TerraCycle, a company that sells worm poop fertilizer in recycled soda bottles, opened its doors in Trenton, NJ, in 2001. Yes, you read that right: Worm poop in a bottle. Now that’s American ingenuity. Tom Szaky, the company’s CEO, has even written a book about it – Revolution in a Bottle (Portfolio Trade) – outlining the tumultuous path his company has endured to redefine green business.
Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, continues to find new ways to help eliminate waste and help the environment. (Worm poop, anyone?)
Photo Credit: Courtesy of TerraCycle publicity
The company brews its worm compost at the TerraCycle factory in Trenton, NJ.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of TerraCycle publicity
Recycling bottles means adding less to landfills!
Photo Credit: Courtesy of TerraCycle publicity
You’ll never look at a worm the same way again.
Opening with a chapter titled “Up to My Neck,” the book recounts Tom’s days in a Princeton University dorm room where he and his friend Jon Beyer witnessed a classmate feeding food scraps to a box of worms. The worms were fed in exchange for their castings, which are loaded with abundant nutrients to support plant health and growth. The next summer, Tom, Jon and pals took all of the Princeton Dining Services’ waste and processed them in their prototype “Worm Gin.”
“Things quickly went from bad to worse,” Tom laments. (Imagine working conditions that included a clogging wood chipper, brewed sludge, a police arrest for stealing garbage, maggot breeding, working in the rain at night at a dumpster amongst rancid odors, and employees who puked and quit on the spot.) But by the end of the summer, they had miraculously perfected their processing and found their first investor.
Most recently, TerraCycle has been named one of the 100 most innovative companies by Red Herring magazine and has been awarded the Environmental Stewardship Award from Home Depot Canada. In 2006, an Inc. magazine cover story called TerraCycle “The coolest little startup in America.”
Though it started out bottling worm poop fertilizer, today TerraCycle hopes to churn out a new “upcycled” product a week by transforming garbage into viable products. “Why can’t everything be made from waste?” Tom asks. “I’m looking at waste as an entirely modern, man-made idea. I stopped viewing garbage as garbage and instead slowly started to see it as a commodity.”
According to Tom’s book, Americans generate about 1 ton of garbage each year per person, or 250 million tons together. So much waste has been tossed into the oceans that there’s reportedly an accumulation of floating plastics the size of Texas slowly drifting in the Pacific. Tom argues that eco-friendly businesses have to match the prices of their mainstream competition. Most consumers are eager to “buy green” – but not if it costs too much.
Revolution in a Bottle is just the right amount of entertainment, education – and even suspense – to keep you reading, even if it’s just to see how Tom’s going to keep the company afloat when he’s down to his last 500 dollars in the bank and being sued for millions from a giant competitor.
In April 2009, National Geographic launched a new series called “Garbage Moguls.” It follows Tom and his colleagues, documentary style, as they approach multinational corporations like Wal-Mart with kites made of cookie wrappers or OfficeMax with computer bags made from billboards. Hundreds of tons of non-recyclable materials are then kept from ending up in landfills.
Revolution in a Bottle is an inspiring and honest story that will give you hope for creating a more sustainable world – in the garden and beyond. Get yourself a copy of the book along with a bottle of Worm Poop. Then take action!
Step One: Attach TerraCycle recycled soda bottle to hose and fertilize your yard.
Step Two: Lay back on lounge chair and read Tom’s book.
Step Three: Be grateful that planetary restoration is emerging.
Step Four: Pet a worm.
