TerraCycle
What was once just a company known for organic plant food is now not only a "Worm Poop" company, but a Sponsored Waste company as well. Sponsored Waste is an idea created by TerraCycle's founder and CEO Tom Szaky. The idea allows TerraCycle to get zero cost materials, free PR and help schools and other community groups. TerraCycle works with multi-million and billion dollar sponsor companies such as Kraft Foods, Stonyfield Farm, CLIF BAR and Frito Lay to pay for collected waste packaging that the companies use in the manufacturing of their goods. TerraCycle then upcycles that ‘waste' material into new products. Last year alone, TerraCycle donated almost $100,000 to charities, schools and churches.TerraCycle is one of the fastest growing organic and eco-friendly companies in the country. Retailers carrying TerraCycle products include: The Home Depot, Wal*Mart, Target, Whole Foods, Kroger, CVS, Office Max and many more.
Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1982, CEO and founder TomSzaky emigrated with his family as political refugees from Hungary to Holland. In 1989 he and his family again emigrated from Holland to Canada. At age 14 he started his first business, a web design company called Flyte Design, which employed three associates and earned its young proprietor a five-figure income. Flyte Design also earned a number of Canadian national design awards.Szaky then engaged in the start-up of three small 'dot.com' companies: Werehome.com (an online home improvement site), piority.com (an online fundraising school), and studentmarks.com (an online grade tracking software).
Szaky came to the United States in 2001 when he matriculated as a Princeton University freshman. In 2002, he dropped out of college to dedicate himself full-time to starting TerraCycle, Inc., beginning as a two-man outfit in the basement of an old office building in Princeton. Despite being on the verge of bankruptcy, Szaky turned down a million dollar Carrot Capital Business Plan Grand Prize (the investors wanted TerraCycle to become less eco-friendly.) Since then Tom has raised over 10 million dollars from a variety of investors.
Today, after doubling in size for three straight years, TerraCycle occupies a 20,000 sq. ft. factory in an Urban Enterprise Zone in Trenton, NJ, where it employs nearly 45 workers in its labor force and is a second chance employer as part of its pledge to being socially beneficial. That means the company hires former veterans, convicts, drug addicts and the homeless to work hard as a part of a team.
Who knew that Worm Poop would revolutionize the business world?
More Articles about Terracycle:
