Join the upcycle revolution!

As many great companies do, this one started in a dorm room. Tom Szaky, now at the ripe old age of 27, is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle and was named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. magazine in 2009.

The idea of upcycling wasn't trendy at the time, and the first few years at Terracycle were rocky. Hurdles involved near bankruptcy and the hard choice of turning down a $1 million grant because the investor's principles were not in line with Szaky's idea of a truly sustainable company — now that's a man with faith in his idea!

TerraCycle upcycles the collected "waste" material into affordable, eco-friendly products. Since 2007, over 60,000 locations and 7 million people are helping to collect, instead of discard, their trash. Over 1 billion pieces of pre- and post-consumer packaging have been collected and over 250,000 dollars has been donated to schools and nonprofits.

And yet, there's more that Tom is working on: in April 2009 Szaky released his first book Revolution in a Bottle. And soon you'll be able to see Tom in the new show Garbage Moguls, airing this spring on the National Geographic Channel.
Here are some fun facts about the company:
    •   2009 revenue: $7.5 million.
    •   63,347 collection locations worldwide.
    •   8,866,368 people collecting waste.
    •   $607,295.84 money contributed to charity.
    •   1,263,589,839 units of waste diverted.
Tom took a break from making the world a better place, writing a book and getting ready for his close-up to talk to Tonic:

How do you stay constantly ready for change in your company?

TerraCycle has been a company of constant change. In 2007 we had seven products, all variations on our original products, a worm poop-based fertilizer. Today, only three years later we have over 200 different products made from 50 different waste materials and are operating in seven different countries. The change and growth that we have seen is staggering.

I embrace change; in fact, I think I thrive on it as a new challenge and a new opportunity. We need change in order to fix the many ills our society faces. At TerraCycle we are constantly accepting failures and set backs as part of an ever-changing business model in an ever changing business world.  So we expect and accept change in order to stay in front of of the ball and use change to our advantage.
Whats the best advice you ever got?

Persistence solves everything. Being an entrepreneur or starting a business is always difficult, but I chose an extra challenging path. I dropped out of college to sell liquefied worm poop in reused soda bottles. I had no investors or customers, but I knew then that I was on the verge of massive potential (that is using non-recyclable waste to make new consumer products and replace the need to produce more virgin materials.)

In those early days no one returned my phone calls. I would literally be laughed at when I tried to call retailers to sell them my fertilizer. I think people thought I was prank calling them. Secretaries would blow me off, voicemails would go unanswered. But I would call and call and call and eventually I got meetings with Wal-Mart and  Home Depot. Suddenly I went from a two-man operation in a dorm room to producing products for two of the world's biggest retailers. All because I refused to be turned away. I have applied that lesson to everything we do at TerraCycle, you only fail if you allow yourself to fail.