Eric Hudson is the founder and CEO of Recycline, an 11-year-old company that manufactures the Preserve brand of toothbrushes, tongue cleaners, razors, and disposable tableware. What makes Recycline unique is that it does so using recycled yogurt cups, which it collects from partners such as Stonyfield Farm.

Hudson, 44, started the company after deciding that the Earth's resources should be a priority in his life and business practices, while a history of good oral hygiene gave him the product he needed-a toothbrush-which, he had felt since his teens, was in need of a design overhaul. Though he says the green lightbulb went on for him only in his late 20s, Hudson now bikes 22 miles to work (each way) and strains restaurant grease in his basement to turn into car fuel. Whom would he choose to share a ride with in that greased-up vehicle? One of Preserve's celebrity fans, of course. Hudson talked to Blue Egg about how an MBA, a concern for the Earth's resources, and a finicky dentist helped him go green.

How did you get started with Recycline?
I went to Babson's MBA program, which was instrumental. It gives you the confidence to go out on your own and start a business. I had an interest to start a business that placed an emphasis on respecting Earth's resources.

Recycling was a key area. I realized it was just as easy to chop up and melt down plastic and then make a new part, rather than sending it to a landfill. In addition, the recycling industry was sort of struggling in the early '90s. A lot of the press was going around asking whether these products were really being put to use, and one of the biggest areas that needed help was plastic #5, polypropylene (PP). So I targeted that and thought, The more companies use recycled PP, the more demand there'll be, and the more recycling there will be of those materials in communities. The other side of that was that I thought the 45 percent of consumers who recycle in their homes as part of their normal routine would have an interest in products made from the effort they make toward recycling.

Then I had an idea for a toothbrush. I just had a functional idea. The reverse curve was designed to help people brush the way dentists recommend. I always had a dentist who recommended I brush my teeth in a certain way and didn't feel like the forward-angled toothbrush helped me brush that way. So the reverse curve was a concept that we took to a working group of dental professionals. Then my dad did the industrial design, based on their suggestions from the concept.

When did the green lightbulb first go on for you?
Not until my late 20s, early 30s, did I really start to realize that I wanted to have a more environmentally friendly theme to my life and my business. If I was going to start a company, I wanted to feel good about going to work every day. I thought that reducing humans' impact on the Earth would be the most rewarding for me.

What were you doing before that?
I was working at Fidelity [Investments] for six years.

So not necessarily environmentally friendly stuff.
No, not necessarily environmentally friendly, but not causing harm. Trading stocks. Then I went to business school, and coming out of business school I worked as a consultant. My main focus as a consultant was to help manufacturing in the U.S. And while consulting in the early '90s, I was bent toward: "Ok, let's get the business going, because this isn't that rewarding. There's too much travel, and I'm not seeing the fruits of the labor. There's a lot of design and not a lot of execution as far as helping companies do things more efficiently." The beautiful thing about consulting is that you make decent money and you can take time off. And in my time off, I wrote the business plan.

I've read that you send your products to movie sets in hopes of having them featured on-screen. Is that true?
It's not that proactive. It happens more often that they ask us, and we do it. When people call and say, "We love what you guys are doing, and we'd love to have some of your products. We're doing a movie-can you send us some?" And we do. And that's how we think Will Ferrell found us, but we don't know. We know we got a request for a movie he was starring in. Then, in the movie Stranger than Fiction, he's using our toothbrush.

The toothbrush is a pretty big part of that movie!
I know!

A lot of people complain that you can't recycle yogurt cups because they're made of PP, but you went and created your own solution by using just that. Your website says you have a partnership with Stonyfield Farm.
Yes, we do, and we also have a partnership with Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn [NY]. We collect all of their PP plastics. If you can't find a place to recycle PP in New York City, become a co-op member, and recycle them in Park Slope. It's really neat what people will do on a business-to-business level if the community is not doing it for them. We also work with a couple of other recycling centers around the Northeast.

Do you accept your products back for recycling into plastic lumber?
We do. We provide a postage-paid mailer, or you can print out a return postage-paid form on our website. You can send all of our personal-care products back to us: toothbrushes, razors, tongue cleaners, our packaging. We grind them up and turn them into park benches and porch decks with another company.

And how is that part of the business going?
Well, that's not business really. It's more of a service. We lose money on it, for sure. But it's not designed to make money.

Does it feel good?
Yeah, it feels great! You know, we're taking a yogurt cup, and we're turning it into a toothbrush, taking a used toothbrush and turning it into a park bench. We'd like to continue to create new cycles. We're talking with other companies that have waste that can't be used, so we're looking at sourcing from them as well-whether it's Terracycle, Patagonia, or places like those. There are a lot of examples where one company's waste can become another company's product for sale.

Do you ever hear complaints from folks who just consider this downcycling and don't think it's good enough?
Not necessarily. If you're taking one thing and turning it into two others, it's a hell of a lot better than taking that one thing and putting it in a landfill, and using virgin plastic for the other two. Maybe there's a critic at a trade show here or there, but there's not much to that argument.

Can businesses see green by going green?
Yes. I think that was the big hit on Inc. magazine last fall. The cover page said, "Do good, get rich." I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs who say, "The first part is OK, but I'm not sure the second one is really coming through for me." But we're doing great. We were profitable last year. We're a multimillion-dollar company. The future is very bright. Things seem to be going well. We're excited to continue to find new opportunities to reuse the Earth's resources more efficiently and deliver good products to our customers.

Is there an environmental trend or factoid you find particularly alarming?
I guess the biggest one is the destruction of natural ecosystems for the development of human domiciles and factories, or what have you. Whether it's here in the Northeast or other parts of the U.S. or in the Amazon. It's pretty scary to think how much of the Amazon goes away every day.

Obviously, carbon emissions is something people are really focused on. And I think we're going to make some serious headway there. I think there are some solid solutions that just need to have investment. I was reading the other day about geothermal. It's receiving no investments, but you could spend about $5 million and figure out a way to drill deep enough to develop a boiling-water steam system that would generate enough electricity to really serve a purpose. Think about how powerful that is. It seems to be a solution that is very viable. We can't continue to chop trees down.

What magic power over the environment would you most like to have?
That may be part of the cause of our problem. We think we have too many powers over the environment. Man thinks he can control nature in too many situations, and we can't. We're going to learn the hard way that we can't. Hopefully, we'll be on the recovery track while it's happening, and we'll realize how quickly we need to act.

If it would get you where you need to go, would you prefer to walk, bike, or bus?
I'd have to say bike. I bike to work pretty often, and it's 22 miles each way, so it's no small ride.

What eco-accomplishment are you most proud of?
Starting this company, for sure. My second is my grease-powered car. It runs on recycled grease. So you can basically take kitchen grease from restaurants-which they usually have to pay to get rid of-and you can take that from them for free. I strain it in the basement. I put in my car and drive, and it's cleaner than burning gasoline. It's using something that's bound for the landfill, it's cleaner-burning, and it's free. So it's pretty cool.

What eco-sin are you least proud of?
I had to use-well, I didn't have to use, because you never have to do something-but I used PVC piping in our construction project underneath my new stone porch. I probably could've used clay, but it was probably four times as expensive, and they break. So the default these days is PVC. You say, "Ah, everybody does it." But you should say, "That's one of our problems, and we've got to stop doing that kind of stuff."

We all have something we can't live without. What is the one trade-off you'd really rather not make, no matter how good it is for the environment?
Travel-I love to travel. I have definitely cut down; we probably do half the amount of trips we used to. It's not that hard to do half. We do more vacations around home. But I love to travel, and that's the hard part-flying is dirty. Hopefully, someone like Virgin Atlantic will come up with some way that you can fly green. I mean, we're up there with the sun. Why can't we find some way to tap that without frying ourselves?

Whom would you choose to be your carpool buddy and why?
Either Alicia Silverstone or Will Ferrell. Alicia Silverstone recently emailed me, and she's a Preserve toothbrush user. Will Ferrell because he's funny, and he's also a Preserve toothbrush user.

What's the one easy thing you do for the environment that you wish everyone else would do?
Ride my bike. That's probably the easiest. Turn off lights. Unplug things. Lots of times, you see lights on in the daytime, and you just have to ask, "Why?" You're going to save money and save a little harm to the environment-just turn them off. The other one that's very easy is bringing a bag to the supermarket instead of asking for a new bag each time.

Any books, articles, or websites you would recommend?
On Earth is a magazine put out by the NRDC that not too many people probably know about. There's a book called Flower Children that I'm reading right now that's pretty enjoyable-it's sort of a hippie book. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart is a great book. It's about walking across Afghanistan. It's really good from an adventure standpoint and also gives you an idea of the human aspect of a country that we don't understand.

Related Resources

Related Articles Drawn Conclusions- Maira Kalman Serving up Sustainability- Designer Sarah Cihat Plugging for a Better Car- Felix Kramer See All Related Articles

Related Eco Categories Transportation & Travel How to Guides Top 10s Science & Technology

Topics Gadgets & Products Food Health Saving Money People

Tip of the Day Let the Sunshine In Bag Your Own Potato Chips See All Tips

Glossary Triple bottom line Fiber-reactive dye Radon Bioplastic EnergyGuide label Full Glossary

Site Resources Directory Answers Quizzes