poop" fertilizer. Not only does TerraCycle, Inc. keep organic materials out of the landfill, they package all of their products in plastic containers that formerly held milk, soda, and water. Scroll over any product and you can see the container's former use. TerraCycle, Inc. also makes a variety of other products from waste. They will even pay you to send your trash to them.
TerraCycle, Inc. shows once again that one man's trash is another man's treasure. However, as our resources and landfill space are not limitless, we all need to think...
UnExpected Ideas
TerraCycle - A Business Built on Waste and Worm Poop (January 12, 2009)
TerraCycle is an eco-capitalism business that makes all of its products entirely from waste. Their unexpected business model and products have generated massive media attention, creating a strong profile and following for their ground-breaking business.
Their founding product was TerraCycle Plant Food. TerraCycle is paid to take waste product, which they feed to worms, and then sell the worm poop as plant fertiliser. TerraCycle runs school and community recycling programmes to collect recycled soft drink bottles, and uses these to package the plant food. The operation is run from a previously abandoned warehouse in New Jersey and uses misprinted boxes from other companies to ship product.
...
Leeman Now
TerraCycle (January 12, 2009)
Albe Zakes said he was a frustrated environmentalist when he decided to go to work for TerraCycle, a company started by Princeton University economics student Tom Zsaky that makes ecologically derived products. "The same 50 people came to all the events, and the same 50 people signed all the letters," Zakes said of his days as an activist at the University of Colorado.
Then he heard Zsaky speak on how he was determined to change the buying practices of the public by selling his products to big-box retailers. Zakes signed on as an intern and worked his way up the company ladder to vice president of media relations, extolling TerraCycle's products made from garbage....
COLLEGE On The Record
10 Big Ideas That Started in College (January 8, 2009)
Tom Szaky developed his idea for a natural fertilizer company while a student at Princeton. Only a college student could continuously convince judges at business-plan competitions to buy into a plan based on “worm poop.” Today, his product can be found at retail giants Wal-Mart and Home Dept. and that recycled “poop” is set to make $5 million next year. Oh and shove it Zuckerberg, Szaky beat out the Facebook guy for the number one spot in Inc.’s “CEO’s Under Thirty” in 2006....
TreeHugger
TerraCycle Turns Computer Parts into Flower Pots (Video) (January 8, 2009)
TerraCycle's Urban Pots are made from 100% e-waste. Using items like crushed computers and fax machines that would otherwise be destined for landfills, the organization gives them new life as a planter.
Read on for a video on how the pots are made.
TerraCycle is known for making waste products into mainstream consumer products, and supplies for those of us with green thumbs. Their latest addition is this line of pots. ...
Impact Lab
TerraCycle Creates Amazing Products from Waste (January 6, 2009)
When I think about good companies that have education, people and the environment in mind, one of the companies I think about first is Terracycle.
Terracycle creates amazing products from recycled goods. Terracycle began in 2001. Two Princeton University students (now co-founders of Terracycle) Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, inspired by a worm box, set out to prove that a business could financially succeed while being ecologically and socially responsible. So far, so good....
Eco Buying
Who’s Who in Green: Daryl Hannah (January 6, 2009)
Hannah also hosts ‘DH Love Life’, a weekly video podcast that explores inspirational and cutting-edge developments in green culture and lifestyle. Episodes are fun and quirky, including one in which she visits the Cyclecide fair, a travelling exhibit that uses their customized bikes to provide pedal power for their fair rides. Check out the episode below, ‘Worm Poop’, to see Hannah visit the Terracycle factory run by Tom Szaky, a previous ‘Who’s Who in Green’ here on EarthFirst....
Vita
Terracycle and the lesson from eco-capitalism (January 6, 2009)
Some people are not yet comfortable with using the term social enterprise. They prefer to stick to classical labels that make consumers feel at ease, especially in countries like the US where people have very strong ideas about what is right and wrong in economics.
One of these people is Tom Szaky, who co-started and runs Terracycle (terrible website, btw…). The company’s flagship product, TerraCycle Plant Food, is an all-natural, all-organic, ‘goof-proof’ liquid plant food made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (reused soda bottles). They claim to be the first ones in the world to - rather than recycle plastic containers - simply re-use them in all their different shapes and sell them directly in shops. But Tom has more than just recycling lessons for us all....
Gardening How To
Fertilizer (January 5, 2009)
TerraCycle Granular Fertilizer is a plant food made from concentrated worm castings, which will not burn your plants. Can be used on any indoor or out door plants. Just pour and gently mix into soil for soil absorption. Each two pack provides 5000 square feet of coverage...
LA Pretty
Green your clean! (December 29, 2008)
Since today is a Saturday, I had many Pretty things to do, but alas the BF was keen on getting our place clean. So when it came to cleaning my messy bathroom counter full of makeup spills, powder, hair, and whatever else accumulates whilst getting Pretty, I turned to TerraCycle All Purpose Cleaner.
This stuff really works and I can use it all over the house on counters, desks, tables, and whatever else I manage to get dirty. It's ALL naturally derived so perfectly safe for furry friends and plants. The products are more than eco-friendly - their environmentally responsible!...
Your Daily Thread
Recycling, Upcycling, Terracycling. (December 16, 2008)
If you hate waste, you’ll love Terracycle where everything is made from and packaged in just that.
First came its signature liquefied worm poop*, a super plant fertilizer worms churn out when they eat food waste. Then came a myriad of lawn and garden concoctions and natural cleaners–all of them housed in used plastic soda bottles.
…...
MetaEfficient
TerraCycle Eco-Friendly Christmas Stockings (December 16, 2008)
Pick between upcycled juice pouches or cookie wrappers for your Terracycle Eco-Friendly Christmas Stocking. Made by Terracycle, the eco worm-poop fertilizer company that’s now branching out into office and household products, these stockings cost just $19.99 a pair at Home Depot....
Journey to Our Babygirl
Recycling and Reusing Project (December 16, 2008)
I just spent the last couple of hours rinsing out juice bags/pouches for a project we are doing at our school through an organization called Terracycle. They use juice bags to make things like lunch boxes, totes, folders...they are pretty cool. Target.com sells the bags for $9.99. I bought a lunch box made out of them from London years ago and love it. I have always gotten a ton of comments on it. Anyway, I signed my school up at Terracycle and they sent me out postage paid envelopes. I send 100 rinsed out juice bags at a time. I don't use juice bags for my kids, but I see that a lot of the kids at my school use them. I have been collecting them at school and from friends and family members for a couple of months. I finally decided I needed to send them off....
Milwaukee Home
Cool Yule Log (December 16, 2008)
TerraCycle has done it again. This scruffy young company keeps dreaming up great products that combine handy functionality with a sense of social responsibility ...
Green LA Girl
Saturday surveys: Terracycle’s holiday line (December 8, 2008)
I’ve called Terracycle’s other upcycled juice pouch stuff eco-fugly before — but the eco worm-poop company keeps comin’ out with new items, this time for the holidays.
Behold the Terracycle stockings and tree skirts, made with upcycled juice pouches and cookie wrappers diligently collected by Terracycle trash brigades!
Now in general, I consider both holiday stockings and tree pouches to be decorative items one saves and reuses year after year. Which makes me wonder — Even if I decided I was okay with cookie-wrapper stockings for one season, would I be able to stand looking at those things every year?...
NewsOk
Cork gift was ahead of its time (December 8, 2008)
Several years ago, a guy I was dating gave me what I thought was the worst Christmas gift ever. He had saved the corks from bottles of wine served at the restaurant where he worked and glued them together to make a corkboard. He then sprinkled glitter over it and called it wrapped. That was long before the mantra "reuse, reduce and recycle” was tattooed on the collective eco-consciousness, and little did I know then that he was on to something. Well, I guess it was a better gift than a bottle of worm poop.
What? Yeah, worm poop. An uber-Earth-friendly company called TerraCycle Inc. is bottling worm poop and making headlines for it. It also is making corkboards like that unappreciated gift I received years ago. ...
Home Grown
Worm poop challenge (December 3, 2008)
It’s December and I still have a few homegrown tomatoes, picked just before the last frost when they were still green.
Some of them came from test plants I grew with vermicompost from TerraCycle. Last spring, the company’s James Artis had sent samples of TerraCycle products, including a liquid form of vermicompost, also known as worm poop.
...
InventorSpot
Terracycle: Education and Environment Written All Over its Garbage (December 2, 2008)
When I think about good companies that have education, people and the environment
in mind, one of the companies I think about first is Terracycle.
Terracycle creates amazing products from recycled goods. Terracycle began in 2001. Two Princeton University students (now co-founders of Terracycle) Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, inspired by a worm box, set out to prove that a business could financially succeed while being ecologically and socially responsible. So far, so good. ...
Advocate of Green
TerraCycle Inc. (December 2, 2008)
I came across this organization called Terracycle. They take all sorts of trash/recycleables and refilles them with worm compost and sells them to use as plant food. They also have sponsorships for each different item you can send in and you can choose to donate the money you would receive to a school or the Adopt A Classroom project.
My office building doesnt recycle and it pains me to throw away the many water bottles we all collect (we have no water fountain or water cooler so bottled water is really the only option). I have been keeping these bottles under my desk and have accumulated about 100 of them. I just became a member of the bottle brigade and I am awaiting boxed with pre paid UPS labels. All I have to do is fill the boxes with the de-labeled bottles and BAM! I have...
Edge
From (used) packaging to (fabulous) products! (December 2, 2008)
It’s hard to believe that there’s anyone out there still using paper or plastic bags for their shopping, but sadly it’s true. Rather than harassing and shaming these Neanderthals into changing their archaic ways (a practice that I personally still strongly believe in), you can make it impossible for them not to carry their own reusable bags by giving them something so chic they’ll never want it to leave their side.
One of the coolest green companies out there, TerraCycle turns old waste- namely consumer packaging that people throw away and which usually ends up in landfills- into fabulously fashionable bags. Just imagine- your kids Capri Sun pouch could be your next purse! TerraCycle’s entire collection is affordable, eco-friendly, and packaged and shipped in ’green’...
AZCentral
Class project (December 2, 2008)
Terracycle started in a Princeton University dorm room seven years ago with one product: plant fertilizer made with composted trash and worms. Since then, the company has added office supplies and accessories to its earth-friendly lineup.
Their binders, non-toxic cleaners, pencils and "paper pens" are made from 100 percent recycled materials.
Our favorite products, though, are the messenger bags ($14.99) made from old drink pouches and billboard vinyl, neither of which can be broken down to recycle. ...
Poughkeepsie Journal
Religions awakening to environmentalism (December 2, 2008)
Gabrielle O'Donoghue's mother read about a small recycling company in a magazine and told her about it.
The eighth-grader at Holy Trinity School in Poughkeepsie thought the company, called TerraCycle, sounded interesting.
"They ask nonprofit organizations to collect bottles, juice containers, yogurt containers, and they pay for you to send it to them," O'Dono-ghue, 13, a Town of Poughkeepsie resident, said....
Capital Creative Collective
Want not, Waste not. (December 2, 2008)
Creativity and the Information Architect Institute put on an annual event in Chicago called the IDEA Conference. They’re in their third year and they’ve got some interesting ‘ideas’ going on there. Much like the TED Conference, they host a series of event speakers ranging on topics from art, design, information technology and the like. The first video I found was one by Tom Szaky, founder of Terracycle, a company that turns waste products and recycled goods into newly designed packaging and products. In the video he was actually talking about his factory and how they used it as a kind of social experiment on art waste and public spaces.
After the building had repeatedly been tagged by street artists (grafitti), Tom realized the amount waste that went into the removal that...
Gazalgoenka
Recycling and Reusability Continued (December 2, 2008)
Earlier on in my blog I was talking about how youngsters are so active when it comes to recycling, but no one gives much thought to reusing products. Someone raised the question that certain products cannot be recycled or reused. My reply was that people should not be using materials that cannot be recycled or reused. However, I thought that if tampons and pads can be created to be reused, what product can’t?!
Among the list of products that cannot be recycled are used drink pouches. This is because they are made of polyethylene, which is a plastic polymer that is not recyclable, but is reusable. There are other products made from this kind of plastic, and even if it exists in a small amount in a product, the product is not recyclable....
Creativity
TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky explains how his company works. (December 1, 2008)
Video from IDEA '08: Tom Szaky...
Earth
Who’s Who in Green: Tom Szaky (December 1, 2008)
When TerraCycle co-founder and CEO Tom Szaky was 19 years old and a freshman at Princeton University, he entered a business plan competition with a friend that would change his life and lead to one of the most inspiring, truly eco-friendly companies ever created. Little did he know at the time that despite not winning the contest – he came in fourth – Szaky had taken his first step on a relatively short path to the top spot at his very own multi-million-dollar company.
So, what was Szaky’s bright idea? Worm poop. What would become Szaky’s breakout product actually grew from a need for a better fertilizer for his pot plants. It turned out that worm castings did the trick, and Szaky was encouraged by the fact that what most people consider garbage could be so useful. So, he...
WSRadio
TerraCycle and Solar Power International (December 1, 2008)
George Chevalier of Terracycle and Julia Hamm of Solar Power Int'l.
George explains how Terracycle creates eco friendly products from traditional trash
Listen Now 24/7 ...
Spirited Woman
TerraCycle: Closes the Recycling Loop & Partners With You (December 1, 2008)
TerraCycle: Closing the Recycling Loop in Extraordinary Ways One of the biggest crowd-pleasers at last week’s Opportunity Green Conference at UCLA that I attended was a presentation by Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of an amazing eco-company called Terra Cycle Inc.
You just gotta love a business that started out not long ago making environmentally-friendly fertilizer from worm poop, packaged in reclaimed and repurposed soda bottles. Now, they have branched out to a wide variety of home, office and accessory products fabricated from waste items such as stylish bags made of drink pouches, cookie wrappers and plastic bags, and bulletin boards made out of used wine corks. ...
Daily Tribune
Use winter to gain knowledge for spring (December 1, 2008)
Surfing TV channels recently, I came upon a program promoting Green Earth. They presented information about a company called Terracycle (www. terracycle.net).
As last week's article mentioned, having a worm bin in your basement is a great way to recycle kitchen scraps (not meat or fats), and provide great fertilizer for plants. Terracycle, Inc. started by producing worm waste in quantity, packaging it in recycled containers like milk carton and soda bottles. They also make many other items for sale that are made from juice boxes, etc. It is amazing how they are earning millions of dollars by recycling items that would otherwise go to landfills.
...
Office Live
Ask what you can do for your customers (November 20, 2008)
What’s a good way to expand your product or service line? Consider simply asking your customers what they want to see.
In this article on Inc.com, Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle, based in Trenton, N.J., explains how this strategy helped him sell more to OfficeMax, one of his biggest customers.
Though OfficeMax was already carrying seven of TerraCycle’s eco-friendly office products, the company wanted to expand that relationship. But TerraCycle was fairly new to the office products industry (they started out making plant food). So instead of just pitching OfficeMax new product ideas, they approached OfficeMax’s category managers and merchandising experts and asked them what products they needed. ...
Sphere Trending
From Wrappers into Fashion (November 18, 2008)
The TerraCycle story is a tale of ultimate Eco-Capitalism. It all started in 2001 when two Princeton University students set out to change the way people do business. Inspired by a box of worms, these students had a dream: a company could be financially successful while being ecologically and socially responsible.
This is a perfect way for schools, organizations and charities to make extra money, and in these tough economic times, maybe even the average consumer will be willing to send in their cookie wrappers. TerraCycle then turns the collected wrappers and containers into saleable, unique merchandise including shower curtains, hand bags, school supplies and packaging for the companies plant food and sprays....
Oregon Startups
TerraCycle and Worm Poop (November 18, 2008)
Starveups hosted an excellent presentation today by entrepreneur Tom Szaky of TerraCycle - Inc 500 company and winner of the $1 million Carrot Capital Plan competition. Tom is high-energy, passionate, and has some innovative and insightful perspectives on trash.
During his Freshman year at Princeton, Tom noticed that the plants his friends were taking care of for him we're doing very well - because worms were improving the soil. Seeing a fertilizer business opportunity, he went back to Princeton, convinced the university's food service to give him leftover food that was being thrown out, and he and his cofounders created a conveyor belt worm poop production line. Imagine a very slow moving conveyor belt (think in terms of minutes per foot) where food is dropped in the middle, worms...
Cosmetic Design
Poop packaging firm underlines importance of creativity in sustainability (November 18, 2008)
Creative thinking is vital for companies looking to achieve sustainability without sacrificing quality and price competitiveness. Albe Zakes from TerraCycle, a company that started out making fertilizer from worm poo, challenges the idea eco-friendly trade-offs. ...
Seattle Times Newspaper
Grow your own money (November 17, 2008)
If you've got a green thumb and a bit of tillable land, consider growing a cash crop.
Although commodities, such as wheat and cattle, are well beyond the scope of most backyards, berries, flower bulbs, vegetables, grapes, florist products and landscape plants can be cultivated and sold to wholesalers, at farmer's markets or on your front porch....
ID History Paul Gates
Sunday, November 16, 2008 (November 17, 2008)
When creators Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer were trying to create a method of growing their “special plant” in their college apartment they came up with the idea of TerraCycle. After realizing the potential of using earth worms to fertilize their plant, they came up with a concept of creating organic plant grower. It wasn’t until after three years, they received the funding and support needed to execute the concept of TerraCycle. The company promotes the green concept: TerraCycle uses all recycled parts, ranging from recycled plastic bottles to unused boxes from other companies. This simple idea of recycling and re-using wasted materials would not have been created if it weren’t for Tom Szaky.
A Canadian college student attending Princeton, Tom dropped out of an Ivy...
San Francisco Chronicle
TerraCycle makes useful stuff out of garbage (November 12, 2008)
Albe Zakes said he was a frustrated environmentalist when he decided to go to work for TerraCycle, a company started by Princeton University economics student Tom Zsaky that makes ecologically derived products.
"The same 50 people came to all the events, and the same 50 people signed all the letters," Zakes said of his days as an activist at the University of Colorado....
Firepit & Grilling Guru
TerraCycle Eco-Revolutionary Fire Log (November 10, 2008)
The TerraCycle eco-revolutionary fire log is a new eco-friendly firewood alternative which is on the market. If you are looking for an alternative to regular firewood and don't like the idea of those processed, chemical-containing artificial fire logs like Duraflame fire logs then this is definitely something to consider along with another favorite of mine, the Java Log.
These fire logs are made of 100% recycled waxed cardboard boxes. Apparently, waxed corrugated cardboard used for some packaging materials is not recyclable by standard means. Rather than throw these in garbage dumps around the world, TerraCycle had the clever idea to chop them up, press them into a solid log and re-sell them as firewood! The natural wax coating acts both as a binder and helps the pressed cardboard...
Negocios
Abono Empresarial (November 10, 2008)
Hace Seis Anos, Tom Szaky turo que tolerar la burlas cuando salioa pedir dinero para desarrollar unproducto al que llamaba "Worm Poop"...
Home Based Business 2008
Turn Worm Poop into Cash (November 7, 2008)
Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.
Turn Worm Poop into Cash By Stephen Bucaro Two University students, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, entered their "Worm Project" into a business plan contest at Princeton. The project involved taking organic garbage from the dining halls at Princeton University and feeding it to worms....
One's Daily Blog
TerraCycle (November 6, 2008)
What a super cool idea. I always thought that the only way to clean up all of the waste around the world is to put a price tag on it and let people make money from it. The problem was I could never figure a way to pay all those people. It looks like Tom Szaky figured out a really innovative way to pay people and make money from the trash they collected.
Be sure to check it out and if there are any spots available set up a collection center at school near you. ...
Gardening How To
Deer Repellent (November 6, 2008)
TerraCycle's deer repellent is eco friendly and all natural. Simply spray the solution on the leaves of any plant you want to protect against deer....
eROI Days
Worm Poop: Coolest Startup in America (Speaking at eROI) (November 5, 2008)
Here is an email that I’ve been sending to my entrepreneur friends in Portland today:
Tom Szaky is one of the hottest, most dynamic, young green / sustainable entrepreneurs in the country. I’m writing you because I know you’d love meeting this amazing entrepreneur who is coming to Portland b/c of its green, sustainable presence (and because I asked him after getting to know him at the past two Inc. 500 conferences)....
EcoZebra
TerraCycle - Taking your garbage and giving you cash! (November 3, 2008)
I have been using TerraCycle products for several years now (starting with the worm poop fertilizer) and I just realized that I have never posted about them. So what is up with that? Well, it is a special thanks to this post over at Low Impact Living for getting me off my butt with an announcement of TerraCycles latest products.
So what is so great about TerraCycle? The products are made from garbage, packaged in garbage and shipped in garbage. The products re-use waste that would otherwise clog our landfills and to top it all off, you can collect the garbage through your schools, groups, or charitable organizations and GET PAID to send that garbage to TerraCycle....
My 9 TV
Save The Cork (October 27, 2008)
Our favorite recycling company is at it again. This time, they’re taking in your corks and turning them into office supplies. And most importantly, it’s one more piece of refuse that stays out of our landfills.
Last March, we told you about TerraCycle, the Trenton plant which was recycling thousands of juice bags, and also creating a super fertilizer out of worm poop. Here’s the link: www.njmyway.com/content/view/386/102/....
OnEarth
A Feel-Good Tale: Terracycle's "Bottle Brigades" (October 24, 2008)
Thought I'd start the week off with reason for optimism: the bold big-think energy of TerraCycle, a start-up that might make a triple-bottom-line capitalist out of an unrepentant marxist.
TerraCycle makes good-quality products with impeccable eco-credentials including naturally derived and nontoxic cleaners, tote bags made from upcycled packaging materials, rain barrels and composters, and lawn & garden products (including, most famously, the company's original product -- plant foods enriched with worm poop). From the get-go, the company's core idea -- bring great, competitively priced products to market that are entirely made from, well, garbage -- has made it a media darling, and the company's products can be found everywhere from Target to Home Depot to Walgreens....
Inform
TerraCycle Launches Sustainable Versions of Major Office and School Products (October 23, 2008)
Trenton, NJ September 9th – TerraCycle, Inc., a young eco-capitalist company is proud to announce that it will more then double the number of ‘Made from Waste’ products it sells at OfficeMax stores nationwide. The two companies worked together for months to develop environmentally responsible alternatives where they were needed most. The new eco-friendly end-cap will be set in stores in early September. The end cap will feature a wide range of products including computer bags, pens, pencils, paper, cork boards and much more all made from waste!
TerraCycle and OfficeMax first partnered in May 2008, bringing a unique line of products to an office retailers shelves for the first time. Never before had a major office supply retailer offered product made entirely from waste! The...
PNN.Com
Zero Waste Office Supplies (October 15, 2008)
What do you get when you combine banana peels, elephant poop, wine corks and coffee grounds? The Terracycle expanded line of zero footprint office and school supplies at OfficeMax! The products include computer bags, pens, pencils, paper, cork boards and more, all made from recycled materials that would ordinarily be waste.
The new TerraCycle pencils are made from 100% reused newspaper, and the new Tree Free paper lines will be made from elephant poop, banana leaves, coffee grinds and straw. Kinda gross and kinda cool!...
NJ Monthly
Save the Cork (October 14, 2008)
Our favorite recycling company is at it again. This time, they’re taking in your corks and turning them into office supplies. And most importantly, it’s one more piece of refuse that stays out of our landfills.
TerraCycle has set up a "Cork Brigade."
Last March, we told you about TerraCycle, the Trenton plant which was recycling thousands of juice bags, and also creating a super fertilizer out of worm poop. Here’s the link: www.njmyway.com/content/view/386/102/.
Now, TerraCycle has set up a Cork Brigade. You can sign up on the website (www.terracycle.net). High volume producers (more than 100 corks per week) will qualify for free shipping; they’ll send you pre-addressed, pre-postage paid bags.
...
365 Days of Trash
Check out Terracycle for recycling options (October 8, 2008)
I was at the store today and my kids saw a Z bar, the junior version of the Clif Bars, and organic food bar that is pretty popular, and while a tad dry, pretty darn tasty to boot. I'm not a big fan of food bars to begin with, but Clif bars are a cut above inj my opinion as they are Organic and the company actually has their eye on sustainability. Simply put, they are a rockin company.
So my kids want a bar and they'd been good so i bought them for them. Now i had recalled something about Clif having a recycling program so now that kids are zonkered I looked them up, and sure enough, they have a program going with Terracycle that they helped replace....
Home & Backyard
Eco-Friendly Plant Food (October 8, 2008)
Travel to Trenton New Jersey and meet Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle, one of the fastest growing eco-friendly fertilizer companies in the world. Take a tour of this unique facility. See why TerraCylce's Plant Food is the worlds' first product that is made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (reused soda bottles). Manufacturing TerraCycle products actually consumes waste rather than producing it. http://www.terracycle.net/, 609.393.4252. ...
Care Magazine
Brilliant ways to help others while taking better care of the earth (October 8, 2008)
Every year Billions of drink pouches end up; in dumpsters and in landfills across America ...
The Organic Home
AWARENESS AND ACTION IN ECO DESIGN (October 7, 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 decor 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. By Kimberly Telker...
Eco Signal
New Terracycle Natural Household Cleaning Products (October 7, 2008)
Terracycle has long been known for its liquid plant food, now the “ultimate eco-friendly brand” has moved into natural household cleaners. These cleaners are non-toxic, biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and have a zero footprint! Natural All Purpose Cleaner, Natural Bathroom Cleaner, Natural Window Cleaner and Drain Maintainer and Cleaner, like all TerraCycle products, are packaged entirely in waste, reused soda bottles and are sold nationwide at OfficeMax and The Home Depot. Made from concentrated essences of plants, shrubs, fruits, herbs and grasses with natural minerals and water,TerraCycle’s ready-to-use cleaners really work. The window cleaner even cut through my dirty glass door with little effort, removing fingerprints, doggy nose prints, and mud with one spray. These cleaners...
Office Professional Upgrade
Officemax Going Green (October 7, 2008)
In spring 2008 OfficeMax started to sell recycled products for a company called TerraCycle. As of right now OfficeMax carries trash and recycling cans (made from computer cases), Eco binders (made from 100% recycled cardboard and paper), natural all purpose and window cleaners (made from old 1 liter soda bottles and non-toxic cleaners using a plant based formula) and pencil cases (made from Kool-Aid and Capri Sun pouches). The products and packaging are made entirely from waste, reducing the amount of garbage going to landfills. OfficeMax offers and stocks more than 1,700 products with recycled content....
Beverage Industry
Reused barrels (October 7, 2008)
New Jersey-based TerraCycle announced it has refurbished Kendall-Jackson wine oak barrels into Rotary Composter and Rain Barrell water storage containers. The containers are made from French or American oak and will be used to turn grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste into garden fertilizer. By using the wine barrels for recycling purposes, the company is keeping with the move toward sustainability, it says. The barrels are natural alternatives to plastic rainwater storage systems currently on the market....
Sustainable Life Media
TerraCycle's Tom Szaky on Green Entrepreneurship (October 2, 2008)
Since 2001, TerraCycle products have received a host of green awards for products ranging from plant fertilizer to school supplies to food packaging - all made using trash. In this interview with Green Business Innovators blogger Amie Vaccaro, CEO and founder Tom Szaky discusses how it all began, what has been most challenging, what he loves about his job, and his views on greenwashing.
...
Small Business Trends
TerraCycle Launches Sustainable Office and School Products (October 2, 2008)
TerraCycle, Inc., a young eco-capitalist company is proud to announce that it will more then double the number of ‘Made from Waste’ products it sells at OfficeMax stores nationwide. The two companies worked together for months to develop environmentally responsible alternatives where they were needed most. The new eco-friendly end-cap will be set in stores in early September. The end cap will feature a wide range of products including computer bags, pens, pencils, paper, cork boards and much more all made from waste!
TerraCycle and OfficeMax first partnered in May 2008, bringing a unique line of products to an office retailers shelves for the first time. Never before had a major office supply retailer offered product made entirely from waste! The original line featured all-natural...
Fox News
Worm Waste Makes for Booming Business (September 25, 2008)
A Trenton company is selling waste and it turns out lots of people are willing to pay for it! It started as a crazy idea in a college dorm room that blossomed into an eco-revolutionary business! FOX 29’s Michelle Williams takes you inside this one-of-a-kind operation! ...
SmartBrief
How to turn garbage into $8 million in sales (September 25, 2008)
Tom Szaky has a thing about garbage. He co-founded a company called TerraCycle in 2001 that turns used plastic bags, cookie wrappers and other tossed-out items into messenger bags, pencil cases and other retail-friendly products. Szaky expects sales to hit $8 million this year....
Green Home Huddler
TerraCycle All Purpose Liquified Plant Food (September 22, 2008)
Liquefied worm poop — nature's premier fertilizer — available in 2 liters or a 20 oz spray bottle.
Potent: Outgrows the leading synthetic fertilizer in many aspects of plant growth
Easy-to-Use: Ready-to-use; No mixing
Organic: All natural ingredients, OMRI listed™
Eco-friendly: Packaged in reused 2-liter bottles
Burn-Proof: Will not burn your plants or cause salt buildup
Where to use: On outdoor plants and gardens, and large indoor plants
How to use: - Pour once a week on soil until damp
- Use to refill our 20-ounce spray bottle
What to do when it's empty: Best Idea: Recycle the bottle
Bad Idea: Throw it away ...
Packaging World
Kraft Foods and TerraCycle Partner on Packaging Reuse (September 19, 2008)
Kraft Foods announced in a June a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upstart company that takes packages and materials that are challenging to recycle and converts them into affordable high quality goods....
Birds and Blooms
Worm Poop Empire (September 19, 2008)
Tom Szaky has created a business with what is essentially garbage. And his customers couldn't be happier. ...
Better Homes & Gardens
Eco-Adventures in NYC (September 18, 2008)
The impetus for the visit was an invitation from my green-hearted friend Tom Szaky, founder and owner of TerraCycle, one of the coolest and greenest companies in the country. TerraCycle packages worm-poop plant fertilizer (produced from food wastes in abandoned New Jersey factories) in recycled plastic bottles collected by school children who earn money for their schools. They also make rain barrels out of recycled wine barrels, graffiti-decorated pots made from recycled plastics, and bird feeders from recycled soda bottles. What could be better than that? Soyeon is engaged to Tom and the event raised money for inner city music programs in Trenton and the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music. (Click here for more on green-living guidelines.) http://livinggreen.bhg.com/...
Packaging Digest
Talking trash: Kraft Foods 'upcycles' to recycle (September 11, 2008)
The next time you throw out that candy bar wrapper, someone could be turning your trash into a wallet, a totebag or a backpack. In fact, someone else may be grabbing those used Capri Sun drink pouches and making them into a purse, or Oreo cookie wrappers into shower curtains and Balance energy bar wrappers into umbrellas.
Kraft Foods, Northbrook, IL, is partnering with TerraCycle (www.terracyucle.net), in the launch of a packaging-reclamation program for “unrecyclable” items in which the packaging is “upcycled” into new consumer products available at retail stores....
Chief Executive
Leasing Life Out of Trash! (September 11, 2008)
What can be expected of TerraCycle, a tiny Trenton, NJ based organic fertilizer company, which survives on worm castings converted into organic plant food? The answer would be producing something again out of trash! TerraCycle, which calls its newfound business “upcycling”, aims to refashion billions of food and drink pouches into recycled shower curtains, trendy tote bags and fancy umbrellas.
TerraCycle, which captured substantial media attention last year over its fight with industry leader Scotts’ Miracle Gro on charges of trademark infringement has struck an unusual deal with food and beverage leaders such as Kraft, Coca-Cola, Clif Bar and Kellogs for turning their industrial waste into reusable eco-friendly products. ...
Princeton Packet
Firm brings recycling concepts to schools (September 9, 2008)
I was never really into recycling,” said Max Giaccone, 17, a senior at the Bridge Academy as he stood outside in the morning sun on Friday near the school’s array of recycling buckets and containers.
But after the school became a partner with Trenton-based TerraCycle Inc., the company that makes innovative new products out of waste, Max admitted his knowledge, and appreciation, of recycling has grown.
”I definitely know what actually goes on, that they do help, and it goes on to a better use,” he said as he survey bottles, cans, used yogurt containers and juice pouches destined for TerraCycle....
Yahoo!
'Always stay true to your mission (September 9, 2008)
TerraCycle is one of the best examples of eco-capitalism in action. The company was founded in 2001 by two Princeton students, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer. They started out with their flagship product, TerraCycle Plant Food, which is a liquid plant food. The catch, however, was that their product was made entirely from waste (worm poop, as it so happened) and packaged in waste (old soda bottles).
From there, TerraCycle blossomed into the great upcycling company it is today. They currently take a variety of waste products (think KoolAid containers, Capri Sun juice packs, cookie wrappers, soda bottles, and more) and turn them into new useful items (like tote bags and pencil cases)....
Care Magazine
Time to get with the program (September 5, 2008)
If you’re not ready to make your
own green cleaners—but cringe
every time you throw out another
plastic spray bottle (into the
recycling bin, but still), TerraCycle
has a solution for you: Green
cleaners packaged in reclaimed
soda bottles!
TerraCycle Cleaners
Eco-friendly, start-up TerraCycle
Inc., a company known for
their all-natural worm poop
plant foods, has launched four
brand new cleaners that are
non-toxic, biodegradable, and hypo-allergenic. All
of these characteristics make their products ideal
to be used around kids
and pets! This is especially
important now with the
progressive stream of
information coming out on
the harmful effects of harsh
chemicals in cleaners....
Gorgeously Green
Brilliant Idea! (September 5, 2008)
I love the company, Terracycle! They collect old food packaging and plastic bottles and transform them into all kinds of fantastically useful items that you can buy on their website. Here’s the kicker: You can sign up to become part of a “brigade” where you or your school/church/community, can collect old wrappers, bottles, juice boxes etc and send them back to Terracycle in a pre-paid envelope and they will donate a few cents per wrapper/beverage container, to your favorite charity or school! Talk about closing the cycle and keeping all this waste out of playgrounds and landfills. It’s a genius idea for a large school as the kids can get involved and can even help to put money back into the school. Check it out www.terracycle.net
Don’t forget to have a look at some of...
EcoFrenzy
Green Business Innovators/Interview with Tom Szaky (September 5, 2008)
I recently started working with a great site called Green Business Innovators. I will be doing interviews with top sustainable business leaders and environmental thinkers and posting podcasts and other pieces on this site a few times a month. I will keep ecofrenzy updated on these happenings.
I recently posted the transcript to my interview with Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of TerraCycle to Green Business Innovators. Below is the intro for the transcript. Take a look!
...
Garden Gate
TerraCycle Tree & Shrub Spikes (September 4, 2008)
Tree's and Shrubs seem so permanent that it is easy to forget that they need to be fertilized just like other plants. Keep the wood plants in your yard looking good by pounding in a few of TerraCycle's new organic fertilizer spikes just inside the drip line....
Utah Style & Design
What's Important: The Poop On Yard Care (September 4, 2008)
Why not be green while turning your lawn and gardens the same color? TerraCycle- an inventive eco forward company that uses worms to turn organic trash into potent fertilizer- makes it easy....
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...
Washington Gardener
TerraCycle GiveAway (September 3, 2008)
Congratulations to Nina Bang-Jensen of Chevy Chase, MD! She is the winner of the August 2008 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, for a pair of eco-friendly products from TerraCycle, Inc.
The first unique product is TerraCycle’s Urban Art Planting Pot. This lightweight, durable planting pot is made entirely from used plastic, the majority of which is salvaged from discarded electronic equipment and wrecked automobiles. More then just environmentally beneficial the TerraCycle Urban Art Planting Pot is socially beneficial as well. Every one of these unique planting pots is hand painted by inner city artists at TerraCycle’s headquarters in Trenton, NJ. TerraCycle recruited artists from the Trenton-area, giving these talented artists the opportunity to earn money by positively expressing...
The Triple Pundit
Tom Szaky (September 3, 2008)
Tom Szaky is the Founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Inc. a company that makes eco-revolutionary products entirely from garbage! TerraCycle, since its humble beginnings in a Princeton University dorm room, is committed to being a triple bottom line company. Tom at the ancient age of 19 learned about composting with worms. The concept of using tiny little worms to turn food waste into a powerful, organic fertilizer fascinated Tom, who was appalled by the amount of food discarded by his campus's cafeteria.
Tom started TerraCycle with no investors from a friend's garage by building a Worm Gin where he could house millions of worms in a small area. He all but bankrupted himself and maxed out all his credit cards to build the machine. With the help of friends he would shovel pounds of rotten, maggot-infested...
Green Business Innovators
Interview with Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of TerraCycle (September 2, 2008)
There is more than one road to success. Here is one formula: Dropping out of Princeton + Growing Pot = Potentially the world’s greenest consumer products company. Here’s another formula: Imagination + Things People Don’t Want = $3.5 million company. Yes, we’re talking about Tom Szaky and TerraCycle, a company that develops products made of and packaged from waste and sold at large retail chains.
Since 2001, TerraCycle products have received a Zerofootprint Seal of Approval, and the company has been inundated with a host of other awards. Its products include plant fertilizer, cleaning products, school supplies and bags - all made using trash....
The Denver Post
An Electric Performance By Daryl Hannah (September 2, 2008)
DENVER — Daryl Hannah, who played the villainous, one-eyed assassin Elle Driver in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies, has big plans for her character's 1980 T-topped Trans Am.
"I'm turning the Trans Am from "Kill Bill" into an electric car," she tells me. "I think it will be a really good spokesmodel for electric cars."
Hannah has long been an advocate for biodiesel, driving an old, black Chevy El Camino that she had converted. ...
Small Business Trends
Garbage to Gold: Organic, Eco-Friendly Business (August 29, 2008)
While a student at Princeton University, Tom had a vision. What if you took waste such as plastic soda bottles, saved them from landfills and reused them? He answered his own question when he left Princeton in 2002 to follow his dream and TerraCycle, affectionately referred to as the “worm poop company,” was born.
Tom Szaky, Founder of TerraCycle, is our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio. Tom will share some the tips and strategies he used to turn garbage into gold....
EcoFrenzy
Broke and trying to grow better pot: two ingredients for world class eco-innovation (August 27, 2008)
Tom Szaky was a freshman at Princeton when he and some friends stumbled upon a killer fertilizer: worm poop. “We were trying to grow better pot and it turned out worm poop did the trick” Tom told me matter-of-factly at the start of our conversation. At the time they were just trying to improve their homegrown plants, but Tom knew this find had broader implications. And furthermore, he was inspired that their fertilizer was made from garbage. Rather than stick it out in college a full four years, Tom waved goodbye to campus life and said hello to the life of an eco-entrepreneur. His goal is to run the world’s most environmentally friendly company, TerraCycle. “I was not a huge environmentalist, I just wanted to use waste as an economic driver,” Tom said. In bringing this first product...
The Good Human
Terracycle: Upcycling Plastic Bottles Into New Products. (August 27, 2008)
About a month ago or so, the people from Terracycle sent me a box full of their products to try out. I have written about Terracycle before when talking about the lack of plastic recycling here in town, and I have always been envious that I had not thought of their idea - upcycling plastic soda/water bottles and milk jugs into 2-liter bird feeders and new packaging for worm poop compost or household cleaners. What a brilliant concept - take what most of us throw away and use it to your advantage to both A. reduce the amount of plastic going into the waste stream and B. reduce the amount of new materials needed to make your packaging. It really is a win-win situation, and I wish I had come up with the idea! The package they sent me was in a recycled cardboard box, which is great, and had a few...
Lawn & Landscape
TerraCycle Worm Poop Granular Fertilizer (August 22, 2008)
# Packaged in reused milk jugs
# Provides plants with the primary nutrients they need to grow and be healthy # Has a guaranteed NPK analysis of 5-3-4 # Ideal for indoor and outdoor use # Has no unpleasant odor
...
EcoPreneurist
How to Recycle the Unrecyclable - Terracycle shows the way (August 22, 2008)
It’s encouraging to see the increasingly wide assortment and availability of products made from recycled materials, but there’s a problem on the other end: A lot of things aren’t accepted for recycling by curbside collection services, at least not in the US.
As this recent article in Fast Company details, it’s not currently profitable for recyclers to take much beyond the most common, high volume items, like aluminum, paper, and a select few types of plastic. You can forget about candy and snack wrappers. Too many comingled materials, too difficult to create a consistent, usable result on the other end....
The Dallas Morning News
Eco-friendly cleaners are fine, but we like them mean, too (August 22, 2008)
Come on, admit it: You see the green cleaners on the store shelf, but you pass them by because you're not sure that they will clean as well or better than your usual products, right?
We decided to put a few eco-friendly products to the test and were pleasantly surprised....
Mind Body Green
How to Recycle the Unrecyclable - Terracycle shows the way (August 22, 2008)
Ever noticed how many things are "unrecyclable" ? Thanks to Terracycle and companies like mega food producer Kraft Foods teaming up, that's changing, on a potentially huge scale....
Birds and Blooms
The Two Minute Feeder (August 22, 2008)
I'm an employee of an eco friendly company named TerraCycle, and people are always asking me how do we make our products. One of the items I often get questions about is our recycled bird feeder made from a two liter soda bottle. ...
Washington Gardener
Reader Contest (August 21, 2008)
For our August 2008 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, Washington Gardener is giving away a pair of eco-friendly products from TerraCycle, Inc. to one lucky reader.
The first unique product is TerraCycle’s Urban Art Planting Pot. This lightweight, durable planting pot is made entirely from used plastic, the majority of which is salvaged from discarded electronic equipment and wrecked automobiles. More then just environmentally beneficial the TerraCycle Urban Art Planting Pot is socially beneficial as well. Every one of these unique planting pots is hand painted by inner city artists at TerraCycle’s headquarters in Trenton, NJ. TerraCycle recruited artists from the Trenton-area, giving these talented artists the opportunity to earn money by positively expressing their art form....
Sustainable Day
Terracycle | eco-capitalism (August 21, 2008)
I have mentioned Terracycle before on this blog where I recognized their truly innovative business model for making high quality organic lawn and garden products out of waste. From it’s inception in 2001, the company has done an amazing job with it’s brand, and has expanded it’s product line beyond fertilizers to cleaning products and others including the Firelog made from a very problematic bio-diesel byproduct, glycerin. Now they have partnered up with one of the worlds largest food and beverage companies in their first effort to up cycle Kraft products packaging into a new category of eco-friendly consumer products....
The Gates Of Memphis
Join the Cork Brigade!! (August 21, 2008)
For all those who want to shrink our landfills for a great cause, here is your chance! No one recycles corks in Memphis until now.....
We have partnered with Terracycle- a New Jersey Plant fertilizer company that makes plant fertilizer out of worm poop! We will serve as the Memphis depot for wine corks. We will receive 2 cents for each cork in return for supplying them the corks. Terracycle has a great story so check them out sometime!...
Shared Reviews.Com
Terracycle Plant Food from worm poop you say? (August 18, 2008)
I must say that I really can't stand what this particular product is actually made of simply because I can't stand creepy crawlers, but that aside, I love everything else about the product and the Company's very responsible stance.
Terracycle Inc is a company that was founded by two Princeton students who believed that it was possible to not only build a successful business but build one that was ecologically, environmentally and recycle conscious and responsible....
Now Magazine
Born again trash (August 18, 2008)
It’s garbage day. The reckoning. What will you drag to the curb? Your Will & Grace box set? Broken baby toys? Leftover packaging from last night’s microwave dinner? It all leaves a sloppy archaeological trail, one that should nicely signal to future generations just how we choked – and what vinyl couch finally blocked the collective trachea.
But hold up. Forward-thinking minds are saying we might just be able to have our trash and eat it, too. That’s right, kids, a zero-waste world may be closer than you think. Especially if we can turn our discarded office chairs and Britney CDs into fuel for nothing short of the next industrial revolution....
Business Finance & Economy
KRAFT FOODS & TERRACYCLE, INC. PARTNER ON WORLD’S FIRST SPONSO... (August 18, 2008)
Kraft Foods, the number one food and beverage company in North America, today announced a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upstart upcycling company that takes packages and materials that are challenging to recycle and turns them into affordable, high quality goods.
The partnership will greatly expand the number of collection sites TerraCycle has available across the country and will help prevent a significant amount of packaging waste from going into landfills....
Small Business Trends
KRAFT FOODS & TERRACYCLE, INC. PARTNER ON WORLD’S FIRST SPONSORED WASTE PROGRAMS (August 18, 2008)
Kraft Foods, the number one food and beverage company in North America, today announced a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upstart upcycling company that takes packages and materials that are challenging to recycle and turns them into affordable, high quality goods. The partnership will greatly expand the number of collection sites TerraCycle has available across the country and will help prevent a significant amount of packaging waste from going into landfills.
Kraft will become the first major multi-category corporation to fund the collection of used packaging associated with its products. Several Kraft brands, including Balance bars and South Beach Living bars, Capri Sun beverages, and Chips Ahoy! and Oreo cookies, are now the lead sponsors of TerraCycle Brigades. These nationwide...
Earth Friendly Shopping
TerraCycle Does it again - Eco-Friendly Bathroom Cleaner (August 15, 2008)
We first heard about TerraCycle when Inc. Magazine called them “the Coolest Little Start Up in America“. The creation of 19 year old Tom Szaky, TerraCycle uses worms to make organic fertilizer from garbage. It packages the fertilizer in recycled soda bottles, making it a totally green product. Very cool, we thought, but what’s next?
Well, we found out. Terracycle has come out with a line of natural cleaners:...
SmartBrief
From trash to treasure (August 14, 2008)
Tom Szaky's company, TerraCycle, makes products from garbage and expects to bring in $15 million this year. He's not aiming for the Whole Foods crowd. His stuff -- reusable totes made from plastic bags, pencil cases from juice boxes, fertilizer from worm poop -- is on the shelves at Home Depot, Target and Wal-Mart. "The most important innovation is looking at things people don't value as a fundamental building block. It's not just physical garbage -- it could be people, ideas or objects....
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?...
The EcoChic
TerraCycle Garden Collection (August 13, 2008)
In my last post (yes, I do realize I haven’t written in almost 2 weeks…VACATION!!!!) I wrote about joining a Terra Cycle Brigade. So what do they do with all of those items they collect? In todays post I’m going to specifically talk about their garden collection of products. Now my garden started out really strong this spring but with the intense Florida summer heat it’s all dead until fall. I did get lots of cherry tomatos and green onions but everything else pretty much died.
With my food garden dead I’ve only tried their Garden Fertilizer (thanks Terra Cycle!!) and my hibiscus is loving it. We had an older bush and a new bush and after using the fertilizer they are both about the same size and fullness. They actually make several variations of the fertilizer and...
Philadelphia Inquirer
Graffiti writers are welcome here (August 11, 2008)
Not often do you find the scent of spray paint mixed with worm fertilizer, but that was exactly the odor produced at the TerraCycle Graffiti Jam in Trenton yesterday.
At the all-day event, in its fourth year, more than 50 graffiti writers painted over the exterior of the TerraCycle factory and garage on New York Avenue....
Fast Company
How TerraCycle Plans to Take Over the Garbage Industry (August 11, 2008)
Garbage in, garbage out? This old cliché may become obsolete as trash becomes the raw material of innovation and green business. Upcycling, or turning disposable items into new products, is becoming big business. The leading player in this growing industry is TerraCycle, which makes a variety of products from recycled material: fertilizers from worm poop, backpacks from juice pouches and reusable tote bags from plastic bags. Based in Trenton, New Jersey, the 60-person company had $8 million in sales last year and expects $15 million this year....
The Gateline.com
TerraCycling for a trash-free planet (August 7, 2008)
TerraCycle strives to hit two birds with one stone. The company manufactures useful products for everyday use such as garden items, tote bags and school supplies with a slight twist — everything is made from recycled materials. Soda bottles are fashioned into bird feeders and milk bottles are used for plant food.
Brightly colored flower pots are created from 100 percent post-consumer waste, or “e-waste,” using plastic materials from such items like computers and fax machines that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill....
Montgomery
Graffiti festival emphasizes community, ecology (August 6, 2008)
College student Dana Jackel, of Maple Glen, is helping to organize a New Jersey recycling-based company's annual graffiti and urban arts festival this weekend in Trenton.
Jackel, an intern for TerraCycle and a senior at Cornell University, is helping plan the event. Jackel said through holding the event TerraCycle is promoting a constructive and positive image of urban art in an effort to bring the company and local community together. ...
US1
First Worm Poop, Now Graffiti (August 6, 2008)
On Saturday August 9, TerraCycle will open its factory walls to over 50 accomplished graffiti artists from all across the country. The fourth annual Graffiti Jam is organized by TerraCycle and Leon Rainbow, a Trenton-area artist whose work has been shown in Art galleries and exhibitions all over the New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York area.
TerraCycle has made a name for itself by creating a variety of affordable and environmentally responsible products that are made from waste and packaged in waste. The company has exhibited a longstanding commitment to the city of Trenton, employing many of its residents and reusing its garbage....
Green Home
Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, gets trashy (August 6, 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?...
Retro Housewife
Product Review: TerraCycle (August 6, 2008)
When I learned TerraCycle wanted to send me green cleaners I got really excited because I LOVE there worm poop. Yes I said worm poop. It's used as a fertilizer, it's totally natural and safe. It works great!!!
Anyway they sent me the all-purpose spray, glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and drain cleaner. They all smell a lot like alcohol but it fades very fast and is much better than a toxic smell most cleaners leave. They are all very safe and scent free. They reuse pop bottles and other bottles to fill with the cleaners, it's very cool!!!...
Kiwi
Waste Not (August 1, 2008)
Not every company feeds its employees garbage and expects them to make gold, but TerraCycle (www.terracycle.net) has adopted this business model. The manufacturer of lawn and garden products enlists worms to do its dirty work. In the Process, TerraCycle turns garbage into fertilizer, making a healthy profit at the same time....
American Recycler
Kraft Foods and Terracycle sponsor recycling program (August 1, 2008)
Kraft Foods announced a partnership with TerraCycle, a company that takes packages and materials that are challenging to recycle and turns them into affordable, high quality goods.
The partnership will expand the number of collection sites TerraCycle has available across the country and will help prevent a significant amount of packaging waste from going into landfills. ...
Green Talk
TerraCycle Partners with OfficeMax to Take Recycling to a New Level (August 1, 2008)
Want to win a free eco-binder or cleaning products? See details below.
As the lazy days of August start, I am reminded that I have to get my children ready for school. This include shopping for clothes, school supplies, and doctor appointments. ...
Trenton Downtowner
Graffiti Jam attracts urban artists to paint factory (August 1, 2008)
On Saturday Aug. 9th TerraCycle will open its factory walls to over 50 accomplished graffiti artists from across the county.
The fourth annual Graffiti Jam is organized by TerraCycle and Leon Rainbow, a Trenton- area artist, whose work has been shown in the art galleries and exhibitions all over the New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York areas....
The Princeton Packet
The Art Of Graffiti (August 1, 2008)
TerraCycle Will open its factory walls to more than 50 accomplished graffiti artists from across the for the fourth annual Graffiti Jam Aug. 9. The event is organized by TerraCycle and Leon Rainbow, a Trenton-area artist whose work has been shown in art galleries and exhibitions in the New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York areas.
TerraCycle has made a name for itself by creating a variety of affordable and environmentally responsible products which are made from waste and packaged in waste. The company has exhibited a longstanding commitment to Trenton, employing residents and reusing garbage. TerraCycle is furthering its contribution by hosting this event....
Packaging News
'Upcycling' Food Packaging an In-Demand Specialty for N.J. Firm (July 30, 2008)
July 30, 2008 - Is a tote bag forged from old CapriSun pouches fashionable? What about an umbrella constructed of used Chips Ahoy! wrappers?
Each year, billions of food and drink wrappers encasing popular brands end up in landfills because their multilayered materials--which keep products fresh--are tricky and expensive to break down and recycle. This waste has presented a challenge for manufacturers eager to reduce their environmental impact and buff reputations among eco-conscious consumers. ...
News Blaze
Kraft Foods & Terracycle, Inc. Partner on World's First Sponsored Waste Programs (July 29, 2008)
Kraft Foods, the number one food and beverage company in North America, today announced a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upstart upcycling company that takes packages and materials that are challenging to recycle and turns them into affordable, high quality goods. The partnership will greatly expand the number of collection sites TerraCycle has available across the country and will help prevent a significant amount of packaging waste from going into landfills.
Kraft will become the first major multi-category corporation to fund the collection of used packaging associated with its products. Several Kraft brands, including Balance bars and South Beach Living bars, Capri Sun beverages, and Chips Ahoy! and Oreo cookies, are now the lead sponsors of TerraCycle Brigades. These nationwide...
New Green Basics
TerraCycle: Leaders in Plasticity (July 29, 2008)
I’ve always thought the typical process of plastic recycling was more labor and resource intensive than it needs to be. Apparently, some brilliant students at Princeton thought the same thing and in 2001 launched a poster-child for zero-carbon eco-businesses, known as TerraCycle.
Essentially, they pay consumers and school groups for used bottles or other containers, repurposing the containers without breaking them down. They fill plastic soda bottles, for instance, with natural worm-enhanced fertilizer, stick a colorful sleeve over the bottle as a label, and sell the products online and at stores as diverse as Home Depot, Gardener’s Supply and Whole Foods. ...
The Metro Herald
Giant Foods and TerraCycle Offer Eco Friendly Products while giving back to the community (July 23, 2008)
A Startup Company called TerraCycle is paying locla schools and community groups to help collect used packagain such as drink pouches, yogurt cups, energy bar wrappers and more. The company repurposes used packaging and other easte materials to make eco friendly products sold at local Giant Foods. ...
Palo Alto Daily
From wrappers to tote bags (July 20, 2008)
This spring, two employees at Whole Travel, a Palo Alto sustainable travel agency, could not come to a consensus over whether the wrappers to energy bars, like Clif and Balance bars, could be recycled.
"He kept putting the wrappers in the recycling bin, and I kept taking them out," said Pam McLeod, Whole Travel's sustainability specialist. "He couldn't believe you couldn't recycle them."
...
www.azstarnet.com
TerraCycle to rebrand waste into neat items (July 17, 2008)
Is a tote bag forged from old Capri Sun pouches fashionable? What about an umbrella constructed of used Chips Ahoy wrappers?
Each year, billions of food and drink wrappers encasing popular brands end up in landfills because their multilayered materials — which keep products fresh — are tricky and expensive to break down and recycle. This waste has presented a challenge for manufacturers eager to reduce their environmental impact and buff reputations among eco-conscious consumers. ...
IDS
'Eco-Preneur' Steps in to Recycle Wrappers as Accessories (July 17, 2008)
TerraCycle is a US company that achieved a spot on the shelves of Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target with its eco-fertilizer based on organic waste and worm castings. It has found yet another way to create gold out of garbage, says trend spotting experts Springwise, by turning discarded wrappers and juice pouches into bags, pencil boxes and other accessories.
As part of its ongoing mission to "eliminate the idea of waste," as its website puts it, TerraCycle has struck deals with large food and beverage manufacturers to collect the wrappers from their products and "upcycle" them into new, unique accessories. ...
The EcoChic
Upcycling and TerraCycle (July 17, 2008)
We’ve all heard the term RECYCLING but how many of you have heard the term UPCYCLING? Anyone want to take a guess what the definition of UPCYCLING is?
According to Wikipedia; Upcycling is the use of waste (trash) materials to provide useful products. The main difference between recycling and upcycling is that there is minimal processing involved with upcycling. The waste materials are used in the waste form to create a new and useful product. I’ll give you some examples in a minute....
kippreport.com
'Eco-preneur' steps in to recycle wrappers as accessories (July 16, 2008)
TerraCycle is a US company that achieved a spot on the shelves of Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target with its eco-fertilizer based on organic waste and worm castings. It has found yet another way to create gold out of garbage, says trend spotting experts Springwise, by turning discarded wrappers and juice pouches into bags, pencil boxes and other accessories.
As part of its ongoing mission to "eliminate the idea of waste," as its website puts it, TerraCycle has struck deals with large food and beverage manufacturers to collect the wrappers from their products and "upcycle" them into new, unique accessories. ...
Nature Repurposed
Upcycling Waste: Hidden Potential in the Garbage Can (July 16, 2008)
Calling themselves eco-friendly innovators, TerraCycle is taking on the challenge of recycling random waste singlehandedly. As they collect so-called "junk" - cookie wrappers, soda bottles, corks, yogurt containers and more - they create fun and interesting products.
TerraCycle is a company with an interesting history. The company first began in 2001 with two college students who saw the value in creating a company that followed eco-friendly, sustainable principles. Calling it eco-capitalism, they created their first product, TerraCycle plant food. The plant food is made from actual worm poop and then packaged in reused soda bottles....
AllDayBuffet
Ashes to ashes and plastic forever (July 15, 2008)
Read Bic’s perfect foil (and markedly clever business model) Terra Cycle, which creates products out of trash. The concept is the ultimate ‘duh’ and what started with their flagship worm-poop fertilizer re-packaged in old soda bottles, is now expanding into a team-up with Kraft to bring us fashionable bags made of Capri Sun wrappers–clever, eco-friendly AND nostalgic… oh you’re good.
It’s ideas like this that will (and need to) succeed in the new market place. We agree with PSFK that “this idea of creating products with an extremely limited life cycle, or made in a way that doesn’t allow for easy recycling seems hopelessly dated and out of touch with current realities.”...
Consumer Goods Technology
TerraCycle Turns Waste into Wonder (July 14, 2008)
The emerging concept of "eco-capitalism" holds that organizations must be accountable for their performance in the consumption and production of natural capital, an economic term for the goods and services available from nature.
TerraCycle is arguably the first-ever eco-capitalist corporation as the company not only limits its consumption of natural capital and minimizes waste; it actually reverses the entire process. ...
The dhlovelife Show
100% FROM WASTE (July 14, 2008)
TerraCycle Eco Capitalism KINGS Video
...
Springwise
Garbage into gold, now via discarded wrappers (July 14, 2008)
We've already written about TerraCycle, the company that achieved a spot on the shelves of Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target with its eco-fertilizer based on organic waste and worm castings. Now TerraCycle has found yet another way to create gold out of garbage by turning discarded wrappers and juice pouches into bags, pencil boxes and other accessories.
As part of its ongoing mission to "eliminate the idea of waste," as its website puts it, TerraCycle has struck deals with large food and beverage manufacturers to collect the wrappers from their products and "upcycle" them into new, unique accessories. Through a partnership with Kraft's Capri Sun and Honest Kids juice makers, for example, TerraCycle collects juice pouches from individuals and organizations that have signed up to participate...
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? ...
Internet Redux
Garbage into gold, now via discarded wrappers (July 12, 2008)
We’ve already written about TerraCycle, the company that achieved a spot on the shelves of Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target with its eco-fertilizer based on organic waste and worm castings. Now TerraCycle has found yet another way to create gold out of garbage by turning discarded wrappers and juice pouches into bags, pencil boxes and other accessories.
As part of its ongoing mission to “eliminate the idea of waste,” as its website puts it, TerraCycle has struck deals with large food and beverage manufacturers to collect the wrappers from their products and “upcycle” them into new, unique accessories. Through a partnership with Kraft’s Capri Sun and Honest Kids juice makers, for example, TerraCycle collects juice pouches from individuals and organizations that have signed...
The Grist
Here comes the Capri Sun (July 11, 2008)
The fertile minds at TerraCycle are partnering with Kraft to turn junk-food wrappers into fashion-forward bags, umbrellas, and shower curtains. Next up: Worm-poop Uggs? You know we'd wear 'em, Tom....
About.com
Guide Review - TerraCycle All Purpose Plant Food (July 9, 2008)
The first thing you notice about TerraCycle All Purpose Plant Food (0.03-0.002-0.02) is that under its yellow and green label, it is packaged in a reused 20 ounce soda bottle. The bottle is topped with a simple sprayer.
TerraCycle states that a weekly dose of their All Purpose Plant Food, sprayed on the foliage and soil, will "provide your plants with the primary nutrients for optimal growth" and that it "will not burn your plants" the way synthetics can. ...
TRASHformations
TerraCycle Fashions a New Life for Old Wrappers (July 7, 2008)
Is a tote bag forged from old CapriSun pouches fashionable? What about an umbrella constructed of used Chips Ahoy! wrappers?
Each year, billions of food and drink wrappers encasing popular brands end up in landfills because their multilayered materials -- which keep products fresh -- are tricky and expensive to break down and recycle. This waste has presented a challenge for manufacturers eager to reduce their environmental impact and buff reputations among eco-conscious consumers....
CSR info
Businees idea: umbrellas from cookies wrappers (July 7, 2008)
[03.07.2008] Greenbiz reported that TerraCycle in partnership with Kraft Foods will "upcycle" used wrappers from cookies, energy bars and drink pouches into purses, backpacks and umbrellas.
This new cooperation will divert waste from landfills and provide a major coup for upstart TerraCycle. ...
Wall Street Journal
TerraCycle Fashions a New Life (July 1, 2008)
Company Turns Trash
Into Totes, Backpacks
And Other Products
Is a tote bag forged from old CapriSun pouches fashionable? What about an umbrella constructed of used Chips Ahoy! wrappers?
Each year, billions of food and drink wrappers encasing popular brands end up in landfills because their multilayered materials -- which keep products fresh -- are tricky and expensive to break down and recycle. This waste has presented a challenge for manufacturers eager to reduce their environmental impact and buff reputations among eco-conscious consumers....
Hive Thrive
Rising Oil Prices Reveal Competitive Potential of Green and Local Businesses (June 27, 2008)
Products that are identified chiefly as green, organic, or locally produced have sometimes risked falling into what one might call the LOHAS Trap. To the extent that LOHAS, an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, is regarded as a relatively affluent, well-educated market segment, products that are aimed at that segment are likely to remain “alternatives.” In that case, for most consumers, the default choice will be the “mainstream” product, e.g. Palmolive, rather than Seventh Generation. A company such as Seventh Generation may earn a profit by charging a premium to those affluent consumers who are especially concerned about the environmental impact of detergents. However, environmental progress will be limited if the offerings of such companies continue to be premium...
News Ok
Gardening company uses recyclables (June 26, 2008)
Some companies now make gardening products and packaging from completely recycled materials. Here is some of the best from Terra Cycle.
Slow-release granular fertilizer. Made from worm castings and chicken litter, this fertilizer can feed plants for up to 12 weeks. Not only is the fertilizer made from waste, but it comes packaged in reused gallon jugs.
Eco-friendly cleaners. These cleaners are made from natural plant materials and are biodegradable and nontoxic. They are packaged in reused one liter soda bottles. The line includes a drain cleaner, glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner and an all-purpose cleaner....
Green Strides
NJ Company Turns Garbage into Gold (June 26, 2008)
Trenton-based TerraCycle’s entire product line is made from and packaged in waste products. How ingenious is that?!
Terracycle became renowned for its natural plant fertilizer made from organic waste from worms. The first step is to have something good for the worms to eat — raw organic matter that is fed into a rotating predigester. After a week, the mixture is ready to be fed to the worms. Several hundred thousand worms live and feed on the garbage and their waste products are then used to make a compost tea. Plants that are fertilized with it can easily soak up all those nutrients quickly and grow healthy, naturally....
Please Sprout Blog
Adventures in Patio Gardening (June 18, 2008)
I know that with a potted garden, it's important to regularly fertilize the plants regularly since the plants will quickly use all the nutrients in the soil. I've been giving my plants some plant food with their daily watering, but I was told by the nursery that I bought it from that it is not a replacement for fertilizer. ...
Green Books
Environmental (Green) Business Listings (June 17, 2008)
TerraCycle Inc. :: www.terracycle.net :: TerraCycle produces a line of home and cleaning products that are completely made and packaged with post-consumer discarded material. These products range from fertilzer, to shopping bags, to home cleaning products....
Iggyz Uncensored
TerraCycle tree and shrub fertilizer spikes (June 16, 2008)
I finally found one of the other TerraCycle products I had been searching for. The Home Depot in Jacksonville, IL had a good supply of TerraCycle tree and shrub fertilizer spikes. I hadn’t been able to find this new product closer to our home....
Money AOL
Money From (Almost) Nothing: Poo Poo, too! (June 13, 2008)
If you don't have a need for bottled urine, perhaps you'd like to purchase some worm poop? According to TerraCycle Inc., worm poop is an ideal, natural fertilizer. That is why they package the naturally occuring waste in used 20 oz. soda bottles and sell it for $6.95 (prices may vary). Proving where there's worm waste and soda drinkers, there's money to be made.
...
The Peregrin Pages
From Trash To Treasure - Adaptive Reuse In Business (June 11, 2008)
A while back, I wrote a post on the concept of adaptive reuse. Originally the term was an architectural one and referred to the reuse of buildings and building materials rather than destroying them. Over time however, the term has been absorbed by other industries and even by individuals and has come to mean the practice of finding other uses for products rather than as fodder for our overflowing landfills.
Since that original post, I have been searching for examples of adaptive reuse. I haven’t found very many. In the most recent issue of Yes! Magazine however, there is a small blurb about entrepreneur Tom Szaky that caught my eye and inspired me....
EnviroHumanImpact
A Huge Worm Dump! Awesome! (June 10, 2008)
You know that feeling after a worm takes a huge dump? Awesome!
Actually, let’s talk about many many worms pooping lots of little bits to make a product called, “Worm Poop.” Disgusting? Look for it at your Home Depot!
TerraCycle is a young company started by two Princeton dropouts, Co-founders Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, one of whom, while visiting a friend, found his collection of worms making compost in a plastic container in his kitchen (after a night of drinking). Fascinated at his friend’s method of getting soil for some “plants in his basement,” (watch the video!), he began thinking of a way to make a company that could make and market composted organic waste for gardening....
LA Times
TerraCycle: Green cleanliness in a waste stream bottle (June 9, 2008)
If you're not ready to make your own green cleaners -- but cringe every time you throw out another plastic spray bottle (into the recycling bin, but still), TerraCycle has a solution for you: Green cleaners packaged in reclaimed soda bottles!
Yep -- The anti-waste people who brought you the eco worm-poop fertilizer in used soda bottles are now packaging eco-cleaning products in the same reclaimed containers. TerraCycle's 5-product line includes all-purpose, window and bathroom cleaners, as well as a degreaser and drain maintainer. All products are non-toxic and biodegradable; they're also free of 1,4-Dioxane, fragrances, and dyes. ...
Homegrown
What does worm poop look like? (June 8, 2008)
Only a gardener could get excited by a call to test out vermicompost, a.k.a., worm poop. Such was the case when James Artis of TerraCycle, makers of the “world’s most eco-friendly products,” offered to send a sample of his company’s products.
Worms create some of the richest fertilizer around and I hadn’t used any since Stacie Johnson suspended her vermicompost business in Robins several years ago....
RePlayGround
TerraCycle - worm poop and more! (June 8, 2008)
If you haven't heard of TerraCycle, well now you have. They're a fast growing eco-powerhouse that produces both eco-friendly products AND packages them in reclaimed materials.
How cool is that? They got their start with Worm Poop and package it in soda bottles collected by students. Students raise money. Students learn about recycling. Terracycle gets inexpensive packaging. AND the bottles stay out of landfills. Brilliant? Yes....
Grand Haven Tribune
New Jersey company turning wrappers into school supplies (June 5, 2008)
An innovative startup company is partnering with big brand names like Nabisco and Capri Sun to recycle wrappers and containers that would likely otherwise land in a dump.
New Jersey-based Terracycle then transforms the trash into make products like backpacks, pencil boxes and change purses. ...
Iggy Uncensored
Found TerraCycle cleaning products at local OfficeMax (June 4, 2008)
This evening after dinner and avoiding one of the people mentioned in my Al Gore article at The Corner we stopped at the OfficeMax down the street. I knew from my previous research that TerraCycle now had a distribution agreement with OfficeMax to carry the new TerraCycle cleaning products.
At first we did not see any TerraCycle product in the store. There was no advertising within the store announcing this new product option. However towards the back of the store just before the furniture selection Cheryl spotted the familiar TerraCycle packaging in the middle of an aisle....
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....
Gardening How-To
TerraCycle Lawn Fertilizer (June 1, 2008)
TerraCycle Lawn Fertilizer is an organic feritlizer made from concentrated, liquefied worm poop for use on any turf....
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. ...
Alaska Business Montly
Fred Meyer Sells Edo-Friendly Garden Products (June 1, 2008)
Fred Meyer stores in Alaska now sell a new line of eco-friendly garden products in response to customer demand for more sustainable, organic products. TerraCycle Inc.'s products are made from waste and recycled products....
The Green Journal
terracycle’s goal: eliminate waste (May 26, 2008)
Even if you haven't picked up a bottle of woom poop yet, no doubt you've heard of terracycle. It all started in 2001 when two Princeton University students set out to change the way people do business. Inspired by a box of worms, these students had a dream: a company could be financially successful while being ecologically and socially responsible....
Foorprint
Garbage into Gold (May 26, 2008)
Co-founders Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer were determined to turn the worm box concept into a real-life, commercially viable process. That summer, they developed prototype equipment and proved their concept was feasible by reprocessing solid waste from dining halls at Princeton University....
Treehugger in Training
Worm Poop (May 25, 2008)
I know what you're probably thinking; if I have to read one more blog post about worm defacations, I'm going to scream. But bear with me just a bit. We were at the tail end of one of our many trips to various garden centers around town (a trip any guy absolutely loves, as you can imagine) when I asked Mrs THIT "So do we need anything else?". This was intended to be one of those more or less rhetorical questions which actually meant "So can we finally leave?"...
Donna Reed Wannabe
Gardening & Environmentalism (May 23, 2008)
Oh, hey, I almost forgot the whole reason for writing this post today. I have found this great product made by an amazing company that I wanted to tell you about. Don't worry, you didn't read through all that for nothing, it relates to what I have been talking about. The company is called Terracycle, you can find them at http://www.terracycle.net/. To quote their website: "TerraCycle is trying to eliminate the idea of waste. To do so, we must find great uses for objects that used to be considered waste." They do this through all sorts of neat ways, unfortunately if I tried to tell you about all of them you would spend your whole day reading my blog (hmm .... ) so I'm just gonna focus on the one that relates to gardening. Remember I teased you a couple days ago that sometime in the near future...
Statesman Journal
Neighbor to Neighbor - New products (deer) (May 23, 2008)
TerraCycle, the company behind organic and eco-friendly home and garden products stored in plastic bottles, milk jugs and the like, has several new products out, including:...
Iggy Uncensored
TerraCycle worm castings granular all purpose plant food (May 23, 2008)
Here is a picture of one of the newer TerraCycle products. I’ve put the worm castings to use for the first time this year. Using the product on parts of the lawn being patched and around various plants. As you can see this All purpose plant food comes in a recycled milk jug. It’s basically dry worm poo in a jug. For more information on this product and TerraCycle please use the link below....
Earth & Economy
Help Eliminate the Idea of Waste (May 22, 2008)
TerraCycle manufactures affordable, potent, organic products that are not only made from waste, but are also packaged entirely in waste. As an eco-friendly manufacturer of plant foods, TerraCycle is able to make its products with worm poop and then sell them in used soda bottles.
...
All Business
The World’s First Company to Make Everything out of Trash (May 21, 2008)
There’s a great feature over at the NYT, profiling a few different green companies, and introducing us to the concept of Green II, a term used to describe companies that are green, while still being consumer-friendly and profitable.
What really jumped out at me though was the profile on Terracycle, a fertilizer manufacturer that makes everything from trash, but not just recycled trash, because that requires melting the plastic, they just wash stuff off. Their fertilizer is sold in washed, relabeled pop bottles. They also make a bird feeder from pop bottles and a purse out of old drink pouches. ...
Bit Botters
Spotlight On: TerraCycle. Making money from trash. (May 20, 2008)
TerraCycle is a company started by two Princton University students. What’s so unusual about their products is that every single part is made from garbage and waste. Yes, including the bottles and the packaging. The bottle you see on the right is an old, cleaned Pepsi bottle. To save resources, they recycle old soda bottles, and instead of melting it down, they use the bottle as is, even if they’re different shapes — they’re first company to do this....
Think outside the box!
From Princeton dropout to CEO of TerraCycle. (May 19, 2008)
What’s the great product you might ask? It’s worm poop! Why would someone in their right mind give up an Ivy League education at Princeton to pursue worm poop? Well it takes a determined individual to follow through on his/her beliefs to fulfill their dreams. Tom Szaky the founder of TerraCycle discovered the wonders of compost from a friend’s basement. Tom had the foresight to see the potential of the earthly matter after seeing how well it nourished his friend’s plants....
Earth Rated Products
TerraCycle Products (May 15, 2008)
Terra cycle is a relatively new little company that allows you to recycle items that are normally not recyclable. Terra cycle will either reuse your donated items (bottles for their Worm Poop fertilizer) or create new products from your donated items (totes, shopping bags, office supplies). Just imagine - your kids’ giant pile of juice pouches transformed into a pencil box, homework folder, or tote. You’ve got 2 out of the 3 Rs right there! To top it all off, they’ll even kick back donations to your favorite charity in exchange for your donations! How’s that for a win-win-win?? While Terra Cycle’s recycle and reuse program continues to evolve, the current list of items they accept includes: cookie wrappers, drink pouches,energy bar wrappers, yogurt containers, and soda bottles. Go...
Green Fertility
REVIEW: Terracycle Plant Food (May 14, 2008)
Plus, the stuff works. I even had a live worm in my Terrcycle potting soil that had been outside all winter. When I lived in NYC, I desperately tried growing stuff in my tiny window and I wish I had this. The food kept my herbs happy all winter long and I even coaxed a berry out of my dormant strawberry plant....
Greener Computing
TerraCycle: Worm Poop and So Much More (May 14, 2008)
What we do is we go in and work with companies like Honest Tea, Capri Sun, Kool-Aid -- these all became our sponsors -- and enabled them to help us run a nationwide collection program. So, today, if you have kids, and they're drinking Capri Sun or Honest Tea juice pouches, and you'd like to get paid to reuse them, you go to our website, you sign up, and for free, we send you collection boxes. You send them back, and then we donate $0.02 per pouch to any organization you want. Typically, it's like your school or something. And that's where it begins. ...
Climate Biz
TerraCycle: Worm Poop and So Much More (May 14, 2008)
Although it seems an unlikely success story, TerraCycle -- the company famous for turning worm poop into a household name -- points the way to success in how we address many of our environmental issues....
Yahoo
Grow your own money (May 13, 2008)
For example, enterprising Princeton classmates Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer started their own worm gin, which produces a potent organic fertilizer from worm waste. Their company, TerraCycle, now sells its products to Home Depot and Wal-Mart....
Eco Life
Terracycle Fertilizer (May 10, 2008)
For those who don’t have the time, inclination or stomach for worm farming, there’s a product that provides all the benefits without the effort. The fabulous people at Terracycle are worm poop farmers on a grand scale - producing fertilizers from worm casings that are completely organic. Terracycle offers a wide variety of products online; I’ve also found a few at my local Home Depot. And bonus - this magic elixir is packaged in recycled soda bottles....
Jenotopia
Taking vermicomposting to another level: TerraCycle’s eco-capitalism (May 9, 2008)
Vermicomposting has become so popular that is finally earning the attention of business folk as a potentially lucrative market. TerraCycle is a fresh, young company bringing some long-overdue earth-friendly business practices into play with vermiculture ~ and making a great gardening product in the process....
Matter Network
Contains Liquefied Worm Poop (May 5, 2008)
TerraCycle, a company specializing in the reuse of waste: among other things, it makes pencil cases out of Capri Sun drink packages and binders out of reused cardboard. Office Max is now planning to stock these used-to-be-trash products, and is teaming up with TerraCycle to develop more office supplies....
Natural Health News
Get Out and Green Your Garden (May 4, 2008)
Sound like a twisted fourth-grade boy's concoction for messing with his sister? Not quite. Rather, it is TerraCycle's formula for success in the growing, if messy, organic fertilizer business.
...
Community Earth
A Green Tie Gala (April 27, 2008)
This thriving sustainable business model manufactures affordable, potent, organic products that are not only made from waste, but are also packaged entirely in waste! The process begins by feeding premium organic waste to millions of worms. The worm poop is then liquified into a powerful organic plant food and bottled directly in used soda bottles. The company also has an innovative program that pays school and community groups to collect the reusable container they use for their packaging. Learn more. ...
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....
RandMark
Local garden clubs gearing up for spring (April 22, 2008)
To keep up on what should be done and when, Kranz also suggests subscribing to the club's free newsletter (at the club's website www.bgc.terracycle.net), which features a "Timely Reminders" section. The newsletter, edited by Jerry LeBeda, former club president, also contains club news, gardening tips and other articles of interest....
Capital City News
TerraCycle products hit Alaska shelves (April 16, 2008)
TerraCycle is leading the way for companies trying to take eco-friendly and organic products and make them more affordable and accessible so that the average consumer may become a green consumer....
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....
Sandy Post
Waste products worm their way to Sandy (April 10, 2008)
Liquefied worm dung in a used soda bottle isn’t exactly something most people would think to purchase. But challenging conventional thinking about waste and recycling is exactly what New Jersey-based TerraCycle, Inc. wants to do....
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....
Memoirs of a Vagabond
TerraCycle turns what others leave behind into fertilizers and fashion (April 8, 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, earthworms are making history again at TerraCycle Inc. in Trenton, N.J. The eco-friendly gardening supply company, which turns worm castings into organic liquid plant fertilizer, is growing faster than a wonga wonga vine (Pandorea pandorana) in springtime. It’s also affirming the green movement’s place in mainstream business....
Empire Press
Worms, pots and business (April 3, 2008)
We had a phone call the other morning about a guy who wanted to talk about worm poop and urban artists who decorated pots....
El Neuvodia
Abono empresarial (April 2, 2008)
Hace seis años, Tom Szaky tuvo que tolerar la burlas cuando salió a pedir dinero para desarrollar un producto al que llamaba “Worm Poop” (caca de lombriz). Hoy, esos mismos inversionistas están fascinados con su “eco-capitalismo” y su compañía, TerraCycle, ha sido proclamada “la empresa incipiente más 'cool' en América”, según la revista Inc....
Gardening How-To
TerraCycle Fertilizers (April 1, 2008)
TerraCycle Garden is an organic fertilizer made of concentrated, liquefied worm poop for use on outdoor plants, shrubs, and vegetables. All-natural ingredients will not burn plants....
Handy Magazine
Homegrown Green (April 1, 2008)
Growing and mowing - another resource at your display is garbage. Kitchen scraps (such as vegetable peels, eggshells and coffee grounds), grass clippings and leaves can greatly enrich the soil and nurture a greener landscape....
V Magazine
Juicy Couture (April 1, 2008)
Our bread and butter is fertilizer made from worm poop and then packaged in old soda bottles said Albe Zakes, marketing director at eco-gardening company TerraCycle. We aren't used to considering our work in relation to the world of high fashion...
Herald Net
Soda Bottles for Worm Poop; Drink Pouches for Handbags (April 1, 2008)
The eco-friendly company TerraCycle is dedicated to being a “zero waste” operation, and so packages its worm poop fertilizer in used soda bottles. A year and a half ago, the company created its National Bottle Brigade to collect the bottles, to give kids an opportunity to make a difference through recycling, and to help schools and nonprofit organizations raise money....
The Hillsboro Argus
Fred Meyer carrying innovative, eco-friendly products (April 1, 2008)
PORTLAND - Fred Meyer Stores is carrying a new line of eco-friendly garden products in response to the growing demands for more sustainable, organic products. The products, manufactured by TerraCycle, Inc., are made entirely from waste and school kids can earn money by helping collect some of the waste items used to make the products. TerraCycle's mission is to provide organic and eco-friendly products without charging a premium. The products will be available at Fred Meyer locations throughout Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Idaho....
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....
Readers Digest
Fast Grass From Hard Working Worms (April 1, 2008)
Listen up lawn lovers: No more rueing the less-than-stellar performance of so many organic fertilizers....
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...
Herald News
Fred Meyer carries TerraCycle (March 31, 2008)
Fred Meyer in Everett is carrying the TerraCycle line of environmentally friendly gardening products. The products include Worm Poop plant foods and fertilizers. TerraCycle packages its products in recycled beverage and yogurt containers, some of which are collected by children during fundraisers. For information on its recycling program, go to www.terracycle.net/brigades.
...
Palo Alto Online
FYI (March 26, 2008)
Eco-capitalists TerraCycle — best known for their eco-friendly "Worm Poop" fertilizer — have teamed up with energy-bar maker Clif Bar to establish energy-bar wrapper recycling locations across the country. The goal is to keep the wrappers out of landfills, but the campaign serves other purposes as well. For starters, TerraCycle donates 2 cents per wrapper to the charity of choice identified by the administrator of each collection location — Palo Alto has two. Second, the wrappers are eventually woven together to create fashion...
Sandy Post
Waste Products make their way to Sandy (March 26, 2008)
Liquefied worm dung in a soda bottle isn't exactly something most people would think to purchase...
NJ My Way
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 (www.terracycle.net), the upstart Trenton company that finds creative uses for the things we know as garbage. ...
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....
Vitality Magazine
TerraCycle Plant Food for Eco-Friendly Gardeners (March 23, 2008)
TerraCycle Plant Food became the first consumer product to earn the Zerofootprint Seal and now is available to eco-conscious plant-lovers at major hardware and garden centres across Canada and the US. The seal signifies that the materials and manufacturing process used to produce a product have virtually no negative environmental repercussions....
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Company goes mainstream with green ethic (March 22, 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....
Bend Weekly
Bend Fred Meyer store tests products made from waste (March 21, 2008)
BEND, Ore. -- The Bend Fred Meyer store on Highway 97 is carrying a new line of eco-friendly garden products in response to the growing demands for more sustainable, organic products. The products, manufactured by TerraCycle, Inc., are made entirely from waste and school children can earn money by helping collect some of the waste items used to make the products. TerraCycle’s mission is to provide organic and eco-friendly products without charging a premium. The products will be available at Fred Meyer locations throughout Oregon....
The Dallas Morning News
Graffiti for a good cause (March 21, 2008)
When a company's initial offering is liquid fertilizer made from worm poop packaged in used plastic soda bottles, there are bound to be more surprises in store...
Herald Mail
Annual garden show offers place for ideas to take root, sprout (March 16, 2008)
The TerraCycle products even come packaged in recycled materials - plastic soda bottles with surplus spray bottle heads, Baker said. ...
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. ...
San Diego Tribune
'Green' energy demand means more jobs – conference (March 14, 2008)
In Trenton, New Jersey, a company called TerraCycle turns waste like plastic soda bottles into containers for liquid fertilizer and personal accessories like handbags. “There is so much waste out there that can be upcycled into new products,” said Tom Szaky, 26, the company's chief executive. “It's not garbage anymore. It's just a commodity that has some value behind it.”...
The Dallas Morning News
All the pretty flowers that will grow here (March 5, 2008)
When a company's initial offering is liquid fertilizer made from earthworm manure and packaged in plastic pop bottles, there are bound to be more surprises in store. New Jersey start-up TerraCycle also produces bird feeders and household cleaners packaged in recycled plastic bottles and zippered bags fashioned from juice pouches. ...
Green Work Place
TerraCycle (March 3, 2008)
Finally, a company that really gets what recycling is all about. TerraCycle is trying to eliminate the idea of waste completely. You provide them packaging... they turn around and put their products in your water bottles, drink pouches, yogurt containers, energy bar wrappers, etc. So what do they sell exactly? Mostly gardening products, bird food, fertilizer and the like. But don't worry, its all natural stuff....
Design at Home
Prepairing for Spring (February 27, 2008)
I’ll be the first to admit that my thumb is not very green. I love flowers and herb gardens, and I’ll even offer to trim the shrubs once in a while. But I’m trying to get better. With winter on its way out, I’m becoming more inspired to get outdoors and work in the dirt. As am investigating the latest products to help my garden grow, I’ve discovered many have harsh and toxic chemicals. Since I’m working to “green” my life, I want an Earth-friendly option for outdoor plantings and landscaping....
National Post
RAIN, RAIN, DON'T GO AWAY (February 7, 2008)
TerraCycle is a very cool company -- not only do they re-use milk jugs and pop bottles to package their Worm Poop plant food, they also turn old wine barrels into compost bins and rainwater collecting systems....
Tuscon Home
For the Birds (February 1, 2008)
The folks at TerraCycle have made a name for themselves in the plant-food arena - not only for providing quality organic products for gardners, but for doing so in recycled plastic containers...
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....
Startup Toolbox
On Getting Paid to Recycle (January 24, 2008)
Even closer to my heart is Terracycle’s Brigade project. Terracycle’s main business is selling organic fertilizer and pesticides. They package their products in straight-from-the-recycling-center plastic bottles. More recently, they have started projects to collect used yogurt containers, drink pouches and energy bar wrappers. I go through a lot of energy bars, so I’m pleased to have a place to send the wrappers. For each container, $0.02- $0.05 is donated to the charity of the collectors choice. I’m still working through the details, especially what will be done with all the material collected, but I love the idea....
Good Magazine
Black Gold (January 16, 2008)
If Tom Szaky were a typical 25-year-old college-dropout CEO, he’d probably be running an internet start-up. Instead, he sells worm poop—an excellent fertilizer, as it turns out. TerraCycle, the company he founded in 2001, sold almost $2 million worth of the stuff last year.
The company also boasts one of the most sustainable business models imaginable: they get paid to convert garbage into a consumer product. "What caught my eye was less the fertilizer nature of worm poop, although that was fantastic, but the fact that it started with garbage," Szaky says....
Union Leader
Milk-jug recycling program's a hit (January 16, 2008)
Earlier this year, the Trenton NJ based TerraCycle offered to pay double the market value per pound for one-gallon milk jugs collected by local residents and left at the New Boston Road recycling center. The company plans to use the jugs as containers for its "worm poop" organic fertilizers, which are sold at major chain stores....
Good Magazine
Black Good (January 11, 2008)
If Tom Szaky were a typical 25-year old college dropout CEO, he'd probably be running an internet start-up. Instead, he sells worm poop - an excellent fertilizer, as it turns out....
Green Profit
TerraCycle Lawn Fertilizer (January 5, 2008)
TerraCycel Lawn Fertilizer is an effective, all-natural fertilizer made from worm poop and packaged in used soda bottles....
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. ...
Green Profit
TerraCycle Lawn Fertilizer (January 1, 2008)
TerraCycle's lawn fertilizer is an effective, all-natural fertilizer made from worm poop and packaged in used soda bottles....
American Way Magazine
Dirty Business (December 21, 2007)
Tom Szaky is convinced that he's found miracle substance that will both make him millions and save the world: worm poop...
Trenton Downtowner
What do Worm Poop and Trenton have in common? (December 15, 2007)
It all started with a quest for beer. I came down to New Jersey from Canada to go to Princeton University. I quickly found that I was no longer able to buy alcohol....
The Times
TerraCycle gets a little help from its friends (December 13, 2007)
Worm poop today - planters and pencil cases tomorrow.
Trenton-based TerraCycle is famous for inspiring young people to collect empty soda bottles the company then washes and reuses as containers for its liquid organic plant fertilizer, which is made from worm excrement....
American Way Magazine
Dirty Business (December 3, 2007)
Tom Szaky is convinced that he’s found a miracle substance that will both make him millions and save the world: worm poop. Yes, it may sound laughable, but don’t be too hasty to judge. Szaky, a scruffy 25-year-old Princeton dropout who founded TerraCycle, a small company based in Trenton, New Jersey, that makes organic plant food by using worm excrement (known as castings) as the key ingredient, can weave a pretty compelling case.
...
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. ...
Bangor Daily News
Shopping for the gardener on your list (November 24, 2007)
Because nothing says love like a bottle of liquefied worm castings. TerraCycle Plant Food is about as Earth-friendly as gardening gets. First, a gazillion worms are fed "premium organic waste," according to the bottle label. And then the worms do what worms do: They "create worm poop." That is turned into liquid fertilizer and packaged in a reused soda bottle, which the company collects by running community and school fundraisers.
I found my 20-ounce bottle — with its little bottle-cap ring still around its neck — last weekend at Tillson True Value in Dexter where I was shopping for LED Christmas lights — also an excellent way to be kind to the world and your electric bill. The all-purpose fertilizer was $6.99 and comes with a spray nozzle....
Philadelphia Inquirer
Building a soil team (November 23, 2007)
Organic gardeners have long known the TerraCycle secret. They count on earthworms to improve soil structure, drainage and fertility.
"You want to encourage earthworms in your garden, definitely," says Jackie Ricotta, associate horticulture professor at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown....
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....
Supermarket News
Earth-Friendly Waste (November 21, 2007)
General Merchandise company TerraCycle here has teamed with Honest Tea, Bethesda Ma., and Stonyfield Farm. Londonderry, NH. to launch two promotional recycling programs called the...
Packaging World Magazine
TerraCycle: Packaging with a repurpose (November 19, 2007)
The procurement of retail packaging based on discarded containers won뭪 work well for most products, but it works perfectly for 뱇iquid worm poop�and related plant-food products from TerraCycle, Trenton, NJ. The company뭩 certified organic products are packaged in discarded 1- and 2-L, and 20-oz soda bottles that have been collected and shipped at TerraCycle뭩 expense from around the country...in reused boxes, of course. It also uses 1-gal HDPE containers the company procures from local recyclers for other products. The company sorts, cleans, delabels bottles if needed, then shrink-sleeves, fills, and seals them using discarded sprayers or caps....
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....
20/20
Winning: Only in America (November 13, 2007)
Twenty-five-year-old Tom Szaky is the CEO of Terracycle, a company that creates garden products entirely from waste. "I think America by far is one of the best countries for people to come to as an immigrant, especially as an entrepreneur," said Szaky, who was born in Hungary and raised in Canada. Szaky came to the United States to attend college, where he came up with the crazy idea to sell worm waste as a fertilizer for plants. ...
Marin Independent Journal
Stop treating worms like dirt (November 9, 2007)
I have good news for those of you who don't have the time, space or guts to build and maintain your own worm bin. Allow me to proudly introduce to you an organic gardener's best friend - Terracycle Worm Poop. Yes, you read that right. Worm poop in a recycled bottle. Now that's American ingenuity!...
The Big Idea
Go Green, Make Millions (November 8, 2007)
And, learn how to turn waste into a business that generates cold hard cash. Tom Szaky is the co-founder and CEO of Terracycle Inc, a company that products made from and packaged in waste. Also tonight, Stonyfield Farm, Eco Hangers, 360 Vodka, Recycline, Josie Maran Cosmetics and G Diaper all share their secrets of how they’ve made millions by going green. Tune in tonight and see if you’ve got a green idea worth millions. ...
Gardening How-To
Test in Progress (November 1, 2007)
TerraCycle Garden is an organic fertilizer made of concentrated, liquefied worm poop for use on outdoor plants, shrubs, and vegetables. Packaged in two 20-ounce reused soda bottles....
The Seattle Times
Staghorn sumacs taking over (October 31, 2007)
Q: Last summer I used a spray called TerraCycle on my container flowers, and they're still blooming in October. The guy at the Home Depot recommended it so highly that even though it was expensive I bought some. Do you think it really helps, or maybe it was the packaged soil I used? I hope to repeat this success next summer.
A: Wouldn't it be great if Home Depot and other big-box stores carried more organic products like TerraCycle so we could shop in their gardening aisles without feeling overwhelmed by poisonous fumes? It seems so wrong for gardening supplies to smell like chemical death, don't you think?...
Green Talk
TerraCycle, Teaching Our Young through Worm Poop (October 22, 2007)
What does fundraising, soda bottles, yogurt cups, drinking pouches, and worm poop have in common? Give up? I know that is a tough set of words to figure out the correlation. Just ask the innovative folks over at TerraCycle, maker of worm poop fertilizer and other assorted eco-friendly gardening products. They will tell you that it’s their mission to rid the world of waste through creating innovative uses of products that you would ordinarily throw away. Their worm poop product is bottled in recycled soda bottles.
How does this involve our young? What better way to teach this lesson than to create fundraisers involving children to collect items that can be reused? If our young can be taught at an early age to respect the Earth, then when they grow up as adults this thought process...
The Inadvertant Gardener
Keep Marion Jones out of the garden (October 17, 2007)
But when we talk about acting locally in the global fight against environmental catastrophe, the one place we all have the most control is in our own yards. We have the choice: use Scotts Miracle-Gro? Or Terracycle? Dump a bunch of chemical fertilizer on the vegetables we plan to eat, and let that leach into the soil and run off into the local water supply, or try a less harmful product? We might lose a little in terms of how big our tomatoes grow, but we gain a long-term benefit that we can’t even quantify yet....
Go Getter
5 innovative environmental business ideas (October 15, 2007)
TerraCycle is a truly innovative company. Their products, fertilizers, are packaged in cleansed pop bottles that each of us use every day. By providing a Pepsi bottle or whatnot, you receive $0.06 along with an ever important contribution to the already 1,098,440 bottles collected to date. This model could be applied to hundreds and thousands of different liquid based products that we use and eliminate the entire process of having to crush, melt, and re-form new bottles....
Packaging World
SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING - Podcast: TerraCycle talks (October 10, 2007)
Packaging World editor Rick Lingle interviews Albe Zakes, "eco-revolutionary" and company spokesman for TerraCycle, makers of plant food made from liquid worm poop that's filled in reused containers. Learn in 10 minutes about the unique challenges and successes for this one-of-a-kind company that reuses discarded 20-oz PET bottles provided by TerraCycle's nationwide Bottle Brigade. ...
CSR Wire
Social Venture Network Announces SVN Innovation Award Winners (October 2, 2007)
TerraCycle, Tom Szaky, CEO and Co-Founder (Trenton, NJ): TerraCycle manufactures affordable, organic fertilizer that is not only made from garbage—organic waste composted naturally by worms—but also packaged entirely in garbage—reused soda bottles. Szaky dropped out of Princeton to pursue this idea. TerraCycle started selling its fertilizer through Home Depot in 2004 and collected more than 2 million plastic bottles in its first 18 months through a recycling program called the Bottle Brigade, which generates enthusiasm for recycling among children by allowing them to fundraise for special projects....
Packaging World
The wrap-up: Truly custom packaging (October 1, 2007)
There’s even a “green” twist on customization, from TerraCycle, which uses recycled bottles for many of its plant food products. Starting in November 2006, it began including neck tags in all of its empty boxes sent to its Bottle Brigade members—those who collect and ship the collected used bottles at TerreCycle's expense in boxes. The collectors can sign the tags with their first name and state location. The neck tags hang from bottles sold at select retailers including Target....
Wall Street Journal
When It’s Good to Be Sued (September 27, 2007)
In the annals of David and Goliath battles, the recently settled litigation brought by lawn-care giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. against tiny Trenton, N.J.-based fertilizer maker TerraCycle Inc., may go down as a lawsuit that probably helped the defendant a lot more than the plaintiff. Thanks to the Internet and the blogging community, TerraCycle was able to turn the lawsuit from a time and money-sapping nuisance into a publicity advantage.
On March 7, TerraCycle, which makes fertilizer from liquefied worm droppings, was sued by Scotts for, among other things, infringing on the yellow-and-green trade dress of Scotts’s Miracle-Gro brand. Scotts also claimed that TerraCycle was falsely advertising its products as superior to others, including Scotts’s. The settlement calls for TerraCycle...
Pacific Sun
Home: The conqueror worms (September 21, 2007)
I have good news for those of you who don't have the time, space or guts to build and maintain your own worm bin. Who needs more work, anyway? Allow me then to proudly introduce to you an organic gardener's—and diva's—best friend. Drum roll please...ta-da! TerraCycle worm poop! Yup, you read that right. Worm poop in a recycled bottle. Now that's American ingenuity.
It all began back in 2001 in a Princeton University dorm room, after former students and future CEOs Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer witnessed a classmate feeding food scraps to a box of worms. They learned their classmate fed the worms in exchange for their castings, which were loaded with the abundant nutrients he required to support the special plants he was furtively growing in his basement. (I'll let you take a guess.)
Anyway,...
Henrico Citizen
Business New (September 20, 2007)
Kroger stores in Metro Richmond are currently testing an organic plant food manufactured by TerraCycle, Inc., known informally as the “worm poop” plant food, a fertilizer that comes ready to use with no mixing required.
TerraCycle's All-Purpose Plant Food is the first product to be sold at Kroger stores that is not only made from garbage but also packaged in garbage. TerraCycle Plant Foods are made from organic waste that is composted by worms, liquefied and packaged in reused soda bottles.
The used 20-ounce. soda bottles used to package TerraCycle Plant Foods are collected through the TerraCycle Bottle Brigade™, a nationwide recycling program composed of more than 3,600 schools, churches and other community groups that collect used soda bottles. For every bottle they collect TerraCycle...
Scottsdale Independent
Fry's supermarkets carry new plant food (September 19, 2007)
Fry's Food and Drug and Fry's Marketplace locations in North Scottsdale are testing a certified organic plant food manufactured by TerraCycle. TerraCycle Plant Foods are made from organic waste that is composted by worms, liquefied and packaged in reused soda bottles. The plant food is a high quality fertilizer that comes ready to use with no mixing required....
Mother Jones
Worm Poop Threatens Corporate Profits (September 19, 2007)
Some of the nation's biggest corporations have found that baseless lawsuits are often a useful tool for squashing upstart competition. The latest example of this kind of noxious behavior comes from Scotts Miracle-Gro, a $2 billion company that claims 60 percent of the nation's garden-care market. Earlier this year, Scotts sued the tiny New Jersey start-up TerraCycle, which sells fertilizer made from all-natural worm poop, packaged in recycled soda bottles. Scotts alleges that TerraCycle has copied its packaging design and engaged in false advertising.
TerraCycle was started by college students and has never made a profit, but has made in-roads into some of the bigger retail outlets. Apparently Scotts sees the worm poop as a threat. TerraCycle has fought back mainly with PR. They've put up...
BoomerGirl.com
Attack of the worms! (September 19, 2007)
Drum roll please ... Ta-da! Terracycle Worm Poop! Yup, you read that right. Worm poop in a recycled bottle. Now that’s American ingenuity.
A worm compost bin In New Jersey at the TerraCycle greenhouse. It all began back in 2001, in a Princeton University dorm room...
Hartford Courant
Waste Not, Waste Not With TerraCycle (September 14, 2007)
TerraCycle - a Trenton, N.J., company founded by two Princeton University students in 2001 - has reused more than 1 million soda and water bottles to package its plant food, itself the product of recycled garbage and affectionately known as "worm poop."
Now TerraCycle is using recycled bottles as bird feeders as well, already packed with seed and priced at $4.88.
Many of the bottles have been collected by more than 4,000 school groups and charities. TerraCycle spokesman Albe Zakes says the company pays 6 cents per bottle.
A big fan of the "Bottle Brigade" program is Lee Gluck, the library media specialist at Whiting Lane School in West Hartford who previously taught at Wolcott Elementary School for about 12 years, including the past four years teaching fifth-graders....
Daily Advertiser
Government seems to be run by corporations (September 13, 2007)
I have been worried about the way that "corporate America" seems to be getting bigger, more powerful, and pushing their weight around. I feel like our government is controlled by corporations rather than people.
Recently, I read an article about how the Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is suing a small company, TerraCycle, which bottles "worm poop" in a green bottle. The product is organic, and the bottles are recycled. Miracle-Gro claims that the color is too similar to their packaging color (green) and therefore confusing to the consumer.
So rather than feeling powerless in this chaotic world of corporate scandals and take-overs, I decided to let my purchasing power mean something. No longer will I buy Scotts' products....
East Valley Tribune
More Greenery (September 12, 2007)
Not to ruin appetites, but here is an unusual product available in north East Valley supermarkets.
Manufacturer TerraCycle said it is testing a certified organic plant food at Fry’s stores in Scottsdale and northeast Phoenix. The stores are at 6321 E. Greenway Road, 10450 N. 90th St., 7628 E. Indian School Road, 8900 E. Via Linda, 4842 E. Bell Road and 6080 E. Thomas Road.
The product is made from organic waste that is composted by worms, liquefied and packaged in recycled soda bottles.
TerraCycle claims the “Worm Poop” plant food is the first product sold at Fry’s that is not only made from garbage, but also is packaged in garbage....
Lexington Herald Leader
Let 'em go to worm waste (September 12, 2007)
Instead of throwing away that empty soda bottle, Whitney Schlansky has a better idea: Send it to the worms.
Since June, Lexington's High Street Neighborhood Center, a downtown, nonprofit day care center that serves low-income and at-risk children, has been collecting empty 20-ounce soda bottles. Schlansky and her young assistants then send them to a company called TerraCycle Inc., based in Trenton, N.J., which reuses the bottles to market its line of natural plant foods made from, in the company's own words, liquefied "worm poop."...
Kansas City Star
Gardening entrepreneurs worm their way into business (September 9, 2007)
Two young New Jersey entrepreneurs are busy turning what they affectionately call “worm poop” into usable plant food.
And major players like Kroger and Home Depot are buying.TerraCycle is both made of garbage and packaged in garbage. Organic waste composted by worms is liquefied, then packaged in reused soda bottles.
“We are officially the most eco-friendly product in the country right now,” says 25-year-old Princeton University dropout Tom Szaky, who dreamed of creating an environmentally beneficial business model.
By making products out of waste materials, he theorized, the waste stream could be reversed so that nothing became “trash.”...
Flyer Group
Company offers plant food for the environment (September 7, 2007)
New Jersey's TerraCycle may be one of the most self-contained companies there is. The group is responsible for an organic plant food made from worm poop or, in a more polite term, worm castings. Such fertilizer has been used for years by serious gardeners and eco-minded individuals. "We're not doing anything revolutionary," said Albe Zakes, TerraCycle's public relations directory. "But we're the first company that has made a widespread consumer fertilizer out of worm poop."...
Santana Sun
Organic worm food at Fry's (September 1, 2007)
An organic plant food manufactured by TerraCycle Inc is now available at select Fry's Food and Drug Store locations in Chandler. The plant food is made from organic waste composted by worms, liquefied and packaged in reused soda bottles. Area schools, churches and other community groups wanting to raise money by supplying the used soda bottles should join the Bottle Brigade at www.terracycle.net/bb...
Pacific Sun
Home: Well, mow me down! (August 31, 2007)
For a general fertilizer, I like TerraCycle's organic lawn fertilizer (with "worm poop"). Worm poop is an ideal fertilizer. It's rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
How to fertilize with worm poop:
Step one: Apply lipstick.
Step two: Connect fertilizer attachment to your hose.
Step three: Turn hose on and water your lawn.
I swear, worm poop from a hose is so fun!...
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Bottle Brigade raises money to restore Braddock library (August 30, 2007)
John Hempel doesn't drink soda. But the University of Pittsburgh biologist has helped to collect about 6,500, 20-ounce soda bottles to help the environment and raise money for restoring the Braddock Carnegie Library.
Hempel sends the bottles to New Jersey-based TerraCycle as part of its Bottle Brigade program. TerraCycle makes and distributes lawn and garden fertilizer -- essentially worm poop, as company publicist Paul D'Eramo puts it....
Debonair Magazine
Terracycle - Poop Salesman Trumps Zuckerberg (August 23, 2007)
When Tom Szaky dropped out of Ivy League Princeton at the age of 19 to start his own business, he had only the two things that would lead to his success, a million plastic bottles and a whole lot of worm poop.
The genius behind Szaky’s product is that it’s completely made from waste. Some say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and in Szaky’s case everyone’s trash has become his millions. Using organic waste digested by worms, TerraCycle brews the poop into a tea and packages it in used, 20oz. soda bottles.
The bottles are collected by school children in a nationwide program called the Bottle Brigade™ campaign. The end result is not only a product which rides the wave of environmental concern that has been dominating the media, but the also provides living proof...
Western Chesterfield Exchange
Natural Fertilizer's Name Might Make You Squirm (August 16, 2007)
The label of the bottle on the shelf declares the product's name in large, bold red words: 'Worm Poop'. You see it, you titter with adolescent laughter, you take a second glance to make sure you read correctly, then you point it out to others … or management, depending on your demeanor.
Whether you have yet to notice, the bottles of liquid organic plant food named Worm Poop have been recently, well, plopping down on store shelves throughout the area. New Jersey based TerraCycle Inc. chose the Midlothian area as one market to test their new ecologically friendly fertilizer product. ...
Progress Plus
Kroger Aids Recycling by Selling "Worm Poop" (August 15, 2007)
The Kroger Stores in Charlottesville are now testing an organic plant food manufactured by TerraCycle, Inc. The "Worm Poop" plant food is a high quality fertilizer that comes ready to use, no mixing required! Unlike many eco-friendly and organic products, TerraCycle comes at no premium, costing only 4 dollars a bottle!...
Intelligencer
Organic Plant Food Available (August 13, 2007)
The Kroger Store on Mt. de Chantal Road in Wheeling is now testing an organic plant food manufactured by TerraCycle Inc. The plant food is a high-quality fertilizer that comes ready to use, no mixing required. Unlike many eco-friendly and organic products, TerraCycle comes with a friendly price.
TerraCycle is the first product to be sold at Kroger Stores that is not only made from garbage, but also packaged in garbage. TerraCycle Plant Foods are made from organic waste that is composted by worms, liquefied and packaged in reused soda bottles. The production of this super eco-friendly product is actually consuming waste.
Kroger will be selling the All-Purpose Plant Food in its Kroger stores to test the eco-friendly product’s appeal to its customers....
Journal Gazette
Business at a Glance (August 12, 2007)
Kroger markets in the Fort Wayne area are now testing a organic plant food manufactured by TerraCycle Inc. The “Worm Poop” organic plant food is a high-quality fertilizer that comes ready to use....
Globe and Mail
The worm turns ... a profit (August 7, 2007)
On the website of Cathy's Crawly Composters is a cartoon titled "Getting Into Heaven in the 21st Century.
In it, St. Peter is querying a would-be entrant on his recycling habits. Did he recycle: "absolutely." How about composting? Well he lived in an apartment. Well what about using composting worms? Well he didn't have a balcony. What about your living room, asks St. Pete. "Worms in my living room? For Pete's sake!" answers our hero—before realizing he's doomed....
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Here's the real poop on recycling (August 7, 2007)
While you're buying your tomatoes, chicken, eggs and dishwashing soap at your favorite Kroger's, you might want to check out the worm poop.
Don't worry, it won't get on your shoes. The worm leavings have been turned into plant food in recycled plastic drink bottles -- at least one Memphis nonprofit is gathering the bottles.
"We're testing the product to see if it will catch on (in supermarkets) and see if their (Kroger) customers are ready to go green," said Mike Avale, a spokesman for TerraCycle, the Trenton, N.J.-based company that makes and sells the product....
Organic or Bust
Testing Organic Fertilizer (August 7, 2007)
The Kroger Store on Hardy Road in Vinton is now testing an organic plant food manufactured by TerraCycle, Inc. The “Worm Poop” plant food is a high quality fertilizer that comes ready to use, with no mixing required. Unlike many eco-friendly and organic products, TerraCycle comes at no premium costing only 4 dollars a bottle.
TerraCycle is the first product to be sold at Kroger Stores that is not only made from garbage, but also packaged in garbage! TerraCycle Plant Foods are made from organic waste that is composted by worms, liquefied and packaged in reused soda bottles....
Our Valley
Organic product being test marketed in Vinton (August 7, 2007)
The Kroger Store on Hardy Road in Vinton is now testing an organic plant food manufactured by TerraCycle, Inc. The “Worm Poop” plant food is a high quality fertilizer that comes ready to use, with no mixing required. Unlike many eco-friendly and organic products, TerraCycle comes at no premium costing only 4 dollars a bottle.
TerraCycle is the first product to be sold at Kroger Stores that is not only made from garbage, but also packaged in garbage! TerraCycle Plant Foods are made from organic waste that is composted by worms, liquefied and packaged in reused soda bottles. ...
Fort Collins Now
Worm Poop Hits Shelves (August 4, 2007)
Make room on your shopping list for worm poop.
Colorado-area King Soopers are now selling a new organic fertilizer which essentially is the dirty business of earth crawlers. “Worm Poop,” is a all-purpose plant food manufactured by TerraCycle, a newcomer in the fertilizer business.
Kroger, King Soopers’ parent company, is selling the product to test its eco-friendly appeal to customers. The fertilizer is certified organic by the Organic Materials Review Institute, according to TerraCyle.
Albe Zakes, the director of public relations for TerraCycle and self-described “eco-revolutionist” said the company is hoping to ride the current green trend consumers seem to be on....
NJ Monthly
Splendor in the Grass (May 30, 2007)
At his computer, Tom Szaky is Googling words like peat and fertilizer. Jon Beyer, his business partner, is taking lunch orders. After all, you’ve got to eat before you get your hands dirty in business—particularly this business. In 2003, in Trenton, Szaky and Beyer started TerraCycle, which, among its twelve product offerings, makes all-natural, nontoxic plant food and potting soil as well as liquid fertilizers and deer repellent. Szaky, 25, and Beyer, 23, spend part of their day sifting through mounds of refuse, recovering old soda bottles and picking through the rest, to create clean piles of dirt that they augment with a secret ingredient that they’re both very proud to mention out loud: worm poop. ...
Green Talk
The struggles of my vegetable garden (April 28, 2007)
My favorite finds has to be TerraCycle's seed starter kit. The seed starter mix is made of vericompost, which is worm poop, which every gardner knows is the best type of compost. In addition the seed trays are made out of recycled paper not plastic like most seed starters. Once your seedlings are grown, you can literally tear off the cell and plant it right in the ground. The paper decomposes and there is less stress on the plant. When I try to switch a plant from its pot to the ground, I inevitably lose half of the soil and distrub the roots. As exicited as I was about the worm poop, TerraCycle must have had me in mind with these tearable cells to plant. Go to http://www.terracycle.net/seed_starter.htm to see a video about this product. They also have great fertilizing products too. TerraCyle...
Business Week
(April 23, 2007)
It's a battle over the nation's yards and gardens. Lawn-care giant Scotts Miracle-Gro is suing TerraCycle, an organic plant-food startup with a product line based on earthworms. In TerraCycle's Trenton factory, night crawlers munch on organic waste, and their nutrient-rich droppings are blended into a solution sold in reused soda bottles. TerraCycle sales hit $1.8 million last year, a 300% leap. The green-and-yellow bottles, bedecked with images of vegetables and flowers and designed to allow spraying, are a problem, says Scotts, whose sales are at $2.7 billion (including its competing Organic Choice line, which grew by 200%)...
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Canada.com
Droppings for sale (April 19, 2007)
Worms: What are they good for? Absolutely not as much as they used to be. At least that is one way to interpret the release of a new garden fertilizer made of liquefied worm poop. As I write this, there are two bottles of poop on my desk, compliments of Home Depot and the worm-poop entrepreneurs at TerraCycle. Ours must be a nation of lazy worms, indeed, if the little squirmers need some industrial aid to get the job done. Sadly, one of the poop bottles popped its seal in shipping, so worm poop has dribbled onto my desk, and even worse, my hands. WorkSafe B.C. staffers can look forward to a compensation claim like none they have seen before......
Good Times
Worm Your Way to Healthy Plants (April 5, 2007)
TerraCycle's liquid worm poop is a unique product from a one-of-a-kind company that's trying to worm its way to the top — so to speak — in an effort to make the world a greener place. Their eco-friendly plant food is made from composted waste and is even packaged in waste. It all starts at the TerraCycle plant, where millions of red worms are fed organic garbage. The result? The worms excrete a natural fertilizer — or poop — that's rich in nitrate nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, which is then liquefied and packaged in ready-to-spray recycled soda bottles. It's nature's fertilizer at its best!......
Kitsap Sun
New Gardening Products (April 5, 2007)
This product is garbage, literally! Garbage is fed to worms whose organic waste (poop actually) is nutrient rich food for plants. The technical term for the process of collecting worm castings (poop) is vermicomposting. The value of worm castings to plants and soil is clearly documented and backed by years of scientific research. TerraCycle's marquis products are plant foods that are all natural, liquid fertilizers that are effective yet safe for the environment and readily available through mass market retailers......
Sierra Vista Herald
Zerofootprint and Earth Day (April 3, 2007)
With Sierra Vista's Earth Day comes a unique opportunity to learn about a company called TerraCycle. It makes a plant food that is the first consumer product to earn the right to carry the Zerofootprint seal. The seal signifies that the materials and manufacturing process used to produce its materials have virtually no negative environmental repercussions. I first learned about TerraCycle, which is made from liquid worm poop and packaged in recycled soda bottles, from Judy Goodenough, who has been farming worms for the past 15 years. Goodenough will bring some of her worms to town and talk about TerraCycle at the farmers market, which is held at the northwest corner of Wilcox Drive and Carmichael Avenue. More than 1,438,125 20-ounce soda bottles have been recycled so far to package TerraCycle...
Orlando Sentinel
Seed starters (March 31, 2007)
Fertilize lightly. Once a week, use just a bit of an organic fertilizer labeled for seed starting. Fish emulsion and seaweed work well for Akre, though she warns they are fragrant; worm tea, such as TerraCycle, also is good......
Faerwear
Blog post (March 29, 2007)
I discovered this only last night - a company called TerraCycle that produces organic plant food - some of the best! This is worm waste and, as I discovered in Oregon, some of the best stuff your plants and veggies can eat. What TerraCycle does is feed waste food to their worms, then bottle up the results in recycled bottles - this stuff is now being offered at Home Depot, among other places - it's getting cred in major, international chain stores (not, mind you, that something like that matters to ME, but to the general public, sometimes that's what it takes)......
Newsday
Product Review: Worm Poop (March 29, 2007)
Vermiculture is a form of composting that essentially uses earthworms to eat garbage and excrete a soil-enriching byproduct. For those without the stomach or the inclination to raise worms, TerraCycle Plant Food has bottled the organic matter and called it Worm Poop. Quoting Charles Darwin, the Trenton company's mantra is, "Worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than most persons would at first suppose." Started in 2001 by two Princeton University students, TerraCycle prides itself on selling trash bottled in trash (recycled soda bottles). I recently put its claims to the test when my tomato seedlings began languishing. I decided to give the nitrogen-, phosphorus- and potassium-rich plant food a try before trashing the plants and starting over. The fertilizer is...
Boston Globe
Worm poop purveyor eyes local gardeners (March 28, 2007)
Mix compost and coconut with a dollop of worm poop and - Voila! - the result is an eco-friendly potting mix that should leave the ardent gardener in a state of high excitement, or so claims a New Jersey company. According to TerraCycle Inc. of Trenton, its all-purpose potting mix is ground-saving, if not ground-breaking, and the mix is hitting the shelves in Wal-Marts in Massachusetts, among other states. TerraCycle swears its peat-free potting mix does not contribute to the destruction of peat bogs, which some environmentalists believe are endangered, the company claims. In lieu of peat, TerraCycle loads up its potting mix with worm poop, which the company suggests is rich in miraculous gardening properties...
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LA Times
Even waste isn't wated (March 24, 2007)
POOP in a bottle may not seem like cause for celebration, but organic gardeners just might hail the product line expansion from TerraCycle, the company that makes liquid plant foods and fertilizers from worm castings. Albe Zakes, a TerraCycle spokesman who gives his title as "Eco-Revolutionary," says his firm is rolling out several new poop-based products nationally this year. New lawn and garden fertilizers, tomato food and seed starter are joining the existing line of orchid, African violet and general-purpose foods. All are packaged in recycled plastic soda bottles collected from schools and nonprofit organizations. Spray tops are attached to 20-ounce bottles of ready-to-use plant food. The concentrated lawn fertilizer comes in 34-ounce bottles with hose attachments for easy application....
The Windmills of my mind
Blog post (March 19, 2007)
If you are a gardener of any sort- you need to get you some WORM POOP! Seriously- it's like a magic potion for plants. It's called TerraCycle and you can get it at Home Depot. It comes in recycled pop bottles- it's organic and it's FABULOUS!!!......
Chicago Tribune
Garden Clippings (March 18, 2007)
Consider more earth-friendly alternatives to the standard wasteful and polluting weed-and-feed lawn regimen. Here's one: a lawn fertilizer with a hose-end sprayer packaged in recycled soda bottles. Oh, and it's made by worms. TerraCycle Lawn Fertilizer is concentrated worm tea — the liquid byproduct of earthworms. Composters know worm tea (or Worm Poop, as TerraCycle calls it) to be a rich brew, with not only necessary elemental nutrients but microbes to support the lifeforms that live in good soil. The 5-1-1 lawn food (enough to treat 5,000 square feet for about $15) will be available soon in many Home Depot or Target stores; or see www.terracycle.net......
Popgadget
TerraCycle gets attacked by Miracle-Gro (March 12, 2007)
My questions about recycled goods are always about the costs involved in bringing the product to the consumer. I do believe that businesses should make every effort to be good stewards and break down trash for recycling if financially feasible. TerraCycle is a favorite company of mine because they've taken plastic and converted it into a low cost package that's friendly to the environment. It's fun to see these large scale recycling processes on store shelves, but the true winner is the company using free trash to create a saleable product......
Fort Wayne
Lawn products go natural (March 11, 2007)
But it's not enough to simply provide the retail presence. Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, whose all-natural fertilizer-based products are enjoying tremendous popularity from large retail buyers, sums it up this way: "It's one thing to get the products on the shelf. More importantly, they have to move off the shelf."......
Baltimore Sun
The nitty-gritty of starting seeds (March 10, 2007)
Fertilize lightly. Once a week, use just a bit of an organic fertilizer labeled for seed starting (ask at a good garden center). Fish emulsion and seaweed work well for Akre, though she warns they are fragrant; worm tea, such as TerraCycle, also is good......
Contra Costa Times
Indoors and out (March 10, 2007)
Got a stockpile of 20-ounce plastic bottles piling up in your garage? Well, now would be a good time to recycle them and help out the California State Parks Foundation at the same time. Orchard Supply Hardware and TerraCycle Inc., which makes eco-friendly plant foods and fertilizers, have joined forces to raise money for the nonprofit parks foundation that protects and enhances California's 278 state parks. During March and April, TerraCycle will give the foundation 5 cents for every 20-ounce plastic soda bottle donated at any of OSH's 85 California stores...
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South Bend Tribune
Bottle Brigade forges on (March 7, 2007)
They were sorting through plastic bottles to find ones suitable for the Bottle Brigade, a recycling program that earns organizations extra funds and saves oodles of plastic soda and water bottles from potentially ending up in landfills. The Bottle Brigade is a program of TerraCycle Inc., based in Trenton, N.J. The company uses the plastic bottles collected by schools and other organizations to package its plant food. According to its Web site, TerraCycle Plant Food is made and packaged entirely from trash......
South Bend Tribune
Bottle Brigade forges on (March 7, 2007)
They were sorting through plastic bottles to find ones suitable for the Bottle Brigade, a recycling program that earns organizations extra funds and saves oodles of plastic soda and water bottles from potentially ending up in landfills. The Bottle Brigade is a program of TerraCycle Inc., based in Trenton, N.J. The company uses the plastic bottles collected by schools and other organizations to package its plant food. According to its Web site, TerraCycle Plant Food is made and packaged entirely from trash......
Suburban Chicago News
Gardening trends are looking greener (March 7, 2007)
But it's not enough to simply provide the retail presence. Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, whose all-natural fertilizer-based products are enjoying tremendous popularity from large retail buyers, sums it up this way: "It's one thing to get the products on the shelf. More importantly, they have to move off the shelf."......
Sauk Valley
Best garden gadgets for 2007 (March 7, 2007)
This product is garbage, literally! Garbage is fed to worms whose organic waste (poop actually) is nutrient rich food for plants. The technical term for the process of collecting worm castings (poop) is vermicomposting. The value of worm castings to plants and soil is clearly documented and backed by years of scientific research. TerraCycle's marquis products are plant foods that are all natural, liquid fertilizers that are effective yet safe for the environment and readily available...
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Chicago Tribune
15 easy steps to start your own plants (March 2, 2007)
Fertilize lightly. Once a week, use just a bit of an organic fertilizer labeled for seed starting (ask at a good garden center). Fish emulsion and seaweed work well for Akre, though she warns they are fragrant; worm tea, such as TerraCycle, also is good...
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Ventura County Star
Inside/Out (February 16, 2007)
This product is garbage — literally. Garbage is fed to red worms, whose organic waste is gourmet food for plants...
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Organic and Earth Friendly Blog
Coolest Organic and ECO-Friendly Company out there (February 14, 2007)
I was at Home Depot a few days ago & saw the coolest thing in the garden section. It is a product called Terra-Cycle, Inc. These guys make fertilizers from worm poop. Every kind of plant food including Garden, Lawn, Tomato, African Violet, Orchid, All Purpose & Tropical. They currently have Cactus, Rose & Herb foods in development. These foods are available in different configurations, ranging from, Spray bottles, Pour Bottles & even the easy to use Garden Hose attachments......
As the worm turns
Nature's Garden (February 12, 2007)
You don't have to be a college graduate to know that worms, which devour organic matter and deposit "castings" that aerate and enrich soil, are good critters to have in a garden. So it makes sense that a college dropout and his partner used this common horticultural wisdom to develop TerraCycle, an organic liquid plant food derived from what the company affectionately refers to as "worm poop"...
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Emagazine
Tools For Green Giving (February 8, 2007)
Another poop-inspired product is the new Organic Worm Poop Fertilizer from TerraCycle, an organic lawn care company based in Trenton, New Jersey. This product is made from the organic waste of worms and is packaged in recycled soda bottles collected by school children across the country. Just by adding water, you can bathe your lawn in nourishing (and eco-friendly) liquefied worm poop......
Colorado Garden and Home Show
Hot Products (February 3, 2007)
This is truly organic. This is an all-natural, certified organic, effective all-purpose plant food. It's made from and packaged entirely from waste. The plant food is created by feeding organic waste to earthworms. The castings are liquefied to produce a powerful, organic plant food......
Carolina Gardener
New Products (February 2, 2007)
New eco-friendly lawn and garden fertilizers are made from waste that is fed to worms and comes out in the form of worm poop, which is then packaged in collected soda bottles. Products can be bought in box stores like Home Depot or online......
Green Profit
New Product (February 1, 2007)
TerraCycle Plant Foods are all-natural fertilizers made from worm poop and packaged in re-used soda bottles. Available as ready-to-use sprays and All-Purpose, Orchid, African Violet and Tomato fertilizers. Lawn and Garden fertilizer is also available in concentrate form with a hose attachment......
Chile Pepper
Feb 07 (February 1, 2007)
There's no nice way to say it. This plant food is made of worm poop — which is a natural plant food. And it's packaged in reused soda bottles for an added bonus. Spritz it on your chiles for good karma peppers......
Phoenix Home and Garden
Waste Not (February 1, 2007)
Although the ingredients in TerraCycle's line of plant foods may not sound appealing — liquefied all-natural worm poop — it is rich in nutrients that have proven to be effective in enhancing plant growth and vigor. Packaged in recycled soda bottles, the convenient ready-to-use food can be poured directly on soil or sprayed on leaves...
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Connecticut Cottages and Gardens
What a Waste (February 1, 2007)
Garbage can be good. TerraCycle's all-natural liquid plant food is derived from worm waste and packaged in recycled soda bottles. Available fertilizers include All-Purpose, African Violet, Orchid and Lawn Fertilizer sprays...
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Ecological Home Ideas
Worm tea is the latest in organic fertilizer (February 1, 2007)
It really makes sense, since worms are a good friend in any garden. To create TerraCycle's All Purpose Plant Food, the worm castings are prepared like tea, by water filtering through them. The end result is a chemical-free fertilizer in a spray form. I've found some worm teas to have a strong odor, so I was a bit reluctant to use it on houseplants, but was pleased to discover I could detect no smell...
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Allentown Examiner
AHS helps Home Depot help the environment (January 25, 2007)
What happens to the 30 million soda bottles that Americans waste daily? Well, 500 of them will be reused to package an all-natural plant food in part thanks to Allentown High School. A representative of the high school dropped off 200 used soda bottles at the Eco-Pallet in the Hamilton Home Depot on Route 130 for 5 cents a bottle. The school earned a total of $10 for the waste that the Trenton-based company, TerraCycle Inc., will reuse to package its plant food product. Two Princeton University students, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, started TerraCycle in 2002. Szaky, who is now the company's CEO, dropped out of school sophomore year to run TerraCycle full time. "We produce a line of organic plant and lawn fertilizers and are the first consumer product to be made from and packaged in waste," said...
Courier Post
Thingamajigs (January 22, 2007)
Trenton-based TerraCycle Inc. wants to sell us worm poop. And we're supposed to think this is a good thing? Well, it is, actually. Worm poop, it seems, is good for plants. Lots of master gardeners call it "black gold" (eww). TerraCycle's new line of plant foods and fertilizers harness the power of vermicomposting in ready-to-use spray bottles that will be sold this spring at Wal-Mart, Home Depot and other retailers. Included in that line is the 2-liter TerraCycle All-Purpose Plant Food, which feeds indoor plants as well as outdoor plants and gardens. It's liquefied worm poop that won't burn plants or cause salt buildup. The best part, TerraCycle says, is you can recycle the bottle after using up the environmentally friendly product. Visit www.terracycle.net or call (609) 393-4252......
House and Garden
The Goods (January 22, 2007)
TerraCycle plant food is the first mass-produced product to be packaged in reused plastic bottles. The food consists of the liquid castings of red worms, which process garbage that is ordinarily sent to landfills......
Inc Magazine
Practice, Practice (January 22, 2007)
In Mid-November, it was time once again for Tom Szaky to rehearse his sales presentation. Szaky is the 25-year-old Princeton-dropout CEO of TerraCycle, a garden-products company based in Trenton, New Jersey. Through constantly refining his pitch, he's managed to get his products into Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot. Sales is 2006 were $1.5 million, and he's projecting $6 million this year. In fact, his sales presentation is so good that Wal-Mart Canada recently brought him to its suppliers fair to instruct would-be vendors on how to approach the retailer. Szaky's an energetic charmer who's constantly selling TerraCycle. To everyone he meets, he gives an easy smile and the one-liner that what TerraCycle does is make stuff from worm poop. Then, usually, he'll ask for feedback — what did you...
Plant Therapy
Apartment Therapy (January 20, 2007)
TerraCycle plant food: (Above) Made from millions of worms on a healthy diet. And the mixture is bottled in recycled soda bottles (see how the bottle outlines are different - cool!). If you visit the TerraCycle website directly you can also read about their recycle drives to collect bottles......
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flower shows spotlight hot spots in outdoor living (January 18, 2007)
With the mounting interest in eco-friendly products, it's no surprise that more and more materials will be recycled. One of the hottest such products on the market recycles worm poop into a liquid spray. TerraCycle has introduced a line of plant foods and fertilizers that not only are made from waste but packaged in it — reused soda bottles.....
Sauk Valley
Vermicompost leads to a clean basement (January 15, 2007)
But, even more exciting, the worm tea I covet so much is now available, premixed and ready to use! Thanks to one company, TerraCycle (www.terracycle.net), blazing a path into many of the major retailers and garden centers, you and I have access to all the liquid worm food we want or need. More companies are likely to follow, creating even more opportunities for us all to enjoy these benefits in an eco-friendly way. So thanks to the power of worm poop and one small but growing company, I can appease my wife and retire the basement worm bin and still have all the liquid organic plant food I'll ever need......
Contra Costa Times
Indoors & Out (January 13, 2007)
The press release says this product is "every gardener's dream come true," and if you dream of worm poop in a ready-to-use spray bottle, then your dreams have indeed come true. TerraCycle Inc. is introducing a line of plant foods and fertilizers all made from worm castings and available this spring at Wal-Mart, Home Depot and other retailers. The spray is packaged in reused soda bottles, making it quite possibly the greenest of all eco-friendly green products. Worm waste is a well-known plant food and fertilizer, but you pretty much had to raise your own worms to get your hands on it (excuse the imagery). But TerraCycle does that part for us, and then packages it in reclaimed plastic beverage bottles. For more information on the products, the process and the company, got to www.terracycle.net......
Todays Garden Center
The Power of Worms (January 10, 2007)
TerraCycle plant food is eco-friendly in every sense of the term. Made from and packaged in waste, the plant food is marketed as being powerful, odorless and goof proof. And, it doesn't cost any more than other plant fertilizers. The food comes from worms, which consume waste, process that waste and convert it to (I don't want to say it but I have to) "worm poop." The liquefied worm poop is then used to produce the all-natural plant food. In fact, the company is proud of its primary ingredient, even boasting on the bottle, "Contains Liquefied Worm Poop."......
NJ Entrepreneur
Learn From Experience: Tom Szaky (January 8, 2007)
Founder Tom Szaky, inspired by a box of worms, created a prototype of the TerraCycle 'worm gin' in the summer of 2001 by reprocessing waste from dining halls at Princeton University. Once he proved his concept was feasible, Tom left Princeton and co-founded TerraCycle, Inc., the first company to produce products made from and packaged in waste. Tom answers twelve questions about starting and growing TerraCycle, Inc......
Mankato Free Press
A home for 'misfit' horses (January 6, 2007)
Their latest push has been the TerraCycle program. The couple is asking for donations of empty 20-ounce beverage bottles to be recycled by TerraCycle, a New Jersey company that makes all-natural plant food out of worm droppings and packages it in the bottles. Misfit Acres will receive 5 cents per bottle. And, as Jody can attest, every cent helps......
South Brunswick Post
Home Depot Acts Locally (January 4, 2007)
On Dec. 27, the South Brunswick Home Depot was honored for its commitment to and hard work toward helping the environment. Representatives from TerraCycle, Inc. and Zerofootprint presented plaques to the department managers in recognition of Home Depot's participation in ecologically friendly programs......
E! The Environmental Magazine
Super Poopers (January 1, 2007)
With the mounting interest in eco-friendly products, it's no surprise that more and more materials will be recycled. One of the hottest such products on the market recycles worm poop into a liquid spray. TerraCycle has introduced a line of plant foods and fertilizers that not only are made from waste but packaged in it — reused soda bottles......
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"We used TerraCycle Plant Food on our zucchini plants and were amazed to find that they grew about four times the size of store-bought zucchini. They lasted longer, and tasted better. Our lemon tree bore twice as much fruit and more repeatedly than prior to our using TerraCycle."
- Antonio
"My plants, by the way, are skyrocketing, literally. I can barely see outside my place. Thank you TerraCycle!"
- Jen Brea
"I have an indoor calamondin orange tree that is about 2.5 feet tall. Before using TerraCycle, I had 1-2 blooms on the tree in all. Now, after applying TerraCycle for a few weeks, I have 10 blossoms and over 170 buds that just started popping up all over the place in the last week! This stuff works! Liquefied worm poop really does the job."
- Dave Kurz
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