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10 Within 10 Recognition

Michael Waas '05, '07

Michael Waas, ’05 M.A. ’07, knew a great idea when he saw it.

Sitting at a presentation by TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky, Waas was fascinated to hear about an innovative company that recycled all kinds of stuff nobody else did: Toothbrushes. Juice box pouches. Candy wrappers. Cereal bags. I thought it was recycling genius, Waas thought.

A week later Waas was at O’Hare International Airport on his way to a job interview. He bumped into Szaky. They struck up a conversation. Szaky offered him a job.

TerraCycle suits him. He’s global vice president of business development and client services in the company’s Trenton, New Jersey, headquarters.

The company works in 24 countries to help consumers recycle things traditional recycling programs don’t accept.

Companies like Nestle, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and Frito-Lay pay to recycle their packaging in exchange for great publicity by TerraCycle.

Anybody can participate. Sign up at terracycle.com, collect your items in a box, affix a prepaid label and ship it off. You get a point for each item, earning money that can go toward a school or nonprofit.

“Social change and equality have always been a critical part of my life and part of that was hating traditional capitalism,” Waas says. “But at CMU I learned that sometimes you have to work within the system if you want to make real change in the world.”

TerraCycle has collected 2.5 billion items and paid out $9 million to schools and organizations.

“If you’re going to live in this world,” Waas says, “you should be engaged in it.”