Company goes mainstream with green ethic
Tom Szaky had an idea five years ago to start a company that is different than most.
"The fundamental basis is that we make products out of waste, and our products need to revolve around three very basic criteria: better, cheaper and greener," said Szaky, the CEO and founder of TerraCycle, a company on an environmental crusade that made its first sale in 2004.
The philosophy and other strategies have paid off.
One of the problems many gardeners have with jumping into the green movement is finding the product locally. There are many green-based companies that shy away from the huge retailers, but Mr. Szaky takes the opposite approach.
"We want to change the world and be the eco-friendly Procter & Gamble. The only (way) we can possibly accomplish that is by doing business with the major big-box retailers."
That means Target, Lowe's, Home Depot and major garden catalogs.
The company sent me its organic granular All Purpose Plant Food. It's perfect for me because I never use chemical-based fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides in my home or garden. One of the ingredients that makes it effective are worm castings, which is a nice way of referring to what comes out of worms once they process food.
Solid TerraCycle products are packaged in reused milk cartons; liquid products in two-liter soda bottles, which also are made into bird feeders. I've only had the fertilizer for a month, and it's pretty amazing stuff. It's practically odorless, and everything growing along my windowsills have benefited from an application of the plant food. Now, I'm using it to keep my poinsettias thriving until they can go out into the garden in May.
Normally, I don't do much fertilization over the winter, but as the days get longer, I like to give the plants a shot of organic liquid fertilizer. I substituted their granular product, and it proved just as effective as the liquid type and certainly smelled better than fish emulsion.
TerraCycle recruits schools, churches and any other group interested in saving things such as milk cartons, two-liter bottles, juice pouches, yogurt containers and energy bar wrappers. The groups are paid for the items they collect. There are more than 4,000 groups working with the company. Kim Eaton is a PTA parent for Clara Barton Elementary in West Mifflin, Pa. She's getting a program started at the school to save yogurt containers and juice pouches to help the school earn money without selling products. But there's another reason to be part of the program.
"Instead of just throwing these things out it can help the environment and teaches recycling," she said.
The juice pouches and energy bar wrappers can't be conventionally recycled because of the materials used to make them. They will be turned into handbags, pencil cases and knapsacks. The yogurt containers are used as plant pots.
TerraCycle's product line offers a range of organic fertilizer for indoor and outdoor plantings and a liquid lawn food. The company also has a deer repellent, rain barrels, a composter and a bird feeder all made from reused materials.
The rain barrel and composter are made from discarded wine barrels from the Napa Valley. They are only used once in the wine industry and normally discarded after that. They are beautiful and functional.
Szaky adds that the company welcomes ideas from the public to replace a product already in the stores. The company's deer repellent and composter originated with ideas from regular people.
For more information about TerraCycle log onto www.terracycle.net.