It's a whole new world for trash

Data by the World Bank states that only 19% of waste worldwide is currently recycled, while 37% goes to landfills. The figures are even more dramatic for lower-income countries, where 93% of waste is simply dumped somewhere. Additionally, a study by the World Bank also found that solid waste management represents a very large expenditure item for cities, making up for nearly 20% of municipal budgets in low-income countries, more than 10% in middle-income countries, and 4% in high-income countries, but budgets can be much higher in some instances. The cost per tonne of systems with more advanced approaches for waste treatment and recycling ranges between $50 to $100. This shows that waste management is not only an obvious environmental problem but also a financial one. Additionally, in February 2018, China also enacted National Sword, a new policy banning 24 types of recyclable materials from import, putting Western countries under even more pressure to find better solutions that do not include shipping the waste abroad.

Experts have identified three major working areas required to end waste: First, waste needs to be “designed out” from products and materials. Second, the lifespan of products needs to be extended. Third, waste needs to be composted and introduced in other regenerative systems.

A US company named Rubicon has made it its mission to end waste accumulation by mainly working on the third point. Founded in Atlanta in 2008, it has been a certified B Corporation since 2012. Today, Rubicon is a worldwide leader in providing cloud-based waste and recycling solutions. This way, they use technology and a market-based approach to help their partners find economic value in their waste streams and deliver on their sustainability goals. The economic advantage of their services is in fact a major selling point. Rubicon claims that their services will make waste management less time-consuming and perhaps even find a new revenue stream in remarketing commodities that were previously discarded. With their suite of SaaS (software as a service, meaning cloud-based software services) products for waste, recycling, and smart city solutions they have clients in the private, public and non-profit sector.

Much of their growth has come among businesses using Rubicon as something of an Uber for trash to find cheaper hauling rates and schedule pickups on a frequency more aligned with their waste accumulation. Connected to this waste pick-up is their offer of software, which enables clients to manage waste streams across multiple locations and have more accurate sustainability reporting. Much of this can also be managed from the Rubicon app. Although this is not stated explicitly, in my opinion having an app is not only convenient but also encourages Rubicon's clients to be more actively involved in their own waste management, since they can check it all the time.

According to their 2019 ESG report, Rubicon for instance partnered up with the restaurant chain Chipotle to divert more of their recyclables from ending up in landfills. Another example is their work with consumer electronics retail giant Best Buy. A pilot project in the Denver market helped those Best Buy locations to monitor better when trash needed be picked up, reducing hauling fees by 30% while increasing tons per haul by 18%, resulting in a clearly more efficient trash management. Other partners are well-known corporations like Starbucks and 7-Eleven, but also churches, healthcare firms and others!

Personally, I am very passionate about technological solutions that help tackle significant sustainability issues, and I believe that the very wide range of Rubicon's solutions goes in a very positive direction. Crucially, I think that by subscribing to this service, clients will have a much better idea of their waste and thus be in a better position to reduce and recycle it.

What is the impact of this?

• Currently, Rubicon has 2.7 million user locations in 50 cities across the US.

• Many of its solutions are made to include small businesses, which represent 90% of its more than 5.000 different vendors.

• Their impact, as shown in the examples earlier, mostly happens through its customers, so naturally, it varies a lot, but the one thing they all have in common is of course the waste that is diverted from landfills and is composted, recycled or repurposed.

What can you do?

• In case you would like to learn more, check out an interview with the company's sustainability officers David Rachelson here.

• If you happen to know a small business in the US, perhaps you could make them check out Rubicon to see if there is potential to manage their waste better.

• And of course, share this article and follow us on social media!