Tom Szaky, Guest Writer
Tom Szaky is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, the world’s first company that manufactures and packages products from garbage.
Tom left Princeton University during his Sophomore year to follow his dream of founding a truly eco-capitalist company. After an inauspicious start in a friend’s garage with no investors, Tom, and the company behind him, have become environmental thought leaders pushing sustainable products and practices into mainstream outlets.
Latest Stories from Tom Szaky, Guest Writer - Page 2
-
Is Cash the Only Way to Motivate Responsible Behavior?
2010 may have been a rocky year in many ways for a lot of us out there, but something amazing happened in the last three months of the year: Public schools in New
-
Upcycle Leftover Valentine's Day Candy Wrappers and Donate to Charity at the Same Time
Photo credit: Terracycle Valentine's Day is a wonderful excuse for loving partners, friends, parents, kids and teachers to show they care. And like jelly to peanut butter, candy is an integral part of that. But afterwords, there's a little problem:
-
Big Lessons From the SunChips Packaging Fiasco
2010 was a great year, but something happened that made me angry. But backing up and having a broader look, it makes sense. It goes like this: Sunchips, after more than a year of marketing getting people ready,
-
Terracycle Takes the Trash Inside...Our New Office
Terracycle has always been a company with a trashy reputation, what with our reusing everything from soda bottles to Ziploc bags. Millions of people have been collecting these things, and we've made them into all manner of
-
What Good are 75 Hummers Worth of Juice Pouches?
As you may know, TerraCycle partners with the public in what we call Brigades to collect everything from wine corks to Sharpie pens, and most famously, Capri Sun juice packs. Each piece collected earns 2 cents donated
-
Trashy TV Takes On a Whole New Meaning
Reality shows have taken over television, like a virus or a breath of fresh air, depending on your perspective. And we're about to add to that mix with Garbage Moguls.
-
How to Turn a Toothbrush Into Gold
When I first started Terracycle, I spent a lot of my time explaining what upcycling was. It was this foreign concept whose name wasn't on a lot of people's radar. Now, a handful of years later, more than 10 million people are
-
Ending the Consumption Addiction
We are on a race to nowhere. Consumption drives our economy (watch www.storyofstuff.com to see why). We measure our success by consumption (how much we spend). Global consumption is equal to the cumulative GDP of all
-
Time to Stop Waiting For Others to Teach Our Kids Eco Literacy
It seems not a day goes by when you hear about school budgets being radically cut, or even closed, and as a result the educational future of our next generation in uncertainty, lacking in depth & breadth. Theater, music, even the always preserved
-
What Happens When a Reusable is No Longer Usable?
When was the last time you bought a single use water bottle? Ok, how long before that! For many of you, carrying a water bottle has become routine. And how many reusable bags do you own, and actually use? I'm guessing at least
-
Greening the Mainstream, One Big Box at a Time
Imagine you're going into a big box store. I know, a far fetched scenario for some of you reading, but play along with me here.
-
Are You Being Lied to About Recycling?
Look at the bottle of juice you just drank. The detergent you're going to use. The plastic backer on the desk calendar. What's on all of them? That familiar "chasing arrows" graphic with a number in the middle. That means it's
-
Should Terracycle Partner with Tobacco Butts?
TerraCycle's goal is singular: To solve the problem of waste. We have not taken positions on the products that we collect, similar to how recycling companies accept products of any brand that fit their capacity to recycle.
-
When Given the Chance, Will Consumers Pay More for Green?
We just began an interesting experiment at TerraCycle: Opening our first retail outlet and giving people a place to bring in what they'd normally mail to us as part of our collection Brigades. But that's not the most
-
TckTckTck Campaign: An Interview with Kumi Naidoo
Photo by Remy Steinegger
-
Is Globalization Ever a Good Thing?
So often, you read about the negative effects of globalization - homogenizing world culture, poor treatment of workers, jobs lost, lack of cultural sensitivity in the new areas of a world a business starts up. Nasty business, and
-
A most FABulous way to Mainstream Being Green
In today's world, it just does not make sense to try and do everything for yourself, whether as a person or a business. Being an entrepreneur, I at first thought it a sign of deficiency if I and my company couldn't do
-
The Sweeter Side of Sustainability - An Interview with Mars
As you may have read earlier, we recently partnered with Mars in our largest post industrial collection agreement. That means that packaging for more then 20 brands that were imperfect or no longer current
