by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In the beginning of June 2009, TerraCycle, the upcycling company, officially launched in Brazil. This new global launch comes less than six months after launching with Frito-Lay in the USA.
The expansion now into Brazil – with other countries to follow, so we understand – makes an important point, namely that big business is not always a bad guy and does not have to bee seen as such. In fact, so says Tom Szaky of TerraCycle, it can help small business grow via sustainability.
The Brazilian operation is a joint project with PepsiCo Brazil/Wal-Mart Brazil and TerraCycle on the Frito-Lay potato chip bags, in the same way, basically, as in the USA.
This launch marks the first step in TerraCycle's efforts to go global. The next steps include, so I understand, launching with national programs in Canada, Mexico and the UK later this year.
What we can take home from this is a new major realization and that realization is something that all of us that are dedicated to the green movement can be a part of.
We tend to, typically, spend much of our time criticizing big businesses, especially global conglomerates, as to their impact on the environment and the way the do business and with many it is the case, as with Kimberly Clark (yes, pet peeve of mine) in their exploitation of the forests of Canada, but if we can come up with big ideas that do good and fulfill the goals of one of these corporations they will do everything in their power to embrace the idea and make it huge.
The cynic in me and others would, probably, also say here that they only do that in oder to look good in front of their customers. To a degree it is thus; for the truth is that they have to go green and greener or their customers will walk. It is as simple as that.
As a case study the idea of having companies pay TerraCycle to run national waste collection programs is less than two years old. Today over five million Americans are collecting waste for TerraCycle – a number that is doubling about every six months – and over a billion units of garbage have been diverted.
TerraCycle launched with Frito-Lay in the United States less than 6 months ago and in that short period of time Frito-Lay has driven an ambitious expansion into Brazil.
What is unique and exciting about our Brazilian expansion is manifested in how differently countries in the world view garbage. In Brazil there are over 500,000 people in Brazil that make their income by digging through landfills and sidewalks for garbage they can sell.
While in America people can sign up for our chip bag collection (or any other waste stream) and get 2-cents US per unit of waste plus free shipping, the people in Brazil will literally be building an industry around collecting chip bags. Instead of getting paid by unit they will be collecting so much that the only choice is to pay by ton. More over entire cooperatives (that already exist) will now be building infrastructure to collect chip bags in a very big way.
In the minds of the Brazilian people the chip bag has clearly gone from being trash to being a valuable commodity. This thanks to (noting the irony) Frito-Lay Brazil + Wal-Mart Brazil embracing the TerraCycle idea.
It is good to see how the mindset can be changed, as regards people of a country seeing suddenly, when upcycling comes to their midst, certain items of trash no longer as waste but as a valuable commodity.
Nice would be if we could change that for all – or at least most – trash.
In many Third World countries, Brazil included, there are many that not just make a living from going through the garbage for stuff to sell. Nay, many indeed run businesses upcycling waste into resealable goods themselves, and some of those businesses and co-ops have gone from strength to strength over the years.
Maybe there is something that we can learn from places such as that and from the ingenuity of that can be made from what is considered by most people in the developed world still as waste and garbage.
Time for everyone to rethink ...and TerraCycle and its partners here show the way.
© 2009
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TerraCycle Goes Global! Brazil first in TerraCycle International
