What works:

I always love a good story of true success.  This is the story of a college dropout.  From Princeton no less.  In 2001, Tom Szaky was visiting friends and saw their worm composter.  Fascinated, he decided to see what he could do with the concept.  He got food waste from the cafeterias at Princeton.  He spent some money on worms. He went through trash cans all over campus and collected pop bottles. He had his start.  After three years of Tom sleeping on the office floor and working tirelessly searching for startup capital, things have begun too take off.

The worms are fed a secret mix of food wastes and coffee grounds with waste paper.  The worms' castings (poop) are mixed with water to create the liquid fertilizer.  The fertilizer is put into the reused pop bottles.  Spray heads (overruns from another company) are added.  Product is packed in cardboard boxes that are misprints and overruns from another company.  Virtually everything that goes into the product is garbage that would otherwise end up in the landfill or the ocean.  Today you can buy Tom's TerraCycle fertilizer at Wall mart, Home Depot, and Target. Terracycle has branched out to a wide range of fertilizer products for different types of plants, plant pots (painted used yogurt cups) filled with the dried remains of the worm operation, and even tote bags made from drink pouches.  Schools all over the country have signed up for TerraCycle's fund raiser programs in which they collect pop bottles, yogurt cups, or drink pouches, and send them to TerraCycle for cash.  TerraCycle is located in Trenton NJ and hires homeless, ex-con, and other workers who are low on the totem pole.  They now have branches in Toronto and Atlanta.

This is a win-win-win situation. Who does not win is a company like Miracle Grow which has sued TerraCycle for claiming that their product is better, and that it looks too simlar and will confuse Miracle Grow's loyal customers.  I think Miracle Grow's claim is weak, and I doubt any judge would find in their favor.

I just love a story of true success.