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Cashing in on trash
A college dropout shows how he's turning trash into cash.
How are the bird feeders coming?
Tom Szaky is turning garbage into gold.
“From Capri Sun juice pouches we make into messenger bags and pencil cases, chip bags into homework folders, vinyl records into clocks, circuit boards into frames”.
In 2003, Szaky dropped out of Princeton University to focus on his company Terracycle. His first product was fertilizer. But now he can’t take his eyes off the trash.
“Just in 2008. we saved somewhere over 100 million units of waste”. Terracycle takes ordinary garbage like juice pouches, cookie wrappers and plastic bags and turns them into new products. Companies like Kraft and Frito-Lay send their garbage to Szaky instead of to the dump. Schools, churches and other groups also help. For each item they collect, Terracycle donates two cents to the school or charity of their choice. While the weakened economy affects sales, Szaky isn’t worried.
“We keep cost low by having waste as our input.”
And this may change consumer habits.
When you buy a Terracycle, pencil case, it’s not gonna cost more than a cotton pencil case. Green is sometimes just considered very elitist. You know it’s only for people who can afford it. We are trying to break that down and do it for everybody.
