To residents - even in ""socialist"" europe businesses will have to pay, and often have the option of opting out of city waste pickup to private services.
That's what I was thinking.
I'm assuming they go above and beyond what the city may offer.
if you are a company like whole foods - you probably don't want trash sitting around until a city assigned garbage is ready to pick it up in a week. same with hotels, etc.
> I've never noticed this problem at a grocery outlet
I live down the street from a New York City grocery store. Once a week all their boxes and stale groceries wander out onto the sidewalk from where, at convenient times like 5pm or Midnight a garbage truck blocks traffic while making robot-sex sounds. Apparently, private garbage pick-up was axed when Fairways last went bankrupt.
Perhaps outside of the city, but at least in a place like NYC, there isn't room for a dumpster to be sitting around continuously. And the residents wouldn't like it either.
As others have noted the types of services vary widely by region and jurisdiction. Some have exclusive contracts with a single hauler to provide residential and commercial collection. Some have their own gov owned/operated fleet. Some contract for residential and let commercial have an open market.
The wild variety of situations means that large companies don't want to have to wade through all the possibilities at each of their locations and instead hire a broker to manage their waste at all sites. The broker then works out how to get them service everywhere and uses their domain knowledge to get a decent price from the hauler where negotiation is possible.
It appears to me that these guys are a Broker++ since they are building meaningful relationships with the haulers that service their customers. As they say in the article they have two customers (the waste producer, and the waste hauler). This is definitely a departure from the typical broker that treat the haulers poorly (delaying payments, short paying, never paying, ridiculous requirements, etc for the haulers). I can see it working out really well for them if haulers are comfortable letting this company inject themselves into their trucks via an app.
FYI - I work in the industry writing software for independent waste haulers. Before that I operated my family's waste hauling operation in CA. We offered 1x week residential and up to 6x per week commercial collection as part of an exclusive contract with the City. Our customers paid us directly but that's not always the case with city contracts.
Yes and no. My garbage company will only pick up anything that fits in our issued garbage bins. We can make an appointment for larger items, like an old couch, picked up for an extra fee. But in that case there isn't much difference except the Uber for garbage would be faster/easier to use. In addition as others have pointed out, businesses usually have to set up their own contracts.
seeing that they are in Atlanta I can only offer my experience living in the metro area. Suburban pickup is a multitude of private haulers, some with full size trucks and others running the mini style. There are even some non traditional haulers. Combine with all the custom haulers; leave dumpsters on site, pick up and haul on demand, etc, so there is certainly a market.
two dumps near me serve all these haulers and from just talking to a few to reading their websites many have government contracts as well. the local schools have branded dumpsters!
reading the article the one service which looks cool is giving customers assurance of where their waste goes so that they in turn can use this as a halo effect when getting customers for their own service. plus if you could effectively track and route specific types of recyclables surely there is profit in it
Yes, however for example I live in an unincorporated area and have to either contract my own trash removal, or haul it myself to a county trash site and pay by the bag to throw it away.
I pay about $25/month for weekly pickup. Some weeks I have less trash and could skip the pickup, but that doesn't save me any money. Some weeks I forget to set it out for pickup on the designated day and I have to wait until the next week.
If I could get my trash picked up on demand whenever I have a full bin that would be something I'd seriously look at. I think it's a great idea.
Unfortunately I think it would end up being more expensive. No way ad-hoc pickup out in a rural area is going to be cheaper than a truck sweeping through the area once a week and servicing all the houses on one trip.
I think most people would be surprised to learn what their city actually provides.
For example, my waste service will drop off a dumpster for your use for up to a week. They'll do that, for free, twice a year. I've never seen anyone else on my street use this service, but I have several times.
They'll also do electronic recycling (call and they'll tell you when they can pick it up) and the same for massive piles of lawn clippings. I also make use of the lawn clippings pick up yearly, when I'm doing major work on the yard.
It really depends on the city, and even where in the city. At my last house, I had to contract my own waste service of my choice. When I moved, the erm, 'subcity', if that's a word, provides it as a perk.
