Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Szaky: Waste businesses can get paid for inputs due to negative demand

Tom Szaky · Making garbage useful with Tom Szaky of TerraCycle · Aug 17, 2023 · at 3:39

TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky explains the economic logic from his college economics class that inspired his initial organic fertilizer business model.

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“And it turns out it's because there is, while there's massive supply, there's in fact negative demand. And so in this worm poop concept, the simple business model was, wait a minute, we can get paid for the input, because that's in a way the definition of garbage. People are willing to pay to get rid of it, and then make this phenomenal fertilizer on the other side.”

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