Word: trashings
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...Szaky's office could pass for a landfill. Szaky, 24, the co-founder and CEO of plant-food manufacturer TerraCycle, sits in a chair that was at one time another firm's trash, next to a computer on a desk that were both once trash, and, with near palpable enthusiasm, draws supply-and-demand graphs on scraps of paper to show why he's so fond of building his business out of trash. "What is garbage?" he asks, marker in hand. "It's any commodity with a negative value, right? It's something you're willing...
...baser terms, the man is selling worm s___ wrapped in used plastic. The company has earned accolades for its minimal environmental impact (and is happy to trash talk competitors on their records). And the plant food is a hit with retailers. TerraCycle rolled out its products en masse in the U.S. earlier this year. They're carried in more than 7,000 stores across the country. The privately owned company took in $1 million in the first quarter of 2006, and sales are growing 300% to 600% each year...
...Trash is indeed cash for an increasing number of firms--from 1-800-GOT-JUNK, the garbage collector that's grown more than 400% in five years, to municipal recycling depots nationwide. It's hard to measure the scope of the waste-recovery industry--as Szaky says, garbage is only called garbage until enough people want it. But demand for trash is evident in growing markets and rising prices for by-products that used to be dirt cheap, free or off-loaded with a cash kicker--such things as tire chips and crumb rubber, organic waste, even restaurant grease. "Resource...
Then there's regulation. Modern Corp., which runs one of New York State's largest solid-waste management facilities north of Buffalo and receives a million tons of trash a year, was already required by law to deal with its landfill odors when in 1996 it started harnessing energy from burning methane off the landfill to generate electricity. "You have this investment to begin with," says COO Gary Smith. "We wanted a way to capitalize." Today Modern provides the region with 12 megawatts, enough to power about 20,000 homes, and plans to expand to a 35-megawatt facility...
Dumping has also been valuable for Tennessee's Bouldin Corp. In 2003 the firm began taking Warren County garbage and converting it to what Bouldin calls "fluff." That's household trash ground up, with the metals removed, and heated so it's inert. Fluff is used as a peat substitute. Bouldin's new landfill project is expected to swing to profitability after it launches its first durable products next year: landscape timber and building blocks made from trash. "A few years down the line, we'll wonder why we ever put this stuff in the ground," says marketing manager Terry...