Tom Szaky - The Treasure in Our Trash - #7

Reinventing the Supermarket

We are joined by Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of Terracycle as we discuss what’s known as “post consumer waste”. The supermarket is responsible for a vast amount of the trash and wastage in our world, and the focus of Tom Szaky and of Terracycle is to identify the treasure we’ve invested in that trash, and to recycle and upcycle as much as possible so as to relieve the pressure on our planet and its resources. It’s a vast task, so where do we even start? Well Tom Szaky is the guy to talk to about this. He’s written some amazing books, such as Outsmart Waste and Make Garbage Great and he and his company have received numerous awards including from esteemed bodies such as the United Nations and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Importantly, Terracycle already works with every Fortune 500 packaged consumer goods company. We discuss some of the fundamental issues around the packaging of supermarket goods and what steps we can take, whether as a shopper or as a brand, to minimise both the short and longer term environmental impact of our personal choices. Very importantly, we’re going to talk about how we all need to start thinking a little differently about the packaging we’re about to throw away...because in fact, that’s only the start of its very long life cycle.