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December 13. 2005 6:59AM
Worms' waste is his
profitEntrepreneur makes organic
fertilizer out of worm excrement
BONNIE PFISTER
Associated Press
Writer
TRENTON, N.J. -- Tom Szaky is wearing what he calls his
"greed hat," turning worm excrement into profit.
The
23-year-old Princeton dropout set out to be a smart
entrepreneur, not an environmental hero. His growing business
is built on organic fertilizer made from worm feces, then
bottled in recycled plastic bottles.
The company,
TerraCycle, markets plant fertilizer created by
"vermicomposting" -- harvesting worm excrement. It sells the
product in 20-ounce plastic soft drink bottles, many gathered
by school children. It employs 10 people in a warehouse in
economically depressed Trenton.
Those business
choices were born not of idealism but to maximize efficiency
and keep costs down.
"We're in Trenton because the rent
is very cheap and labor is abundant," said Szaky (pronounced
SAH'-kee). "The decisions were made by wearing the greed hat
... but ironically we're doing the right thing."
TerraCycle Plant Food has sold for around $7 since
early 2004 in organic groceries and independent garden shops,
and earlier this year began appearing on shelves in Wal-Marts
across Canada and Home Depots there and in New Jersey. Sales
for 2005 are expected to reach about $500,000, and Szaky hopes
to triple that next year with a planned launch in Home Depots
and Wal-Marts nationwide.
There, where the majority of
Americans buy their gardening goods, TerraCycle will go up
against fertilizing powerhouse Miracle-Gro.
"We don't
want to just be an organic plant food sold in little organic
stores," he said. "We want to compete on their playing
field."
Born in Hungary, Szaky moved with his physician
parents to Toronto at age 9. He entered Princeton to study
behavioral psychology and economics in 2001.
While
visiting a friend in Montreal that fall, Szaky was intrigued
by the success his plant-loving pal was having with homemade
fertilizer generated by a box of compost and some worms.
"It wasn't an environmental thing. It was 'Wow, this
is a cool business model,'æ" Szaky said. "The light bulb went
on, and it never went off."
Szaky and Princeton
colleague Jon Beyer submitted their idea to a campus business
plan project, and were rejected. Undaunted, they purchased a
"worm gin" -- equipment that houses red worms while they chew
their way through decomposing food scraps -- with $20,000
borrowed on credit cards. By summer 2002 the fledgling company
was near failure.
Szaky went on an AM radio station to
talk up the concept, and fielded a phone call from an investor
offering $2,000 to keep TerraCycle alive. Szaky
accepted.
The company took up residence at Rutgers
University's EcoComplex, an environmental research facility
run in partnership with Burlington County Landfill near
Bordentown, about 12 miles south of Trenton.
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 Tom Szaky, TerraCycle
chief executive, looks on as he stands next to
thousands of reused soda bottles at his packing
factory in Trenton, N.J.
AP Photos/JOSE F. MORENO
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