"The same 50 people came to all the events, and the same 50 people signed all the letters," Zakes said of his days as an activist at the University of Colorado.

Then he heard Zsaky speak on how he was determined to change the buying practices of the public by selling his products to big-box retailers. Zakes signed on as an intern and worked his way up the company ladder to vice president of media relations, extolling TerraCycle's products made from garbage.

The first, a fertilizer made from worm droppings and packaged in old soda bottles, offers relief for those who don't want to be do-it-yourself worm composters. It's packaged in 11 formulations for lawns (shown above right; $15), trees, tomatoes, herbs and more.

Next, the company devised two products from used oak wine barrels, the Oak Rain Barrel (shown below left; $150) and Oak Rotary composter, both of which are produced in Stockton.

More recently, TerraCycle, which is in New Jersey, joined MBA Polymers of Richmond to produce colorful pots (below; $10) from discarded TVs, VCRs, computers and junked autos. The Bay Area company already had extracted the precious metals but was forced to dump the plastic, Zakes said.

Now the plastic is melted and formed into pots and shipped to New Jersey, where TerraCycle employs artists from Trenton's low-income neighborhoods to paint them, Zakes said.

TerraCycle is dedicated to making waste a product in high demand. The goal is to have garbage collectors and landfill owners find it more profitable to sell it than to dump it, Zakes said.

The other goal is to find organic alternatives to commonly used items "without charging a premium, enabling all people to buy earth-friendly products," Zakes said.

TerraCycle's products are available at Home Depot stores in the Bay Area. www.terracycle.net.

This article appeared on page G - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle