Ramblings from Early Retirement

I don't normally read Inc. magazine, but the cover of the July 2006 issue caught my eye last week. Selling garbage? The Coolest Little Start-Up in America is about TerraCycle and its' 24 year old founder, Tom Szaky.

TerraCycle sells a liquid plant fertilizer made from worm waste. It is a vermicompost tea made from the castings of red worms. The worms eat organic waste, work for free and double their population every 3 months. The fertilizer is packaged in reused soda bottles with spray tops that have been discarded by other manufacturers.

Szaky was a 19 year old Princeton freshman when TerraCycle was started. 2005 sales were $461,000, mostly to Canadian Home Depot and Wal-Mart stores. The fertilizer is being introduced in the United States this year and 2006 sales could be more than $2.5 million dollars. The profit margins are huge for both the manufacturer and the retailers.

TerraCycle Plant Food is an organic product that is cheaper than the conventional alternative and works just as well, if not better. And it's keeping garbage out of the landfill. Whether you are an environmentalist or a businessperson, it sounds like a great business. We could use more businesses that turn trash into profit.

Learn more about TerraCycle at http://www.terracycle.net/. TerraCycle needs used soda bottles. Visit their website to sign up for the Bottle Brigade and earn money for your favorite charity.

// posted by SusanBLuvsCrafts @ 11:46 PM