When former prosecutor Anna Minns decided she wanted to pursue an environmental career, she started a Master of Environmental Law. Turns out the blog she launched while taking time out to care for her younger children was a greater asset for making the connections she needed to get started.
Add to that volunteering for an international environmental organisation that boasts a ‘triple bottom’ line, and Minns has got the environmental career – one that’s now seeing her head up the Australian operations of TerraCycle, a company that partners with large brands like Pepsi and Colgate to create new products from ‘unrecyclables’ – throwaway items like chip packets, cigarette butts and empty toothpaste containers
It’s all a long way from her previous life as a criminal lawyer with the Department of Public Prosecutions. She’s now a General Manager, leading an organisation locally on everything from relationship building to hiring staff, establishing manufacturing operations and collection drives.
So how did she do it?
The catch was that for the US-based TerraCycle to pay a general manager in a new market, it needed a local brand to partner with. Minns jumped at the opportunity, working for free for a number of months before signing up the first client.
“They said come and work in our office for six months,” she says. “If you can get the business going in Australia, then you can run our operations there. They sent me back to Australia to do a week of meetings which I had to get myself.”
Minns launched Terracyle in New Zealand in 2013, and officially in Australia on Clean Up Australia Day earlier this year.
The blog that got it all started was Daily Lime, a crowd-funded site offering daily tips on how to live a greener lifestyle. Minns raised $5000 to get the site up and running through Pozible, and managed to have ‘guest writers’ including Kevin Rudd and Julie Goodwin share their own advice on how to be more environmentally friendly. “It’s amazing what people will do for you if you just ask,” she says.
Writing an entry on cigarette recycling one day while living in Princeton, US, where her husband was studying at the time, Minns learnt about Terracyle. She knew she wanted to be involved, so emailed to mention her interest. Within days she was heading in to meet the founder and told the company had been searching for the right person to enter the Australian market for some time.
Working for free wasn’t a tough decision, Minns explains, especially with the backing of her husband who was ready to support her career once he’d finished his studies. Now back in Australia, he works from home while caring for their two young children.
What was tough was starting a career far removed from her previous experience in law. She quickly found herself deep in the world of relationships management, a form of work requiring significant persistence, passion and patience.
“It’s been the steepest learning curve because I don’t have a business background. I was just willing to give it a go,” she says. “The job has already completely changed [from originally centering solely on relationship building] It’s now moving into being about managing staff, so the challenges are changing. It’s also about finding processes. And while I don’t have a background in materials science, or marketing, PR, or account management, I’m learning.”
TerraCyle is currently working with Nespresso, Colgate, Nature’s Organics and a conglomerate of the tobacco industry to organise collection drives of ‘unrecyclables’ and develop them into new materials and products.
“At the moment, everything’s technically recycling, what makes something recyclable or not is not to do with the material of the item but what is economical,” explains Minns on how TerraCyle works with brands to determine new uses for what would have previously become landfill.
“We consider ourselves a social business, a for profit business with a triple bottom line. The first priority is planet, then people – we donate money through the collections – for example we donate $2 a kilo for cigarette butts – and finally profit. But we only maintain profit at about 1%.”
Minns still hasn’t finished her masters degree. You don’t always need a piece of paper to pursue work you’re passionate about – but rather the time and commitment to make it happen.