Enjoy Your Meal!

What: Oral-care products made from recycled plastics
Who: Eric Hudson of Recycline Inc.
Where: Somerville, Massachusetts
When: Started in 1996

eric hudson always knew he wanted to start an environmentally friendly business. So when he first noticed an apparent rise in consumer interest in recycling-yet few compelling products made from recycled materials-he decided to do something about it.

After raising $300,000 in equity capital, he established an expert dental panel to help him design a toothbrush made entirely from recycled materials. His Preserve brand of oral-care products launched a year later in 1997. Today, the line includes an adult toothbrush, a kid's toothbrush and a tongue cleaner.

"[My motivation] is becoming a an innovative and ground-breaking consumer products company that delivers [items] to consumers that they use not only [for practical purposes], but also to preserve our resources on earth," says Hudson, 40.

The environmentally sound products, which are sold in Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Wild Oats stores nationwide, sell for $2.79 to $3.95. Sales are poised to reach $1 million by the end of this year, now that Recycline is in the process of introducing the Preserve line in general grocery and drugstores.

Recycline has partnered with numerous corporations and uses those companies' pre- and post-consumer waste, as well as any post-industrial scraps generated on production lines, to make the Preserve products. It's an effort Hudson hopes to expand in the future: "We are starting a services division where we help companies develop waste-reduction systems and source recycled materials."

Contact Sources

• Agoraphone
  www.agoraphone.com
• Recycline Inc.
  www.recycline.com
• Peanut Butter & Ellie's LLC
  (503) 282-1783, www.peanutbutterellies.com

This article was originally published in the December 2002 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Enjoy Your Meal!.