TerraCycle – The only company which manufactures numerous (approximately 350) products made entirely form waste and packaged entirely in waste. Their motto – Outsmart waste! Their vision- Derive value from the waste and pass on those profits to the retailers and consumers.
The first ever product of TerraCycle, was a result of the founder’s vision to collect the organic waste from university dining hall and feed it to the worms. Worms decomposed the organic waste (at an amazingly fast rate) and produced poop, which had high percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. Just right as a nutrient for plants. Further liquefying the fertilizer proved to be user friendly, yielded more fertilizer from the waste. It made spraying on the plants easier, proved very easy to be absorbed (by the plants) and proved to be the best natural fertilizer there is for plant growth. This product, which was entirely made from the dining hall organic waste, was then packaged in another discarded material. TerraCycle researched that at least 200 million soda bottles of all sizes and shapes are used and discarded each year and all that was needed, was thorough cleaning of the bottles. No tedious process of crushing and melting the plastic bottles to extract plastic polymers which could be then molded into new bottles was needed. Neither was using tremendous amount of energy, transportation and fuel. The spray heads for the bottles were purchased from a company (that rejected a huge shipment because they changed their brand color) at a very cheap cost. The upcycled waste in the upcycled bottles was then finally packaged in the boxes of other products (turned inside-out) and the boxes were shipped to the final destinations. The product is still manufactured in the exact same fashion.
Since the business model demanded repurposing used bottles, Terracycle asked people to collect bottles for them. They set up ‘bottle brigades’ at local schools, churches and drives. There they interacted with the students and the people and educated them about importance of the reusing the bottles. A small donation was made for each bottle that was reused, which worked in the favor of schools and churches as a fundraiser. Community awareness and participation is still the back bone of their green business model.
TerraCycle products such as liquid fertilizers have practically no raw material costs since they are generated entirely from organic waste. Process of upcycling has not just helped TerraCycle conserve energy and labor, but has also helped them to be economically viable. Their product is all natural, greener than most of the artificial fertilizers available, extremely effective and readily available in supermarkets (like Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc.) to the consumers without having to pay the premium price of ‘going green’. This marketing strategy has successfully helped TerraCycle reach out to the millions of consumers and also create a continuous cycle of demand and supply for their product.
Taking Waste Management to the next Level-
Terracycle has not just created a line of products made out of waste, but it has also created a radically new approach to manage our waste. They are now an integral part of product planning for numerous leading brands. The brands like Target, Cool-aid, Kraft-Capri-sun, Honest kids, etc. have launched “sponsored waste program” with TerraCycle to be socially responsible for their brand waste. Terracycle has set up hundreds of brigades across the country where people collect the non-recyclable materials like plastic bags, juice boxes, candy and various other wrappers, etc. for TerraCycle. They have managed to upcycle this waste by applying innovative methods to re-purpose them into Target tote bags (from their plastic bags), handbags, pencil cases, backpacks, homework folders, lunch boxes, etc. (out of used juice boxes), rotary composter, rain barrel (out of used wine oak barrels), seed starter planting pots (out of used yogurt cups), Christmas ornaments( from used CDs), art pieces out of (e-waste generated by computers and cell phones). The examples of ‘sponsored waste program’ are numerous and their vision is ever expanding!
Their products are simple, fun, re-invented from waste, have same or better features as the competition, easily affordable to everybody and have saved 52 million juice pouches, 5 million energy bar wrappers, 1 million soda bottles and 10 million cookie wrappers from ending up in landfills. They have actively educated, involved, and encouraged communities for collecting used products and have helped the giant waste generators take responsibility for their brand waste. They are environmentally friendly and one of the fastest growing and profit making businesses in America.
TerraCycle, according to me, is setting up the most revolutionary model for future green products and green businesses within and outside of America.
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Szaky, Tom. Revolution In A Bottle. New York: NY, The Penguin Group, 2009
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