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Wish you had more money to donate to your favorite cause? The answer may be in your trash can.
by Rebecca Klein
Baltimore County computer programmer, Katie Riley, once felt guilty about throwing away the plastic yogurt containers holding her daily breakfast. Since the containers don’t qualify for recycling pick-up, she searched online for an alternative and stumbled upon TerraCycle.net.
TerraCycle “upcycles” would-be trash into eco-friendly products and enables participants to “outsmart waste” by trading in a stash of designated containers, drink pouches or snack wrappers for cash to benefit a school or non-profit organization. TerraCycle covers the shipping costs, sends two cents per item directly to the school or organization and then repurposes the trash.
Capri Sun drink pouches and other packaging are sewn into items such as backpacks, lunchboxes and pencil cases as part of the “Made from Waste” school supply line. Frito-Lay chip bags are the main ingredient in a set of mini speakers. In addition to products made from the items collected, you’ll find tree-free paper, pencils made from recycled newspaper, natural cleaning and pet products, plant food and more.
“In 2008, TerraCycle saved more than 70 million juice pouches, 11 million cookie wrappers and 500,000 energy bar wrappers from landfills,” according to the company. “Plus TerraCycle and its sponsors donated over $100,000 dollars to over 10,000 schools. Final numbers for 2009 are expected to triple.”
Riley, who started an extensive collection program at her office, reports that her Kool-Aid drink pouch tote bag leads to many a conversation about TerraCycle. She, her co-workers and their kids participate together and raise money to feed the hungry through America’s Second Harvest and for the Rainforest Alliance.
“I love to hear stories about coworkers getting their children involved, because I know involvement in a program can teach children to respect the earth and look out for those in need,” she says.
TerraCycle’s story dates back to 2001 when Princeton freshman, Tom Szaky, and a friend entered a school business plan contest with the idea of composting the dining hall’s waste and turning it into fertilizer. Although they won 5th place, they charged ahead the following year, maxing their credit cards to purchase a $20,000 giant worm gin to accelerate the composting process. Szaky soon left school to focus on growing the company and entered the major retail market with plant food in 2006. A more extensive product line and online efforts to collect requested trash items came next.
“Our end goal is to eliminate the role of waste,” explains company spokesperson, George W. Chevalier, III. He believes seeing trash turned into fun tote bags and other items can be a powerful teaching tool for kids. After all, an enormous visual was telling for him. “You eat a Clif Bar, and it’s easy to cast aside that tiny wrapper. When you see on a huge scale bins of millions of these things, suddenly you think about what can be done on that scale.”
TerraCycle CEO, Tom Szaky, is the author of Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business (Portfolio, 2009) and is executive producer of the reality show, Garbage Moguls, on the National Geographic Channel.For more on the company, visit TerraCycle.net.
