TerraCycle
Encyclopedia
TerraCycle is a private U.S.
small business
headquartered in Trenton, New Jersey
, which specializes in making consumer products from pre- and post-consumer materials.
This is often called upcycling
, or reusing waste materials that are otherwise difficult to recycle.http://media.terracycle.net/10-26-02--york/10-26-02--york.html
, and packaged in reused containers. Still producted today, the fertilizer is made by feeding organic waste to worm
s. The worms' excrement is liquefied and brewed into bottles, many of which are collected through "Bottle Brigade" fund raising programs at schools and charities around North America
.
The company diversified its production into upcycling around 2007 and began producing pencil cases and backpacks made from Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches. TerraCycle also repurposes pre- and post-consumer waste packaging from companies such as Mars Incorporated and Wrigley's into products such as messenger bags, binders, notebooks, and tote bags.
Packaging waste that can not be upcycled is recycled into plastic products including flower pots, plastic lumber, plastic pavers, bike racks, park benches, and garbage and recycling cans.
, and Jon Beyer, two freshmen at Princeton University
.
The initial idea came about as a submission to a business plan contest sponsored by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club. The following summer, Szaky and Beyer made arrangements with Princeton Dining Services to take dining hall waste
and process it in their prototype "Worm Gin". By the end of the summer, TerraCycle had found its first investor. The company shortly moved into their first office at 20 Nassau St, Unit 14, Princeton, New Jersey
.
By 2002, the company had created a continuous flow process to take garbage and have it processed by worms into fertilizer.
Szaky took an extended leave of absence from Princeton in the spring of 2003. In May of that year he entered the Carrot Capital business plan contest, which offered $1 million in seed capital to the winning team. TerraCycle won the competition, but turned down the money because of the direction in which Carrot Capital wanted to take the company.
Funded by prize money from various contests and angel investor
s, TerraCycle was able to persevere despite not accepting the million dollars. A major breakthrough came in May 2004, when Home Depot began offering TerraCycle Plant Food on their website. TerraCycle continued its growth in 2005 as Whole Foods Market
, Home Depot Canada, Wal-Mart
Canada, Wild Oats Markets
and Do-It-Best began carrying TerraCycle products.
In 2007, TerraCycle began expanding on the idea of what could be done with waste, and looking to create other projects from garbage. After meeting with an investor, Tom and co-founder Robin Tator had the idea to make home composters and rain barrels. From there, the ideas continued to evolve and when Seth Goldman, CEO of Honest Tea, approached Tom about making something with Honest Kids drink pouches, TerraCycle found the pouches could be sewn together. Shortly after, TerraCycle began making their drink pouch pencil cases.
TerraCycle has since been named one of the 100 most innovative companies by Red Herring
Magazine and has received the Environmental Stewardship Award from Home Depot
Canada. In July 2006, Inc. magazine
ran a cover story calling TerraCycle "The Coolest Little Start-up in America" and in the same year, NJ Biz named Tom Szaky, CEO, the #1 in 30 under 30. In 2008, TerraCycle was the first consumer company to earn the Zerofootprint Seal, and followed in 2009 by being named by Inc 500 as one of America's Fastest Growing Private Companies. TerraCycle has also earned various leadership, business, environmental and entrepreneurial awards.
The company has been featured on CBS
, ABC
, Fox News
, NBC
, CNBC
, RobTV, CBC
, and Citytv
, and has also received coverage in TIME
, Profit, Canadian Gardener, BusinessWeek
, The New York Times
, The Globe and Mail
, Toronto Star
, The Vancouver Sun
, the Chicago Sun Times, National Post
, and The Philadelphia Inquirer
.
In 2009, a pilot of Garbage Moguls, a National Geographic reality show documenting TerraCycle and its work aired on the National Geographic channel. A season of Garbage Moguls aired in 2010.
As of Fall 2011, TerraCycle accepts materials in approximately 40 specialized categories (called "Brigades") from a large number of participating locations (all money is paid to schools and non-profits).http://www.terracycle.net/brigades?show_all=true
They pay $.02 each for most items, ranging up to $.25 for cellphones and inkjet cartridges.
sued TerraCycle in 2007 for copyright infringement and false advertising. Scotts claims that TerraCycle's packaging takes from designs and shapes from Scotts products. Scotts, in the 177-page lawsuit, also claims that TerraCycle falsely advertises the superiority of its products.
In response to the lawsuit, TerraCycle and affiliates launched an internet
and media
campaign to bring attention to the lawsuit. The central website, http://www.suedbyscotts.com/, paints the lawsuit in David and Goliath terms, claiming that the lawsuit is simply the big company picking on the little guy.
TerraCycle's offices are decorated with graffiti from local and national graffiti artists. The graffiti is redone every summer at TerraCycle's annual Graffiti Jam, a festival at which there is graffiti painting, musical entertainment, and booths with local products and organizations.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
small business
Small business
A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
headquartered in Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
, which specializes in making consumer products from pre- and post-consumer materials.
This is often called upcycling
Upcycling
Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value....
, or reusing waste materials that are otherwise difficult to recycle.http://media.terracycle.net/10-26-02--york/10-26-02--york.html
Products
TerraCycle began with the production of fertilizer made from worm waste productsVermicompost
Vermicompost is the product or process of composting utilizing various species of worms, usually red wigglers, white worms, and earthworms to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast...
, and packaged in reused containers. Still producted today, the fertilizer is made by feeding organic waste to worm
Worm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
s. The worms' excrement is liquefied and brewed into bottles, many of which are collected through "Bottle Brigade" fund raising programs at schools and charities around North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
The company diversified its production into upcycling around 2007 and began producing pencil cases and backpacks made from Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches. TerraCycle also repurposes pre- and post-consumer waste packaging from companies such as Mars Incorporated and Wrigley's into products such as messenger bags, binders, notebooks, and tote bags.
Packaging waste that can not be upcycled is recycled into plastic products including flower pots, plastic lumber, plastic pavers, bike racks, park benches, and garbage and recycling cans.
Company history
TerraCycle was founded in the fall of 2001 by Tom SzakyTom Szaky
Tom Szaky is an eco-entrepreneur, known for starting TerraCycle, a company that makes eco-friendly, affordable consumer products from waste.Tom's first successful business was a Web design company named "Flyte Design," which Tom started at age 14...
, and Jon Beyer, two freshmen at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
.
The initial idea came about as a submission to a business plan contest sponsored by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club. The following summer, Szaky and Beyer made arrangements with Princeton Dining Services to take dining hall waste
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
and process it in their prototype "Worm Gin". By the end of the summer, TerraCycle had found its first investor. The company shortly moved into their first office at 20 Nassau St, Unit 14, Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
.
By 2002, the company had created a continuous flow process to take garbage and have it processed by worms into fertilizer.
Szaky took an extended leave of absence from Princeton in the spring of 2003. In May of that year he entered the Carrot Capital business plan contest, which offered $1 million in seed capital to the winning team. TerraCycle won the competition, but turned down the money because of the direction in which Carrot Capital wanted to take the company.
Funded by prize money from various contests and angel investor
Angel investor
An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
s, TerraCycle was able to persevere despite not accepting the million dollars. A major breakthrough came in May 2004, when Home Depot began offering TerraCycle Plant Food on their website. TerraCycle continued its growth in 2005 as Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the U.S...
, Home Depot Canada, Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
Canada, Wild Oats Markets
Wild Oats Markets
Wild Oats Markets was an operator of natural foods stores and farmers markets in North America. The stores offered dry grocery, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, frozen, prepared foods, bakery, vitamins and supplements, health and body care, and household items. As of February 21, 2007, it operated...
and Do-It-Best began carrying TerraCycle products.
In 2007, TerraCycle began expanding on the idea of what could be done with waste, and looking to create other projects from garbage. After meeting with an investor, Tom and co-founder Robin Tator had the idea to make home composters and rain barrels. From there, the ideas continued to evolve and when Seth Goldman, CEO of Honest Tea, approached Tom about making something with Honest Kids drink pouches, TerraCycle found the pouches could be sewn together. Shortly after, TerraCycle began making their drink pouch pencil cases.
TerraCycle has since been named one of the 100 most innovative companies by Red Herring
Red Herring (magazine)
Red Herring was a technology business magazine, which flourished during the dot com boom, with global distribution and bureaus in Bangalore, Beijing, and Paris. It also sponsored conferences designed to bring venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and technologists together. But the magazine went into...
Magazine and has received the Environmental Stewardship Award from Home Depot
The Home Depot
The Home Depot is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services.The Home Depot operates 2,248 big-box format stores across the United States , Canada , Mexico and China, with a 12-store chain...
Canada. In July 2006, Inc. magazine
Inc. (magazine)
Inc. magazine, founded in 1979 and based in New York City, is a monthly publication focused on growing companies. The magazine publishes an annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., the "Inc...
ran a cover story calling TerraCycle "The Coolest Little Start-up in America" and in the same year, NJ Biz named Tom Szaky, CEO, the #1 in 30 under 30. In 2008, TerraCycle was the first consumer company to earn the Zerofootprint Seal, and followed in 2009 by being named by Inc 500 as one of America's Fastest Growing Private Companies. TerraCycle has also earned various leadership, business, environmental and entrepreneurial awards.
The company has been featured on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, Fox News
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
, RobTV, CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
, and Citytv
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
, and has also received coverage in TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Profit, Canadian Gardener, BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
, Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
, The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
, the Chicago Sun Times, National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
, and The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
.
In 2009, a pilot of Garbage Moguls, a National Geographic reality show documenting TerraCycle and its work aired on the National Geographic channel. A season of Garbage Moguls aired in 2010.
As of Fall 2011, TerraCycle accepts materials in approximately 40 specialized categories (called "Brigades") from a large number of participating locations (all money is paid to schools and non-profits).http://www.terracycle.net/brigades?show_all=true
They pay $.02 each for most items, ranging up to $.25 for cellphones and inkjet cartridges.
Legal Issues
Scotts Miracle-Gro CompanyScotts Miracle-Gro Company
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Marysville, Ohio.-Overview:Scotts Miracle-Gro Company manufactures branded consumer products for lawn and garden care, and also provides products for professional horticulture...
sued TerraCycle in 2007 for copyright infringement and false advertising. Scotts claims that TerraCycle's packaging takes from designs and shapes from Scotts products. Scotts, in the 177-page lawsuit, also claims that TerraCycle falsely advertises the superiority of its products.
In response to the lawsuit, TerraCycle and affiliates launched an internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
campaign to bring attention to the lawsuit. The central website, http://www.suedbyscotts.com/, paints the lawsuit in David and Goliath terms, claiming that the lawsuit is simply the big company picking on the little guy.
The TerraCycle Building
TerraCycle moved to its current offices in Trenton, New Jersey at the end of Summer 2004 from a basement in Princeton. The office is an old warehouse, and in the beginning, TerraCycle produced the worm poop fertilizer and other products at the offices in Trenton. Once production grew, the warehouse no longer had the space.TerraCycle's offices are decorated with graffiti from local and national graffiti artists. The graffiti is redone every summer at TerraCycle's annual Graffiti Jam, a festival at which there is graffiti painting, musical entertainment, and booths with local products and organizations.