Turning “garbage into gold” sounds too good to be true, but that’s exactly what Tom Szaky’s eco-startup company TerraCycle appears to be doing. The current issue of ReadyMade has a fascinating profile of Szaky and his fledgling company TerraCycle, that is currently making home and garden products out of what you and I would probably consider garbage. Szaky dropped out of Princeton to pursue his dream of building a company that made useful things out of garbage, “upcycling” as he likes to call it, and he’s off to a great start.

TerraCycle had $6.5 million in sales in 2008 and is expecting to double that this year. Their first successful product is TerraCycle Plant Food, a fertilizer made out of food waste and packaged in used plastic soda bottles and rejected, misprinted boxes. Another product line Szaky is developing is based on those little foil drink packages made popular by brands like Capri Sun, which when cleaned and flattened can be sewn together to make totebags or other similar items. Szaky has no shortage of ideas and he’s busy making partnerships with companies like Frito Lay and Nabisco to make useful products out of their waste materials.

Look Inside >>  June/July 2009