How Green Companies are Cashing In (part 1 – Terracycle)

This is the first in a series of posts that will examine how 5 companies–that were highlighted in the recent edition of Fortune Small Business–have focused on sustainable enterprises in surprisingly pragmatic ways in order to weather the economic storm.

The first best practice highlight is of Terracycle:

Entrepreneur Tom Szaky and his company Terracycle have managed to use innovative recycling (spinning trash into consumer goods like Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold) to double their revenue every year since 2004.  Fortune Small Business claims that Terracycle’s sales are likely to hit $15 million in 2009.  In addition to being filmed for their new reality TV show, Garbage Moguls, the recycling firm’s 46 employees dream up ways to re-design and re-purpose the mountains of trash in their 250,000-square-foot warehouse.  A few of their creations include pencil cases from Capri Sun juice pouches, picture frames and clocks from circuit boards, kites from Oreo wrappers, and fertilizer called worm poop in Coke bottles (sold at Home Depot, Target and Whole Foods).