GoNorth! Nunavut 2009
Module 03: Climate Chaos – Chat #11
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Welcome:
Welcome to the third chat on the topic of Climate Chaos!
Background: Ozone thins in the stratosphere and thickens in the troposphere. Oceans
warm. Coral reefs bleach. Glaciers melt. Sea levels rise. Sea ice thins. Permafrost
thaws. Migration times vary. Lakes shrink. Snowpacks decline. Ice shelves collapse.
Wildfires increase. Droughts linger. Atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide increase.
Winter gets soft. Mountain streams run dry. Flowers get bigger. Trees turn green sooner.
Exotic species invade. Insects attach. Cloud forests dry. Spring comes earlier. Fall
leaves later.
Global warming or climate change? The National Academies explains that “the phrase
climate change is growing in preferred use to global warming because it helps convey
that there are changes in addition to rising temperatures.” On the other hand, many
prefer to continue using the term “global warming,” to convey a state of urgency. When
GoNorth! team member Mille Porsild was asked to become a Climate Witness for the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the United Kingdom, Matthew Davis the climate change
campaign director, explained that politicians and the people on the street in the UK are
not relating to the term climate change, that they are not considering it a problem of their
own! The name later chosen for the WWF campaign was Climate Chaos. This term
acknowledges that we indeed know the continuation of increased green house gas
levels at current rates will lead to dramatic environmental and climatic change on a
global scale—and recognizes that we do not know exactly what this will mean, beyond
that it will leave the global environmental balance in a state of chaos.
WWFʼs Climate Chaos campaign has been very successful so far, in large part because
of an instrumental push from former Prime Minister Tony Blair to call for global action at
the G8 meetings and in national government actions. As Blair has said, “I want to
concentrate on what I believe to be the worldʼs greatest environmental challenge: climate
change.”
Some questions to possibly open the chat with or discuss prior to the LIVE chat!
1) List at least three suggestions that might help reduce transboundary pollution and the emission
of greenhouse gasses - pay attention to those short term climate forcers!
2) What are the worldʼs nations doing to prevent or reduce climate change? What are you doing
as individuals? Is enough being done?
3) What is the importance of biodiversity? On a scale from one to ten how serious would you
consider the changing of ecosystems and extinction of species because of human actions that
could be addressed?
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GoNorth! Nunavut 2009
Module 03: Climate Chaos – Chat #11
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Speaker Bio:
Brian Young,
TerraCycle
TerraCycle was founded in the fall of 2001 in a Princeton University dorm room -82 Blair Hall to be exact. The idea was simple: take waste, process it, and turn it
into a useful product.
The initial business plan was written for a business plan contest sponsored by
the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club. The following summer, Tom Szaky and Jon
Beyer made arrangements with Princeton Dining Services to accept dining hall
waste and process it in their prototype 'Worm Gin'. The waste turned out to be a
bit messier than they had anticipated, but they perservered. Towards the end of
that summer, they found their first investor who learned of the company through
an interview with Bernard Spigner. They shortly moved into their first office at 20
Nassau St, Unit 14.
Tom took an extended leave of absence from Princeton in the spring of 2003. In
May of 2003, Tom entered the Carrot Capital business plan contest, which
offered $1 million in seed capital to the winning team. And TerraCycle won!
However, they turned down the money because they didn't like the direction in
which Carrot Capital wanted to take the company.
The company continued, funded by prize money from business plan contests and
angel investors. A major breakthrough was achieved in May of 2004 when The
Home Depot began selling TerraCycle Plant Food™ on their website. In 2005,
TerraCycle continued their growth as Whole Foods, Home Depot Canada,
Wal*Mart Canada, Wild Oats and Do-It-Best began carrying the TerraCycle line.
Most recently, TerraCycle has been named one of the 100 most innovative
companies by Red Herring magazine and been awarded the Environmental
Stewardship Award from Home Depot Canada. The Environmental Stewardship
Award is one of only two company-wide awards given by Home Depot Canada.
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GoNorth! Nunavut 2009
Module 03: Climate Chaos – Chat #11
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
GoNorth! Education Basecamp: Good Afternoon Everyone! We are so glad
that you could join us today. This is our third chat on the topic of Climate Chaos.
Ms Curran: Steffen. WI: Where are you talking with us from?
GoNorth! Expert: Iʼm in TerraCycleʼs Toronto, Ontario, Canada, office. Tom
Szaky, our founder, grew up here and Robin Tator, a co-founder, lives here.
Our head office is in Trenton, NJ. Thatʼs where Tom and most of our 50 plus staff
work.
Ms Curran: Steffen. WI: How did you get started with TerraCycle? Is this what
you thought you would be doing when you went to school?
GoNorth! Expert: This is a very interesting question. First Iʼll tell you that I am a
retired teacher and 62 years old! Next Iʼll say that I taught for 32 years before I
retired. So you could say I wanted to be a teacher after school. For 4 of my
teaching years, I was one of Tomʼs teachers (I did video, computers and library
among other things) for the time he was 8 to 12 years old. Tom always liked to do
projects and get his friends to help out. I guess he appreciated the fact that I
encouraged and supported him in making these things happen. After he left at
the end of Grade 6 he came back when he was in Grade 8 to help the 6ʼs create
the first CD-ROM yearbook weʼd ever had. Then when he was in high school, he
brought some of his friends back for 3 years to run an after-school rocketry club.
After Tom went to Princeton and started TerraCycle he asked me if I wanted to
help out, I jumped at the chance almost 6 years ago and here I am.
Zee & Brit 5-C: How long have you been doing your job?
GoNorth! Expert: Basically 6 years. During that time Iʼve done lots of different
things from making videos for schools to explain how our Recycling Brigades
work, to some warehouse work, to lots of contact with media (magazines,
newspapers, TV and more) to get the TerraCycle story in the news. Weʼve never
had money for advertizing, so this was our main way of making the world aware
of what we do. Now Iʼm doing customer service, helping people with their
questions about our products.
ALBEBXYI 5-C: What got you interested in TerraCycle?
GoNorth! Expert: I always wanted to do something that would make a positive
difference to our environment and our world. As a teacher I taught about ecology
and the environment and tried to get students working to reduce and recycle our
trash. TerraCycle takes that one step farther and really makes trash into new
materials and products: we call it “upcycling”.
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GoNorth! Nunavut 2009
Module 03: Climate Chaos – Chat #11
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Mr Krueck's Class: Do you know, with Tom's original business plan, was a
requirement that it take waste and make it into a useful product? Or was that
Tom's doing?
GoNorth! Expert: Tomʼs first “Eureka” moment happened when he visited a
friendʼs home over the holidays. After dinner, everyone was asked to put their
vegetable scraps in a “worm bin”. Tomʼs friend explained that the worms loved to
eat our garbage and once they poop it out it makes a wonderful plant food – just
like nature intended. To prove his point Tomʼs friend show him the indoor plants
(herbs, potted flowers and other plants) they were growing with the help of the
worm poop. They were all very large and obviously healthy. A classic example of
Garbage in – Great stuff out! ;o) The light bulb went on in Tomʼs head when he
asked his friend how many worms he had in that box. Tom thought, if 500 worms
could make enough to feed a houseful of plants, how many homes could be
“enriched” by 500,000 or 500 million worms? Thatʼs how TerraCycle was born.
Ms Curran: Steffen. WI: What is the most popular product?
GoNorth! Expert: There are different faves in each area. Of our Garden
products the favorite is our organic Orchid Plant Food, with our Deer Barrier
(repellent) a close second. In our office product line, we get a lot of requests for
our Eco-Binder which is totally recyclable, but some of the clocks and picture
frames we make from used computer circuit boards are very popular too. In our
line of bags and other items made from juice pouches and the shiny wrappers for
cookies and potato chips, our best seller is the Tote Bag followed by our pencil
cases. All these can be seen on our website at www.terracycle.net – click on
products.
Ms Curran: Steffen. WI: What is your favorite product?
GoNorth! Expert: I personally like the Target ReTote. We call it the “I-used-tobe-a-plastic-bag” Bag - http://www.terracycle.net/plastic_bag_bag.htm.
Itʼs made from discarded Target shopping bags (Target keeps these in 3 huge
warehouses) that we laminate together and then sew into sturdy shopping totes
that will last a long time.
Mr Krueck's Class: How/Who comes up with product ideas?
GoNorth! Expert: Tom has always been great at involving his friends and
workers in this process. He leads us in regular “brainstorming” sessions to come
up with new ideas for old trash. Sometimes companies like Capri Sun will see
what weʼre doing and say, “Hey, weʼve got a lot of this material (like juice
pouches) and it only goes to landfill. Can you find a good way to reuse it?” And
so we have to come up with new ideas or use old ones in a new way.
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GoNorth! Nunavut 2009
Module 03: Climate Chaos – Chat #11
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Mr Krueck's Class: Is there an item that is the most difficult to make?
GoNorth! Expert: Every item takes a long time to figure out after you get the
original idea. Thatʼs one reason why we tend to go for pretty simple ideas for the
most part. The trickiest part is often finding a reliable source for the trash we think
we can make something good from. When Tom first got the idea of using plastic
soda bottles, we found it was illegal in New Jersey to take them from the blue
recycling bins. Thatʼs when he got the idea of asking people to send them to us.
We could pay a few pennies each (remember theyʼre normally worth nothing) for
their schools or other charities. This also enabled people to help the environment
at the same time. Pretty cool! When TerraCycle started to grow we werenʼt
getting enough bottles from our Brigades even though we got thousands and
thousands. Tom realized that some states, like Vermont, had a law that bottlers
like Pepsi or Coke had to take back their bottles once people had used them.
These bottlers were happy to sell us their old bottles. Thereʼs more to this story,
but this gives you the idea.
Ms Havey at Wilson Elem: What happens to your product-line if we stop using
plastic bottles?
GoNorth! Expert: Tomʼs one of the most creative people I know. Heʼll come up
with an answer. From an environmental point of view, weʼll all be better off
without so much plastic in our lives.
Zee & Brit 5-C: When people recycle their ...Waste, how long does it take for it
to become useful in the soil?
GoNorth! Expert: It depends on what kind of waste you mean and how itʼs
treated. For example, plastics take hundreds of years and aluminum foil takes
thousands of years to break down enough to be “good” for the soil. Juice
pouches probably take longer. On the other hand a piece of bread or a scrap of
meat could be composted in a few weeks or months.
Ms Havey at Wilson Elem: We think your company is SO COOL!! Does it make
you proud to work for a company that is doing something that is so good for the
environment?
GoNorth! Expert: Another great question! The simple answer is “Yes!” I think Iʼd
find it hard to work at something that wasnʼt helping the environment.
Thank You!
From all of us at Team GoNorth!, Thank You for joining us today! Join us again
next week on Wednesday, May 13th at 1PM CT for our third chat on the topic of
Climate Chaos.
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