The Peregrin Pages

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.

Szacky, a Princeton student, recognized an opportunity to keep garbage out of landfills and make money at the same time.  In 2001 he started a company called Terracycle, the first company to make all of its products and packaging out of waste.

Terracycle sells a plant food made from worm poop.  No, I’m not kidding.  You gardeners will recognize that worm poop is a good thing for your flowers and veggies.  As a matter of fact, I have read of many a green thumb that cultivate worm farms just so they can collect the poo to put in their veggie patch.

The great thing about Terracycle though is that it doesn’t stop with just what worms cast off, but uses other forms of waste as well.  The company packages its product in reused plastic bottles and ships those bottles in misprinted boxes that other companies discard.

Lately, they have taken steps to expand their product line, but are using the same principles and practices the company was founded on.  They have started a Sponsored Waste program in which schools and community groups collect and send in discarded food containers, which the business will then use to make new products.  The groups that send in the containers are then compensated with donations to a non-profit of their choice.

The business world is starting to take notice of Szaky and Terracycle.  In fact, in 2006, Inc. Magazine named Szaky the “No. 1 CEO under 30.”  Szaky beat out Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook for that title.

I honestly believe God is pleased by efforts like this.  In the book of Genesis, mankind is given the mandate to care for and be stewards of the earth.  We have warped that into a mission to rape the planet for our own profit and pleasure.  If a major company can turn trash into treasure, then we as individuals can do the same.