Spotlight: Terracycle

Terracycle Gardening Products (source: Terracycle)


I love Terracycle. Its great for many reasons:

1. it takes waste and makes money on it
2. its eco-friendly
3. (a critical piece that few talk about) it shows us what our trash looks like.

Terracycle is a great model for developing countries that have long been the dumping grounds of the wealthier countries trying to push off their trash problems (eg. U.S.A). Often the ones left to bear the brunt of this dumping are the poorest of the poor. But if the BoP can "embrace the trash," see the value in it as Terracycle does, they could turn their biggest enemy into a cash mine. Here's where outsourcing could actually work extremely well (i.e. Terracycle outsourcing to countries like India, China, and Bangladesh...to name very few).