Eliminate the idea of waste. This is the mantra with which a 19-year-old from Toronto founded a small sustainable fertilizer company in 2001, using all his savings. We’re talking about Tom Szaky, CEO of what has now become a giant of eco-capitalism: Terracycle.
What is Terracycle?
Terracycle‘s goal is to make our trash 100% recyclable. When we think of recycling, plastic bottles or paper immediately come to mind, yet these items represent only a tiny fraction of the waste we produce. Globally, although our planet is awash in waste, only 2% of it is recycled. The imbalance of which we are “guilty” is evident.
Nowadays everything can technically be recycled, but doing so comes at a cost. Terracycle has perfected alternative recycling practices in its 20 years of operation, managing to give a second life to everything you can imagine. Stationery, sports equipment, flip-flops, toothpaste, chewing gum, and even cigarettes can be transformed into the most diverse objects. We can therefore find on the market dog bowls that were once a packet of Vigorsol, or unsuspected backpacks that in previous lives were plastic wrappers and cigarette butts.
The company moves between 1 and 5 million kg of “unrecyclable” waste per week, now operating in 21 countries worldwide.
How does Terracycle work?
Participating in the dream of eliminating the idea of waste is easy. All you have to do is go to Terracycle‘s website, sign up and purchase one of the many Zero Waste Boxes whose price ranges from $50 to $500. These paper boxes (recycled, of course) are perfect for businesses that produce large amounts of a certain type of waste that is difficult to dispose of. Businesses, schools, clubs, groups of all kinds fill the boxes, which, once full, are easily shipped back to Terracycle with a home pickup, thanks to the company’s arrangement with UPS.
Obviously, the box can also be purchased by the individual citizen or a family, who for example may want to recycle their contact lenses or coffee pods.
You can also partner with Terracycle for free, thanks to the many Free Recycling Programs around the world. By joining one of these free programs you only have to help collect a specific piece of waste, for each piece you typically receive 2 cents, which can also be donated to a charity of your choice.
The Recycling Business:
Recycling is a business, there’s no doubt about it. According to the latest data from Statista.com, the Recycling industry was worth nearly $265 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $376 billion by 2024. In the specific case of Terracycle, we know that the turnover exceeds 40Mln dollars per year.
Tom Szaky said in a recent interview, «If you talk to an investor, they will tell you that sustainability will be a requirement going forward. It’s not just about “feeling okay with your conscience” – sustainability is critical to a company’s longevity».
In the last 2 years, consumer interest in waste has increased dramatically, Terracycle is seeing the effects of this change on itself. In fact, since 2019 big corporations have started to sign contracts with Szaky’s company, to implement the recyclability of their packaging and products. This change has led to the birth of a new Terracycle-branded company: “Loop”, already serving numerous multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, and Coca-Cola.
The power of the individual:
The story of Terracycle and its massive and ongoing expansion teaches us a lot about the power of the individual to eliminate the idea of waste. Here are Tom Szaky’s words on the subject:
«Consumers often think they’re powerless, they think it’s only big corporations or governments that have to solve environmental problems. Yet the craziest part of all this is that all the big brands like Amazon, Walmart, and Coca-Cola are all about the consumer! The consumer is the only one with the power, we have the power to change things.»
It is always the founder of Terracycle to have recommended two small daily steps to reduce waste, we loved them and we propose them to you:
- Trying every day not to buy something we would have liked to buy
- Try to reuse something every day instead of throwing it in the trash
We are going to try! Give it a try, too.
