Tom Szaky - Recycling the "Un-Recylable"

Flanigan's Eco-Logic

Tom Szaky's journey is fascinating, one of extreme innovation. His firm, TerraCycle, recycles ~400 different products and materials. Ted asks right off the bat, "Do you really recycle soiled diapers, cigarette butts, shoes, juice pouches, and chewing gum?" Tom quickly makes clear that everything can be recycled... at a cost. He has clearly used his ingenuity to develop revenue streams, for instance, support from tobacco companies that want to address littered butts and disposable diaper companies seeking to gain public support through their commitment to recycling. He also goes to where the supplies of recyclable are... for instance, daycares and senior homes for soiled diapers.

Tom's family fled from Hungary after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. As a young man in Toronto, Canada, he and his father watched a large television being thrown away. TVs are coveted items in Hungary, Tom explains. They took it home... and it worked... in color! Tom was struck by the throw-away society in North America and has devoted his career to recycling things other than paper, plastic, cans, and bottles. These are already profitable. It's the rest of the waste stream that needs attention.

Tom began his recycling work at college at Princeton. He organized and composted food service wastes there.... deep into vermiculture (worms). He left school to take this on full time... from food wastes to compost to sales in Europe and in America to major companies including Kroger and Walmart. Today he has a staff of 400 and is working across the country and internationally. Tom highlights re-use... even better than recycling. With Asics shoes, TerraCycle is taking old foam and other materials from spent shoes. Then Asics is using that "raw" materials for a line of its shoes.

He spun off the TerraCycle Foundation to support ocean clean-ups. His foundation has been working in Thailand on upstream waste collection... in rivers and canals before the waste washes into the oceans. So far, that work has resulted in 3.2 million pounds of material. Meanwhile Tom was writing four books, hosting a television show, growing his companies' impacts, and with his wife raising a family with four kids. He has been recognized by the United Nations and by Time and Fortune magazines for his innovation and sustainability impact. His reward, he notes, is "running a purposeful business."