Summary

Terracycle’s mission is to “Eliminate the Idea of Waste.” The company provides waste management solutions to businesses, government entities and individuals to keep trash out of landfills or from incineration. The company is a one-stop waste management hub that offers solutions in everything from recycling to reuse. The company partners with brands to create free recycling programs, scaling each program as needed. The company also works with manufacturers to help make their products or packages from waste. This, in turn, generates demand for recycled content. Terracycle also helps companies encourage reuse by working through Loop, which is a reuse platform that allows brands to easily develop and implement reusable packaging. Rather than focusing solely on high-value waste, the company collects and recycles trash that is not generally accepted by traditional municipal recycling services, including cigarette butts, toys, mascara wands, and much more. The company is able to recycle hard-to -recycle items because it works with brands, retailers and other stakeholders who fund the recycling process. The company also offers a paid recycling solution which consumers can use to recycle an assortment of items. The cost of these solutions includes the collection box, transportation to the customer, the actual cost of sorting, cleaning, and recycling the contents minus the value of the recycled material. (Source) Terracycle’s reuse platform Loop provides brands with the infrastructure and logistics of reusable packaging.

Story

Founder Tom Szaky first got interested in the concept of waste while in college at Princeton and he noticed how effective worm-based fertilizer created by feeding worms food scraps was. His fascination led to the founding of Terracycle, which first started as a fertilizer company, and then pivoted to become a waste management company that deals with all kinds of waste. (Source)

Pic Credit: (Source) (right) and Food Navigator (top)