Business & Politics

New Jersey-based Terracycle, the worm poop fertilizer people, offer a website definition of eco-capitalism. (TreeHugger wrote extensively about the origins of TerraCycle here.) Unfortunately, the progress made by TerraCycle's eco-capitalism has been slowed a bit by a conflict with old-style capitalism. Seems there are some "labeling" issues between TerraCycle and a competitor. In defense of a lawsuit filed by the competitor, TerraCycle has established a "netroots" strategy - using Sued By Scotts as the tag line for their website - to draw market attention for the defense. From the Sued By Scotts site:- "The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, a $2.2 billion assets giant which has at least a 59% share of the relevant market, has sued tiny TerraCycle, Inc., an inner-city company founded by college students to create an eco-friendly business. TerraCycle manufactures all-natural garden products by feeding organic waste to worms and bottling the resulting worm poop compost tea as ready-to use plant food in soda bottles collected by schools and other charities across North America. TerraCycle is located in the Urban Enterprise Zone of Trenton, New Jersey. Scotts claims that the two companies' products look similar and will confuse customers because some TerraCycle plant foods have a green and yellow label with a circle and a picture of flowers and vegetables on it." The labeling thing, in general, looks to become a continuing battleground between green and non-green. We wrote about another analogous labeling conflict earlier in the week, for example. The Sued By Scotts website has some amusing comparisons between the excremental combatants that are worth a glance. Before you go there, however, look below to see if you can guess which CEO likes worm poop best.