eet one company that has taken the old adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” to a whole new level.
Tom Szaky is CEO and founder of TerraCycle, a now multi-million dollar company dubbed “The Coolest Little Start-up in America” by Inc. Magazine. As a broke Princeton University student working from a crowded basement, he created the first mass-produced consumer product made from and packaged completely in waste, an all-organic liquid worm poop fertilizer that proved wildly successful.
Since then, Szaky has created an empire of recycled goods of all sorts including bird feeders converted to plastic soda bottles, messenger bags constructed from Oreo and Nabisco cookie wrappers and clocks made from vinyl records which would otherwise end up in landfills. The functional and novelty items can be purchased online or at local retail stores like Target, Home Depot and Office Max.
The best news about these unique, green products? You don’t have to worry about typical super-high organic prices; TerraCycle offers its products at prices comparable to popular, even generic, brands, making it much easier to go green on a limited budget.
Besides helping to keep some of that hard-earned money in your wallet, TerraCycle epitomizes socially responsible business practice, working with local communities and donating to charitable organizations. The company offers incentive programs for people to recycle and send in everything from juice pouches to wine corks and donates money to charities and organizations for each recyclable good received.
Besides helping to keep some of that hard-earned money in your wallet, TerraCycle epitomizes socially responsible business practice, working with local communities and donating to charitable organizations. The company offers incentive programs for people to recycle and send in everything from juice pouches to wine corks and donates money to charities and organizations for each recyclable good received.
Lisa Molendini, a senior Communications/Public Relations major and Promotions Director for Susquehanna University’s 88.9 WQSU-FM The PULSE, a radio station run by student and community volunteers, is doing just this, bringing her appreciation of new socially and environmentally conscious companies and experience as a recent TerraCycle intern to her University campus.
Since starting a campus-wide collection drive at the beginning of the fall semester, Molendini has coordinated the collection of over 800 energy bar wrappers, about 100 empty cookie packages and several hundred juice pouches to raise money to keep the beloved non-profit, non-commercial facility running.
She has even encouraged her school to participate in Recyclemania, a competitive challenge between colleges and universities to collect recyclable goods and produce as little trash as possible over an extended period of time.
Obviously, students, young activists and entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly aware the world’s heightening environmental problems and are coming up with creative ways to promote the benefits of recycling.
Advice for the future? Szaky suggests looking for business models where you can profit from trash as a solution to some of the environment’s burdens. However, most importantly, in his interview with Cubico, he emphasizes the power of passion, drive and the courage to try. “You just need to be willing to try,” he says.
“It’s up to our generation to make changes,” says Molendini. “It’s a big responsibility, but it’s definitely something to take pride in and work hard at.”
by Melissa Lopez
