As Steven Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, begin with the end in mind. Let's apply that concept to consumer packaging. In order to produce a package or carton that will be totally recyclable and manufactured with the least amount of waste possible, start with the design. Packaging; let's take it from the beginning... There are six basic functions that packaging must perform: to contain, protect, preserve, transport, inform and sell products. Note that "sell" is the last of the six listed. Unfortunately Kraft, Frito-Lay, and most other consumer products manufacturers seem to view "sell" as the most important function for food packaging and apparently do not ascribe to the idea that generating the least amount of waste possible might be a good thing. It's exactly that perspective that has provided Tom Szaky an almost unlimited source of extremely low cost raw materials for the dozens of products that TerraCycle manufacturers. Szaky tells the story of TerraCycle in Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business, (Portfolio Trade, 2009). He's young, hyper-active, and smart! In the beginning... there were worms. And the worms did what worms do, eating and making worm castings (a polite way of saying "worm poop). Tom convinced a handful of friends and schoolmates that an army of worms could turn lunchroom waste into a marketable fertilizer and TerraCycle was founded. His story is literally a page turner! Simply trying to keep up with his ideas, his energy, and his company is exhausting. This is one man who identified a source of raw materials that will keep his company growing - fast! - and keep tons of waste out of landfills. Szaky is not one to keep his ideas to himself, and he offers six basic rules for any one developing new products to take to market:

• Do not invent a new form of a product; just reinvent it in a more eco-friendly way - if possible from waste.
• Leverage your raw materials; look at garbage and isolate a stream, look at what it can be used for as a material.
• Keep the price competitive with any similar product on the market.
• Make sure it has the same (or more or better) features, benefits, and efficacy as any similar product.
• Keep it simple, especially when it comes to technology and regulation.
• Stay away from regulatory headaches. Some products are ridiculously highly regulated while other products are unregulated.

TerraCycle is doing the right thing at the right time; though in the future, as more products are "designed with the end in mind," we hope to see the kind of waste that drives his company go away. Should that happen, I'm sure his wildly creative mind will find a new direction for his business. In the meantime, send him those empty juice bags and cookie wrappers. About the Author Tom Szaky, 26, is co-founder and CEO of TerraCycle, producer of the world's first products that are made entirely from and packaged entirely in waste. Born in Budapest and raised in Toronto, Szaky moved to the U.S. in 2001 to attend Princeton University, but left a year later to focus on his startup. TerraCycle, based in Trenton, New Jersey, now has annual sales of $8 million, has sustained five-year growth of over 200% per year.