Turning HP printers into hip flower pots

OK, this seems like totally the wrong time of year for this post, given that my husband and I just stashed all our gardening equipment for the winter. But, if you’re the kind of person who thinks about landscaping all year around regardless of your home climate, you might want to check out a company called TerraCycle.

Founded by Princeton University dropout Tom Szaky, Terracycle is into the idea of what Szaky calls “sponsored waste,” or (more simply) the notion that there are better ways to get rid of what would normally be considered garbage. The company’s best-known product is a plant food made, basically out of worm poop.

Now, Terracycle is getting ready to release the Urban Art Flower Pot line, which is made entirely out of mixed plastics and rubber waste.

(Here's a design that the company dubs Freestyle.)

Specifically, the stuff that goes into making the pots is from Hewlett-Packard tech products, according to Szaky. The eight-inch pots (which will initially be sold at Home Depot for $8 starting in January) are painted by graffiti artists that Terracycle hired within the urban enterprise zone near its headquarters in Trenton, N.J. “HP challenged us to help find a more creative way to get rid of its mixed plastics waste,” Szaky says.

Terracycle is also working on a trash can that it figures will appeal to college students. That product will hit stories in mid-2008.