ITHACA — It's a company Steve Kurz called “nuts” and “genius” in
the same breath.
When you realize the Cornell University junior is talking about
bottling liquefied worm poop in re-used drink bottles, it starts to
become clearer why.
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Yet TerraCycle, the company
that makes this fertilizer and for whom Kurz works, is growing at
such a rate that the “nuts” description is becoming less and less
appropriate with every sale.
“We're using something people don't want and would pay to get rid
of,” said Kurz, who is heading up the company's Cornell-based
office.
The company started with a goal of changing the basic business
model and hopes its approach eventually will outsell MiracleGro as
the country's leading fertilizer, while maintaining a triple bottom
line of environmental, social and financial responsibility.
While studying economics at Cornell, Kurz got caught up in
TerraCycle after his dad shared an article from the Princeton
University newspaper about the company.
“My first thought was ‘That's totally insane,'” Kurz remembered.
So crazy, that Kurz cold-called co-founder Tom Szaky, 23, and
ended up with a summer internship. It was during that summer that he
learned the workings of the company and its unique history.
TerraCycle began in 2001 when Szaky and business partner Jon
Beyer decided to drop out of their sophomore year at Princeton and
see if they could turn trash into profit. By using worms to break
down selected materials from the Princeton dining halls, they
realized they could create a fertilizer with inputs some people
might pay them to take off their hands.
They decided to go to organic and took their business model on
the road. In 2003, TerraCycle won the Carrot Capital Business Plan
Challenge and, in a surprising move, turned down a hefty cash prize
in the form of venture capital to develop independent investors.
So, with $20,000 from friends, family and maxed-out credit cards,
TerraCycle took off.
The product that has kept them going is a form of vermicompost.
The fertilizer is made by feeding worms' organic material that they
then break down. While he won't disclose their exact inputs, Szaky
used the examples of coffee grounds or hops from beer manufacturers
as the types of elements that go into the fertilizer.
The resulting material is then anaerobically brewed, something
like a tea, to create the bottled liquid.
By only feeding the worms specific materials, TerraCycle earned
certification with the Organic Materials Review Institute.
Displaying an OMRI label means the product can be used, as directed,
in the production of organic plants or produce.
The company's “worm army” and headquarters are in Trenton, N.J.,
with offices here, in Cornell's Business and Technology Park, and in
Toronto. There are 30 full-time employees. The Ithaca office, which
opened a year ago, is staffed by eight interns.
For that staff in Ithaca, the main focus is the four-week old
“Bottle Brigade.”
“We're looking to have the largest bottle drive in the nation,”
Kurz said.
Collecting bottles is central to the company's manufacturing,
because the liquid-product is packaged in re-used, 20-ounce drink
bottles. Originally gathered through bottle drives at local schools,
where they give an educational presentation, the company needs to
expand its collections to accommodate increased sales.
To achieve this mission, TerraCycle has talked to everyone from
local schools and colleges to Barbara Eckstrom, solid waste manager
of Tompkins County Solid Waste. In a meeting with Eckstrom Thursday,
discussions went so far as to consider creating a model of
partnering with municipalities and haulers that could be replicated
nation-wide.
“I think there's a great opportunity here,” Eckstrom said.
“Everything you're saying is in-line with our mission — moving
towards zero waste while still maintaining a profit and working with
any company that works on re-use.”
This kind of response has helped the product's sales grow at a
tremendous rate. TerraCycle is already on the shelves in Wal-Mart
Canada and Home Depot Canada, it's hoping to have a similar presence
in the U.S. by next spring.
“It's always nice to walk into Home Depot and Wal-Mart and see
the product there,” Szaky said, of his visits to Canada.
Ithacans will likely see evidence of TerraCycle at schools and
small businesses in the form of collection boxes before they see it
on many stores' shelves.
The first local company to distribute the product is GreenStar
Cooperative Markets, where a 20-ounce bottle costs $5.29.
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