
A Startup Just Got $30M to Shake Up the Garbage Industry - JSeymourATL
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/rubicon-global/
======
Animats
_Rubicon has created a virtual marketplace where thousands of small, local
haulers can bid on portions of huge national contracts._

In other words, it's like Uber - a scheme for getting more work out of low-
paid employees.

My own garbage goes out in two wheeled bins - a large one for recyclables, and
a small one for trash. Those are picked up by a robotic arm on the trash and
recycling trucks. The recycling goes to a large automated sorting center,
where DC magnets pull out ferrous metals, AC magnets pull out aluminum, and
air and water flotation pulls out paper and plastics. The garbage trucks go to
a transfer station where garbage is compressed and sent to a big landfill
about 30 miles away. The older landfills nearby are now parks. That open space
behind Google HQ used to be a landfill. For a decade or two, new landfill
sections are piped for methane, which is used to power generators. The older
landfills have completed decaying and the generators have been removed.

It's all heavy machinery, automation, and centralization. Works fine.

~~~
benihana
> _In other words, it 's like Uber - a scheme for getting more work out of
> low-paid employees._

I refuse to use Uber (and don't need to living in New York City) and from what
I've read about the founders, they're scumbags. But what a cynical and dim
view of the world to think that Uber is just a 'scheme' to exploit people.

>It's all heavy machinery, automation, and centralization. Works fine.

Pack it up guys. Someone on Hacker News has figured it out. Everything
relating to garbage is working fine everywhere for everyone. We clearly have
no room to improve, cause ya know, it works fine.

It may surprise you to learn this, but not everyone exists in the same
situation as you. Here's [1] a picture I took of a not abnormal trash day in
Brooklyn. The woman in the picture is about 5'4".

1\. [http://i.imgur.com/jt461hG.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/jt461hG.jpg)

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notjustanymike
Seriously? They didn't go with "clean up the garbage industry". Missed
opportunity Wired.. I'm disappointed.

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jbob2000
Good luck, the garbage industry has lots of participation from organized crime
and they are 100% not interested being shaken up.

~~~
justizin
My initial reaction, I have to admit, was roughly yours.

I read on, hoping to find some kind of innovative notion, some x factor that
would be a real game changer, annnnd I smacked right up into this:

"Founded by Morris and Lane Moore in 2008, Rubicon has created a virtual
marketplace where thousands of small, local haulers can bid on portions of
huge national contracts. This fosters competition between haulers, driving
down the price of service."

Sure, people who use their own private vehicles to haul trash and recycling
for a living are going to love taking portions of national contracts away from
union workers with benefits and company vehicles, for about five minutes.

How many of these workers will live in their hauling vehicles?

~~~
scott_karana
"Local haulers" implies, to me, local industry professionals who would prefer
not to work for the Big Two.

I didn't interpret it as "Uber for Trash", people lugging banana peels and
coffee grinds in their Civics.

~~~
trhway
>people lugging banana peels and coffee grinds in their Civics.

if i remember correctly, this is exactly the year when people will be feeding
the banana peels into the fusion generators in their Civics.

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jeddawson
I’ve having a hard time figuring out how this is actually going to be any
different than the existing “brokerage” services that are common in the solid
waste industry. I really hope I’m wrong because this industry is ready for an
operational overhaul and I would love someone from Rubicon to jump in here and
point out where they are different.

Waste Management purchased one of the largest solid waste brokers in the
nation (OakLeaf) in 2011 [1] and through that acquisition now brokers sold
waste and recycling collection services to smaller collection companies across
the nation. Large national brands like those mentioned sub out the management
of collection contracts for their individual location’s waste services to
Waste Management’s brokerage division. This sounds just like the business
model described for Rubicon.

One of their primary claims that I’m having a hard time with is the claim that
current haulers just want to landfill material because that’s the most cost
effective disposal method. I’m in a unique position to say most of my clients
(private haulers) are not solely looking to landfill material. They’re already
trying very hard to extract extra value for the materials they collection so
they’ll be more competitive when bidding. Some of them own landfills. Some of
them don’t. Most of them landfill material as a last resort.

I absolutely believe there is opportunity here and hope Rubicon’s
distinguishing characteristics were simply missing from this article or
somehow under represented.

Also, I’m thrilled that HN has a post about garbage mixed with technology.
That’s a combo that I’m incredibly passionate about and love the opportunity
to get this community more involved in.

[1]:
[http://www.wm.com/documents/pdfs/oakleaf.pdf](http://www.wm.com/documents/pdfs/oakleaf.pdf)

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classicsnoot
I currently live in/operate from a minivan, so waste for me is a smaller
version of the waste problem on the ISS or in a small, rural community.
Namely, do I haul or burn. I decided to sort and haul with extreme prejudice.

Before I took off on my hacker tourism trip I was living in a suburban
McMansion. The house was large and empty; my roommate was a recent divorcé
whose kids had all moved out. We were both meticulous recyclers, and I sort
all organic waste out of the trash and into the earth (a brief aside: I put it
all into the ground. Many in the gardening world say this is bad; i disagree
because nitrogen.). The net effect was a full recycle bin (two wheel standing
bin) once a week and a half full rubbish bin (same design) once a month.

I believe that the key to reducing landfills and capturing trapped/wasted raw
materials is an at-home solution. Maybe a sorting and storage device that can
be picked up. This concept would be similar to the 2-way power scheme some
energy providers use with solar supplement customers.

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yitchelle
Just want to share a personal anecdote. My dad, when he was in his 40s and
50s, use to dig a big hole in his backyard every second autumn. This is his
landfill where he puts all the biodegradable material from his household and
his garden. This includes the autumn leaves, kitchen waste and lawns cuttings.
Now his plants and flowers that are growing on top of it are thriving and
looks great.

I guess these were the days the local councils were less concern on what we
were putting into the environment. Nowadays, I won't be surprise if he would
get a big fine for doing this.

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iwonagr
There is another start-up that tries to tackle the topic of Garbage Management
based on data. It's really cool how they are trying to set up a system for
smart garbage collection. I saw them present at Slush14 Conference last
November in Helsinki. [http://www.enevo.com/](http://www.enevo.com/)

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Zigurd
This is a very likable story. No "sharing" happy horseshit. Disrupting a
business that needs it.

My main questions would be whether they can get past their basic idea of
aggregating small trash haulers' bids and services. The green tech angle is
shiny but will it matter? It has only a tenuous connection to their go to
market strategy.

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mhb
A Better Way to Take Out the Garbage?

[http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/a-better-way-
to-t...](http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/a-better-way-to-take-out-
the-garbage)

------
mr__p
The trash business is a goldmine.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HlFKfSS410&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HlFKfSS410&feature=youtu.be&t=1m8s)

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underwires
Lots of garbage companies already do this, particularly in SF, Palo Alto, and
Portland

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comrade1
Garbage collection should not be private enterprise. It is a public service.
If you've ever lived in Cambridge MA you can see just how bad it is when it's
run by private companies competing with each other - garbage trucks of
multiple companies everywhere blocking the streets, stinking up neighborhoods
with their exhaust, constant noise...

~~~
icebraining
That's a problem with a particular model, not with privatization in general
(e.g. you could simply contract with a single company per city division,
instead of having overlapping service, and if they're noisier or dirtier than
public trucks, that's just incompetence of whoever drafted the contract).

~~~
prawn
I agree, and I'm someone who usually favours a non-privatised approach for
utilities. In my council area, the refuse collection is contracted out (to one
supplier for the region) and it seems reasonably efficient. Truck goes past at
the same time each week, never have a problem.

This covers bins for general waste, green waste and recycling. There is also
an annual on-demand service for heavy waste (e.g., whitegoods, furniture)
handled by a contractor. Council points me to the contractor, I make the
request and get a date to put out my two cubic metres of junk. Works well
enough.

