Podcast: TerraCycle talks

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.

Hear Zakes discuss:

• Having a zero carbon footprint
• The Bottle Brigade program
• The challenges of using discarded bottles
• Retailers' and consumers' reactions
• Sponsored waste

Background: The company's certified organic products are packaged in discarded 1- and 2-L bottles as well as 20-oz soda bottles that have been collected and shipped at TerraCycle’s 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, then shrink-sleeves, fills, and seals them with discarded sprayers or caps.

After Wal-Mart and Home Depot tested TerraCycle's products in Canada in 2005, in 2006 both retailers rolled TerraCycle's products out nationally. In 2007, TerraCycle expanded into Target stores and retailers including Whole Foods, CVS, Kroger, Ace Hardware, and True Value.

For more on TerraCycle, see the November 2007 issue of Packaging World.

 

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