TerraCycle Show Premiers on National Geographic
Kites from Oreo cookie wrappers. Spiral notebooks from old cereal boxes. Pencils from rolled newspaper. Coming to a superstore near you are products made entirely of garbage. Now, a new National Geographic Channel (NGC) special, premiering on Earth Day, takes a look at the quirky young "eco-capitalists" at the company, TerraCycle Inc., who are making this concept happen; rummaging through dumpsters and landfills for materials, brainstorming innovative products ... and hoping to make millions.
"Garbage is a man-made idea, and we've created garbage because we haven't created solutions for it," explains CEO for TerraCycle, Tom Szaky. "We take waste, we add design and produce mass merchandise." Once just a dorm-room operation, TerraCycle has grown from two employees to more than 50 and a multimillion-dollar venture that counts Wal-Mart, OfficeMax, The Home Depot and Target as clients.
In "Garbage Moguls", premiering Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2009, at 9 PM ET/PT, viewers can follow the team's unorthodox creative process -- the brain-racking and stress, the silliness and infighting -- all working to build a profitable business with products composed entirely of trash. Once named the "The Coolest Little Start-Up in America!" by Inc. magazine, TerraCycle is redefining green business, focusing each day on the next million-dollar idea, even if that means spending hours scrounging through stinky garbage.
"Garbage is a man-made idea, and we've created garbage because we haven't created solutions for it," explains CEO for TerraCycle, Tom Szaky. "We take waste, we add design and produce mass merchandise." Once just a dorm-room operation, TerraCycle has grown from two employees to more than 50 and a multimillion-dollar venture that counts Wal-Mart, OfficeMax, The Home Depot and Target as clients.
In "Garbage Moguls", premiering Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2009, at 9 PM ET/PT, viewers can follow the team's unorthodox creative process -- the brain-racking and stress, the silliness and infighting -- all working to build a profitable business with products composed entirely of trash. Once named the "The Coolest Little Start-Up in America!" by Inc. magazine, TerraCycle is redefining green business, focusing each day on the next million-dollar idea, even if that means spending hours scrounging through stinky garbage.