What is Terracycle?

As the administrator for an award-winning school composting program, I've been aware of Terracycle for several years. Terracycle is the first company to create every part of their product from trash, and they make no secret about it. One of the Country's most successful green businesses, Terracycle makes a liquid plant food, which they produce themselves from worm-composted food waste, and package it in reused soda bottles of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The company's founders, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer came up with the idea over a few beers, while checking out a home-sized vermicomposting bin, or worm-bin at a friend's home. Terracycle is one of the first 100% green companies out there today, producing a quality product and creating new and desirable "green collar jobs," to help fuel the green economy.

Vermicompost

Worm composting is nothing new; the worms in our soil naturally eat organic material, and return their rich casings (polite speak for "worm poop") back to the soil, providing easily-processed nutrients to help plants to grow. Through vermicomposting, we simply allow the worms to do what they do naturally - eat and poop - in a controlled environment that allows us to feed them with our discarded fruit and vegetable waste and to collect the casings for use in our gardens or house plants. Under the right conditions, these worms will consume their body weight or more in food scraps every day. The idea's been around in one form or another since the seventies, and worm bins are commonly used in classrooms as part of science education. Terracycle is the first company to take the idea to a commercial scale, and had to design their own large-scale worm-beds to produce their product.

Reuse

The company claims that their reuse ethic regarding the soda bottles came about from a lack of funding - they didn't have the money to purchase bottles for their product, so they scavenged through recycle bins on the local college campus. If this is the case, their funding problems were fortuitous indeed, as I believe - quality product aside - that the reused bottles provided just the hook needed to capture enough of the greening American consumer market share for success. Americans - especially those who might need to purchase plant food - want to be environmentally responsible, so long as it's not too hard to do. Buying a bottle of Terracycle for your begonias is a feel-good move, for sure.

Having met with success, Terracycle is broadening it's product lines, now offering a number of sizes, containers, and varieties, including a rose-specific plant food blend. The company recently partnered with the Honest Tea Company in a bid to collect juice-pouches, such as the ubiquitous Capri-Sun pouch, as well as the pouches produced at Honest Tea and divert them from landfills. The pouches are being made into attractive and durable bags, and sold at a premium, creating yet another commerce stream from our waste stream.

Keep an eye on this company over the next few years. The popularity of their flagship line, and the youth and idealism of the company founders means that these folks are likely to remain innovators, when it comes to reuse.