The Worm Turns

In Consumed: Terracycle: How one company strives to turn invertebrate excrement into a hip brand.

TerraCycle is one of those tiny start-up brands that get so much free publicity that it can forgo advertising. And it’s easy to see why there’s interest. The founder is a 25-year-old Princeton dropout. Its flagship fertilizer products are packaged in used plastic bottles, many collected through a nationwide recycling program the company itself has organized. And a key ingredient in the fertilizer itself, as the label announces, is “liquefied WORM POOP.” Waste packaged in waste makes TerraCycle the “ultimate eco-friendly” product, the company asserts, putting it in line with organic and earth-aware consumption trends. “We kind of ride on the fact that all these things get a lot of press, and get people interested in the product” and the “young, hip company” that makes it, explains Albe Zakes, the company spokesman….

Continue reading at the NYT site.

Additional links: TerraCycle’s “Sued by Scotts” blog. WormWoman.com. Worm Composting Basics.