[compost_tea] "The pot of gold may require dealing with a ton of crap."

From: Tom Jaszewski <tom_at_livesoil.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:37:08 -0800

 

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/15/eveningnews/main661329.shtml

Turning 'Poop' Into Gold

TRENTON, N.J., Dec. 15, 2004




 

 

(CBS) Tom Szaky believes he's set to make his fortune from ten trays of
worms eating garbage.

He's says he has more than 1 million worms. As CBS News Correspondent Jim
<javascript:vlaunch('clip=/media/2004/12/15/video661349.rm&sec=3420&vid=
Id=34
20&title=WormPoopSuccessStory&hitboxMLC=eveningnews');> Axelrod report=
s,
they're kept in a contraption, which allows him to collect their "worm
poop."

Skazy, a 22-year-old Canadian, is building a business in New Jersey by
turning the half-ton of worm waste a week into 6,000 bottles of fertilizer.
The trade secret is what he feeds his worms and the product is proving to b=
e
remarkably effective.

It seems so simple. So why hasn't anyone thought of this?

"Maybe no one has thought of making a product from garbage yet," says Skazy=
.


Every part of his product is recycled. The bottles are sent from school
cafeterias. The sprayers are other companies' extras. The boxes are
misprinted mistakes, all recycled.

Skazy is turning garbage into gold and brown into two kinds of green: green
chemistry, which is a buzzword in agriculture these days for organic
fertilizers that are environmentally friendly. And then you have the other
kind of green - the kind of green that comes from closing deals with
Wal-Mart and Home Depot, which he just did.

He calls himself a businessman, rather than a scientist.

"It's all business," he says.

It's a classic case of risk and reward. Skazy's risk occurred when he and
his partner took a turn off a pretty fast track to go for it.

"The real trick was just dropping out of school and building it in a really
big way and that's just what we did," he says.

But they weren't just dropping out of any school.

"No, we were dropping out of Princeton," says Skazy.

Imagine your son telling you he was quitting Princeton to corner the market
on worm poop.

"It's just something where you can make a lot of money in the process but
smile while you're doing it cause you're doing a good thing all the way
around," he says.

Skazy's story is a reminder about following your dreams. The pot of gold ma=
y
require dealing with a ton of crap.


C MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.












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Received on Thu Dec 30 2004 - 11:34:26 EST

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