TerraCycle is a private U.S.

recycling business headquartered in Trenton,

New Jersey. It runs a volunteer-based curbside collectionprogram to collect
non-recyclable pre-consumer and post-consumer waste, and then partners
with corporate donors to turn it into raw material to be used in new products.
The company licenses its name to manufacturers of roughly 200 products
made using its raw material.

2001–03: Founding and investments[edit]

TerraCycle was founded by Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer in the fall of 2001. In
2002, the company bought a US$20,000 continuous-flow composting system
invented by Harry Windle of Gainesville, Florida, to take organic waste and
have it processed by worms into fertilizer. The dining halls of Princeton
University was the first source of waste used.

Initial funding came from family and friends of Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, as
well as awards from business plan competitions. TerraCycle received media
attention when it turned down a one million dollar venture
investment opportunity awarded through the Carrot Capital Business Plan
because the investors planned to change TerraCycle's business model.
Further funding came from private investors. The first investor was Suman
Sinha, who gave $2,000 in exchange for 1% of the company stock.

2004–06: Vermicompost

Instead of pure fertilizer, TerraCycle sold its products in liquid form. The
company made this decision upon concluding that liquid fertilizer could have
better consumer reception, as well as production advantages. The original
purpose for packing its liquid fertilizer in used plastic bottles was because the
company could not afford new ones. Later, the company continued this
process and marketed their gardening products as "Waste in Waste". Schools
and local organizations collected bottles for TerraCycle in exchange for
proceeds in what became known as the "Bottle Brigade".
Maintaining intellectual property rights, The Coca-Cola Company gave
TerraCycle a license to use its bottles in TerraCycle products. PepsiCo also
gave TerraCycle a license to use its distinctively shaped bottles.

In 2004–5, Home Depot Canada and Wal-Mart Canada began carrying

TerraCycle products. Other companies followed. During its growth, the
company bought an abandoned mansion to house its interns and a warehouse
for its fertilizer production and offices.

2007: Scotts Miracle-Gro lawsuit

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company sued TerraCycle in 2007, claiming false

advertising and trade dress violations. In response, TerraCycle started a
media campaign known as "suedbyscotts.com". Scotts claimed that
TerraCycle's choice of colors was too similar to its own products. Scotts
eventually dropped the case upon an agreement with TerraCycle to alter
TerraCycle's product packaging. TerraCycle agreed to recolor its packaging to
orange and green as well as remove pictures of fruits and vegetables on its
labels. Issues over product comparison claims on TerraCycle's packaging
were also resolved. In the settlement, Scotts required TerraCycle to host a
copy of the agreement on suedbyscotts.com.

2007–present: Sponsored Waste and Beyond

In 2007, TerraCycle developed waste solutions and Brigade collection

programs for Honest Tea, Stonyfield Farm, and Kraft Foods. Seth Goldman,
founder and CEO of Honest Tea, asked Szaky for a waste solution to its
Honest Kids brand. As Tom Szaky himself designed sample products for the
aluminum-plastic pouches, including pencil pouches and tote bags, Goldman
agreed to sponsor the Drink Pouch Brigade. Upon deals with Safeway, Target,
and Walgreens to buy the products, TerraCycle acquired approximately 20
million baled juice pouches stored by Encorp in British Columbia, Canada,
which contained many Capri-Sun pouches. Because of intellectual property
and trademark rights, TerraCycle sought out permission from Kraft to use
Capri-Sun brand pouches in its products. They obtained additional
sponsorship for the Drink Pouch Brigade as well. Programs for other Kraft
brands, such as Oreo and Chips Ahoy, soon followed. The same year,
co-founder Jon Beyer left TerraCycle to work at another company, Princeton
Asset Management Group.

In 2008, TerraCycle partnered with Target to sell recycled Target plastic

shopping bags fused together as reusable bags named "reTotes". At the end
of the year, TerraCycle lost $4.5 million. As a result, the company changed its
manufacturing processes to use pre-consumer extra and misprinted packaging
labels from other companies in its upcycledproducts. TerraCycle changed to
use the majority of its collected post-consumer waste for recycling into plastic
molding pellets. Around 2008, it ended its Bottle Brigade program.

By 2009, TerraCycle moved away from manufacturing to licensing all of its

products. As of the same year, it outsourced its vermicompost production to
worm farmers in North Carolina.

From 2012, TerraCycle and various tobacco companies partnered to launch a

widespread collection and recycling system for cigarette butts. The cigarette
filters, generally made from cellulose acetate, are refined into pellets that are
then used in the production of plastic items such as shipping pallets, benches,
and ashtrays. The company promises that the recycled plastic from cigarette
filters will only be used in industrial products and not in household plastics, due
to exposure to nicotine. The recycled cellulose acetate is mixed with other
recycled plastics to create usable industrial products. Tobacco and paper are
composted in this program. It took six months for the development of the
process required to recycle cigarette butts.

On January 29, 2014, Progressive Waste Solutions announced a 19.99%

interest acquisition in TerraCycle Canada to cooperate on recycling initiatives
in Canada.

In October 2016, TerraCycle and Suez Environment announced that Suez

acquired 30% of TerraCycle’s European operations to develop collection and
recycling programs in Europe. At the World Economic Forum in January 2017,
TerraCycle, Procter & Gamble and Suez announced production of the world's
first recyclable shampoo bottle made from plastic recovered from beaches,
rivers and waterways for the Head & Shoulders brand. The first bottles went on
sale in France in June 2017 and in October the project was recognized by
the United Nations as a winner of a Momentum For Change Lighthouse
Activities Award.

Products and services

TerraCycle has created approximately 200 products, all of which are licensed
to manufacturers, instead of being manufactured by TerraCycle itself.

TerraCycle began with the production of fertilizer made from vermicompost,

which is produced by feeding organic waste to worms. The worms' excrement
was then liquefied into "compost tea" by mixing it with air and warm water in
large vats. It was packaged in reused plastic water bottles. The spray bottle
tops were rejects from other companies. Residue left over from the vats was
used in potting soil and seed starter products.

The company diversified its production into upcycling around 2007 and began
creating products from other waste items. For example, it makes coin pouches
and tablet cases from retired U.S. Postal Service bags. Various products are
produced from pre-consumer waste and post-consumer waste, including
messenger and tote bags.

Plastic packaging waste, that is not upcycled, is recycled into a raw material
that can be used in plastic products, including playgrounds, plastic lumber,
plastic pavers, bike racks, park benches, and garbage and recycling cans.

TerraCycle's recycling programs enable individuals or groups to collect

specified waste materials in exchange for donations to a selected cause or
school. Users sign up over the Internet, and shipping and donation costs are
generally covered by a sponsoring company related to the specified recycling
program. The waste materials, typically non-recyclable, are either refurbished,
upcycled, or recycled.

At the World Economic Forum in 2019, TerraCycle unveiled Loop,

a closed-loop reusable packaging platform for consumer packaged
goodscompanies.[42] The system ships via UPS a variety of food, household
cleaning, personal care products in a reusable padded container. The products
are dispensed from reusable metal and plastic containers, which are returned
in the same container when empty.

Criticism

TerraCycle has also been accused of "greenwashing" (marketing with a false

promise of eco-friendliness). One perceived problem is the missing incentive
for companies to stop using non-recyclable packaging, since TerraCycle takes
on the waste for free, whereas the companies would have had to pay for
dumping it. This also discourages approaches of making companies fiscally
responsible for their waste, similar to European extended producer
responsibility (EPR) laws. TerraCycle spokesman, Albe Zakes, has said that
the company thinks of itself as "a privatized version of EPR laws".

TerraCycle also keeps the branding prominent on their recycled products. This
has raised concern that consumers could think of the brands themselves as
"green" or "eco-friendly" while the product is probably only "upcyclable", not
fully recyclable. TerraCycle products are not recyclable any further.

TerraCycle has been criticized by some people for the relatively small volume
of material it collects for recycling in comparison to the total amount of such
packaging that is produced by manufacturers each year, while noting that in
the US, after over 40 years of regulations requiring recycling of materials
(glass, paper, rigid plastic and certain metals), recycling rates are under 35%
where recycling is economically viable.

Corporate identity

Logo

According to Tom Szaky, the name TerraCycle "came up at the beginning [as]
the idea of 'earth' and 'cycle'. Szaky thought up the name with
another Princeton University student during a road trip from New
Jersey to Florida.The TerraCycle company logo is a green infinity symbol with
two arrows pointed toward one another. Szaky designed the logo during a
lecture at Princeton.

Television show
TerraCycle was the subject of a National Geographic reality television series
named Garbage Moguls. The pilot premiered on Earth Day, April 22,
2009.[10] The show featured the TerraCycle team searching for solutions to
various waste streams.

In 2014, now defunct Pivot launched Human Resources, a reality TV series

providing a behind-the-scenes look at day-to-day operations at TerraCycle's
headquarters.

Web game

TerraCycle partnered with game developer Guerillapps to make

a Facebook-based flash game known as Trash Tycoon. The game was
launched in 2011, and it mimics TerraCycle's actual business model.[52] Major
sponsors for the game include Carbonfund.org and Treehugger.com. Revenue
is generated through the inclusion of brand logos within the game and the use
of virtual currency. TerraCycle receives 25% of the advertising revenue but
none of the virtual currency revenue.The game donates 10% of its revenues to
Carbonfund.org.

In the game, players take on the roles of recycling entrepreneurs who perform
actions, such as upcycling and composting. Avatars collect litter from the
streets, completing missions to earn points.The game features
synchronized multiplayer play.

Corporate affairs
Headquarters

TerraCycle's main headquarters are located in Trenton, New Jersey. The

office was originally a 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2) abandoned warehouse
for a newspaper distribution facility.The headquarters were purchased by
TerraCycle in the summer of 2004. Its renovations were done by TerraCycle’s
internal design team, led by employee Tiffany Threadgould, and its walls are
painted annually by local graffiti artists at "Graffiti Jams".

Finances

As of 2013, TerraCycle maintains a one percent profit margin. Tom Szaky

reported TerraCycle sales in 2004 as $77,000; 2005 as $500,000; 2006 as
$1.6 million; 2007 as $3.3 million; 2008 as $6.6 million; 2009 as $7.3 million;
and 2010 as $13.5 million. The company hit $19.3 million in 2016 and expects
to surpass $20 million in 2017. In fall 2017, TerraCycle US Inc., the U.S.
subsidiary of TerraCycle, Inc., announced it has filed for a Regulation
A offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that
allows anyone the opportunity to invest in the recycling company’s U.S.
subsidiary.