Tom Szaky

Tom Szaky
Born	14 January 1982 (1982-01-14) Budapest, Hungary
Residence	Princeton, New Jersey
Nationality	Hungarian
Occupation	CEO of TerraCycle
Years active	2001–present

Tom Szaky (born 1982) is an eco-entrepreneur, known for starting TerraCycle, a company that makes eco-friendly, affordable consumer products from waste.

Tom's first successful business was a Web design company named "Flyte Design," which Tom started at age 14. In 2001, Tom matriculated to Princeton University, and in his second year, took a leave to work full time on TerraCycle, which had started as a two man project in a dorm room. Today, the company has over 100 employees worldwide, operates in fifteen different countries, collects over 40 different waste streams, and has created hundreds of upcycled and recycled products.

Tom has written a book about TerraCycle and its development titled "Revolution in a Bottle," and TerraCycle has been featured on the National Geographic mini-series "Garbage Moguls."

Early life

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1982, Tom emigrated with his family as political refugees from Hungary to Holland and eventually to Toronto. Both his parents were doctors but Tom had entrepreneurship in his blood. Tom headed to the United States to attend Princeton University in 2001.

Career

Flyte Design

At age 14 Tom started his first business, a Web design company called Flyte Design, which employed three associates and earned its young proprietor a five-figure income, while landing clients as big as Roots clothing company. Flyte Design also earned a number of Canadian national design awards. That earlier entrepreneurial success motivated Tom to engage in the additional start-up of three small, but successful 'dot.com' companies.

TerraCycle

As a Princeton freshman, Tom and a friend fed leftovers from the university cafeteria to an army of worms and harvested the worm compost, or Worm Poop as it is fondly known, and liquefied it into a completely organic, ultra-effective fertilizer. When it came time to package and sell the fertilizer, the two boys could not afford to buy packaging, so they turned to used soda bottles they collected from recycling bins, unwittingly creating the world's first product made from and packaged entirely in waste.

In 2002, Tom took a leave of absence from Princeton to dedicate himself full-time to TerraCycle. One year in, on the verge of bankruptcy, Tom turned down a million dollar grand prize from the Carrot Capital Business Plan because the investors wanted TerraCycle to become less focused on being environmentally responsible.

Even without the investor’s money, TerraCycle had its breakthrough in 2004, selling its little-known fertilizer to The Home Depot and Walmart - two of the world’s biggest retailers. Today, after doubling in size for four straight years, TerraCycle occupies a 20,000 sq. ft. factory in an Urban Enterprise Zone in Trenton, NJ, where it employs over 20 workers in its labor force and is a second chance employer as part of its pledge to being socially beneficial.

A decade later, TerraCycle has grown from a two-man, dorm room operation to an international leader in the field of eco-capitalism and upcycling and TerraCycle continues to make an effort to prove to the world that you can make a difference and a profit at the same time. However, after years of being in business, Tom realized it would take more than an army of worms to change the world. Tom realized the revolutionary idea they discovered was not Worm Poop, but using waste materials to make products that are both sustainable and affordable.

The collection program, known as the Brigade program, was launched in 2007 with TerraCycle's first partner, organic beverage manufacturer Honest Tea. For every piece of trash that TerraCycle receives, the collection Brigade is rewarded with two points, which can be put towards charity gifts such as a donation to charity:water or Feeding America, or converted to cash and donated to a charity of the participant's choice.

In 2009, TerraCycle began to take its successful Brigade programs overseas, launching with Kraft Foods in the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico and with PepsiCo and Kraft Foods in Brazil. During 2010, the company expanded to France, Germany, Argentina, and Sweden. In 2011, TerraCycle has launched in Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Holland, Luxembourg, and Italy.

Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking of the fastest growing private companies in America listed TerraCycle in the top 200 in 2010, moving from the 288th spot, and was also listed in the top 10 consumer goods companies. In 2011, TerraCycle ranked in the top 50 consumer goods companies and at #928 on the Inc 5000 list.

Today, TerraCycle partners with major consumer goods manufacturers such as Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Mars, Kashi, Kimberly-Clark, SC Johnson, Nestle, L’Oreal and many more to run a comprehensive network of individuals, schools and organizations who get paid to help collect non-recyclable packaging. TerraCycle and its partners pay two cents per unit of returned packaging and the collected material is combined with other waste streams and recycled into a wide range of consumer products such as flower pots. Some of the packaging is upcycled into tote bags, notebooks, backpacks, and lunchboxes.

TerraCycle products have been sold at retailers including The Home Depot, Walmart, RadioShack, Best Buy, Toys 'R Us, Whole Foods Market, OfficeMax, Petco, Urban Outfitters, and Target.

Over 70,000 locations and 22 million participants help TerraCycle to collect their trash and save it from the landfill. Over 2 billion pieces of pre- and post- consumer packaging have been collected, over 2 million dollars have been donated to schools and non-profits.

Television, Film, and Print

Garbage Moguls, a mini documentary series of TerraCycle's upcycling work, debuted on the National Geographic Channel on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. The three episodes following the pilot aired in August 2010. Garbage Moguls is one of TerraCycle's efforts to bring upcycling into the mainstream. The show documents Tom and his team at TerraCycle as they take Oreo Wrappers and Coca-Cola Billboards, and figure out to make them into new products including kites and messenger bags. The show also shows TerraCycle selling the products to major retailers including Walmart and OfficeMax. The show re-airs at various times on the National Geographic channel.

April 2009 also saw the publication of Tom's book, "Revolution in a Bottle," published by Portfolio. The book takes readers through TerraCycle's journey from the small dorm room start-up to the international operation with over fifty brand partners.

Tom is currently an active contributor to the New York Times online You're the Boss Blog. He also writes for other online publications including Treehugger and Packaging Digest.

Leadership

Corporate Responsibility

Tom believes that all players with a stake in the game have corporate social responsibility: consumers must vote with their dollars, and corporations must make decisions that are positive for the environment, not just the bottom line.

Honors and Awards

Tom Szaky has earned several awards for himself and TerraCycle through his mission to eliminate waste. From the beginning TerraCycle was funded through the proceeds of winning one business plan contest after another starting with the Princeton University Business Plan Contest and more recently received the TCNJ Award for Innovative Leadership. Today TerraCycle continues to win awards for its ability to create value from waste and to create new platforms for sustainability.

Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking of the fastest growing private companies in America listed TerraCycle in the top 200 in 2010, moving from the 288th spot and in the top 10 of consumer goods companies in 2010. Retailers carrying TerraCycle products include: The Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods Market, Office Max, Petco, Urban Outfitters, Radio Shack, Best Buy, Toys ‘R Us and many more.

Tom was named “The #1 CEO Under Thirty” by Inc. magazine in its July 2006 issue, beating out Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Since TerraCycle's inception in 2001 Tom and TerraCycle have one over twenty awards including:

• 2001 Princeton University Business Plan Contest
• 2004 VANJ - Elevator Pitch Gold Medal Award
• 2004 Red Herring - Top 100 Innovative Companies
• 2005 The Home Depot - Environmental Stewardship Award
• 2006 NJ Biz – Coolest Little Start-up in America
• 2006 Inc.com – #1 in 30 Under 30
• 2006 APEX – Transcending the Boundaries of the Pursuit of Success
• 2006 The Green 50
• 2007 The Home Depot - Environmental Stewardship Award
• 2007 Inc. 500
• 2007 NJ Biz - Forty Under 40
• 2007 Environmental Business Journal Award 2007
• 2008 Consumer Goods Technology- Outstanding Achievement - Most Innovative Company
• 2008 Morris County Recycles “Global Worming” Award
• 2008 Zerofootprint - First Consumer Product to Earn Zerofootprint Seal
• 2009 LISC – Neighborhood Achievement Award for Local Entrepreneurship
• 2009 Inc. 500 - America's Fastest Growing Private Companies
• 2010 NJTC – Growth Company of the Year
• 2010 Edison Green Award (Silver)
• 2010 DVRPC- Air Quality Partnership Excellence Award
• 2010 TCNJ Award for Innovative Leadership
• 2011 Kettle Foods Award
• 2011 SmartCEO Future 50
• 2011 Eco-Visionary Award 2011
• 2011 Entrepreneur Brilliant 100

References

• Garbage Moguls
• Szaky, Tom. Revolution in a Bottle.2009. Portfolio Trade.
• Poop Salesman Trumps Zuckerberg
• Audio Tom Szaky talks to the Commonwealth Club of California, May 2009