Students' initiative drives business ahead

You know you're on to something when you refuse a million dollars and end up ahead. With the combination of a novel idea and a whole bunch of garbage, that's just what Tom Szaky '05, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Inc., has managed to do. Now he plans to share the experience with University students this summer.

After passing up a $1 million offer from the venture capital firm Carrot Capital last year — "what they wanted to do wasn't in line with what we wanted to do," Szaky said — TerraCycle is now worth $4.2 million.

This summer, it plans to hire 35 interns from the University, making the company — which manufactures an eco-friendly fertilizer made entirely out of garbage — the largest corporate provider of summer internships to students here.

"It appeals so much to people because it's not a traditional internship," said Alex Salzman '06, who headed up the intern search this year. "People at Princeton tend to be A-type: driven, but at the same time creative. As interns, they're often stifled, but in TerraCycle their ideas really count."

After sending emails to the freshman class and students in the engineering, architecture, art and economics departments, Salzman said over 100 students expressed interest in the 35 spots.

"We're working on something about to explode, and people are excited about it," he said.

The interns, who Szaky said will be selected within the next month, will live for 12 weeks in an "eating club-size" house Szaky bought in Trenton. He has already hired a cook and said compensation will include room and board, and perhaps stock in the company. Interns will work on all aspects of the company, contributing ideas Szaky said will be incorporated into TerraCycle's business plan.

"The gist of the internship is that it's not the classical collate-and-deliver-coffee job," Szaky said. "The interns will be intimately involved in production, research, patents, publicity, graphic design, everything."

Rob Hazan '06 signed up for the internship after hearing about it from Salzman. "I want to be able to influence the company," he said. "There's a lot more responsibility on my shoulders than in the previous internships I've had. I'll be building tech infrastructures that the company will rely on for the next few years at least."

What is particularly exciting about this summer, Salzman said, is that the company is getting ready to spread nationwide. "If you were to plot our progress on a graph, we'd be on an exponential curve," he said. "It's all about getting everything up and running to take the company national."

TerraCycle's flagship plant food is already in over a dozen stores in New Jersey, and Szaky said he is in negotiation with nationwide chains including The Home Depot to extend its range. Szaky is also applying for a business model patent; he said his company is the first to package a mass-produced product in reused bottles. The company, which has 15 full-time employees, works with over 100 elementary schools throughout the state to collect recycled 20 oz. bottles as containers for the plant food.

Another novel aspect of the company, Szaky said, is that it can "make money at both ends." Businesses such as feed lots and paper factories pay TerraCycle to pick up their trash, so that they can avoid paying larger landfill fees. TerraCycle then composts this trash with the assistance of worms, whose excrement is purified to produce the plant food.

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The company, therefore, gets "paid for raw materials and paid for finished products," Szaky said. "And not only is the plant food organic, it's effective too."

Szaky, who has already taken three semesters off from the University, said his leave-of-absence will continue indefinitely. "I'd like to take this process through and really build something big," he said. "What I want to do is find success and have a lot of fun doing it."

TerraCycle was founded by Szaky in 2001. Everything from the fertilizer itself, to its 20-oz. container, to the shipping cartons, is made from recycled waste, creating a company Szaky says is the first in the world to produce a "negative environmental footprint."

"You're actually helping the environment through the purchase," Szaky said. "We take garbage away from the landfill, instead of to it."