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From the ground up: Student entrepreneurs create new compost
Marjorie Censer
Princetonian Staff Writer
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| Photo by Alice Warren-Gregory |
(Expand Photo)
Tom
Szaky '05 takes a call in his office on Nassau Street, where he runs
Terracycle, a business he helped start freshman year. The company uses
an innovative, environment-friendly composting method to turn waste
into soil. |
University students are responsible for approximately four tons of food waste daily.
While most of the waste goes to a pig farm, Tom
Szaky '05 and his company Terracycle have a better idea for its use.
Terracycle recently signed a contract through
which it will receive 130 tons of food waste daily from clients
throughout northern New Jersey, including Princeton.
Founded 14 months ago, Terracycle proposes a
new method of composting food waste into soil, one which Szaky says is
both extremely effective and environmentally friendly.
Szaky's process, the result of collaboration
with Jon Beyer '05 at the beginning of their freshman year, seeks to
recreate the natural process of composting that occurs in the top six
inches of the forest floor.
Terracycle's approach uses technology to
replicate and enhance the natural process of recycling waste
— particularly through the use of red worms.
Szaky emphasized that this method has many
positive results. He said the process uses much less land — 300
square feet as opposed to the approximately 10 acres typically used by
composting companies. In addition, there is no odor so it can be run in
the middle of a populous city.
Beyer added that the process is much less labor-intensive.
"Our system greatly reduces the labor required per ton of waste processed," Beyer wrote in an email.
The resulting soil is also superior to other
brands on the market, Szaky said. Most store-bought soil has had
chemicals added, he said. Consequently, when it rains, a runoff
results, decreasing the chemicals' effects on plants and damaging river
life.
"[The process] is the way it should happen,"
Szaky said. "It's the way you'd see it happening if you went to the
forest."
In addition, Szaky noted the important implications his process may have for landfills.
"For every 20 pounds of soil, you're saving 40
pounds of waste from a landfill," he said. "That's not something anyone
else can really say."
Terracycle is attempting to raise $2 million to
build a factory in New Jersey, which will allow it to compost about 400
times as much waste as it does currently.
Szaky plans to take the next semester off from
school to dedicate his time to this project. The company has 11
employees, all of whom are University students and alumni.
Hilary Burt '03 plans to take over the
communications and public relations aspect of the company full-time
after graduation. She first became involved over the summer after
seeing the launch of Szaky and Beyer's prototype.
"This is such an amazing experience for me,"
Burt said. "The amount I have learned and will learn will be amazing."
Beyer, Burt and Szaky all expressed a desire
for Terracycle to make a significant impact on the environment.
"I'd like to be making a noticeable difference
in the quantity of waste going into landfills," Beyer said. "I think
that sooner or later, there will need to be an alternative to
landfills, and there currently isn't anything out there really."
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