Innovate or Die: How the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain Will Disrupt the Waste Industry

Published in

Golden Age Advocacy

9 min readJul 16, 2019

The “waste” industry by design, is based on inefficiency. Many in the industry are not aware of this reality, and they — and their companies — will soon be irrelevant. The “waste” mentality has been replaced by the understanding that discards are resources that can be mined for profit. Those who know about this paradigm shift are aware that the old way of dumping trash in a landfill is equivalent to burying money in a large hole.

Welcome to the resource economy.

Waste is now called resources; trash is now discards. The old “waste” industry is to the new resource industry as taxi cabs are to Uber.

In this paper, we will explain why so many changes are happening in the industry, and we will explain the best solutions for these problems.

Overview:

Each year there are $50 billion worth of assets that are discarded in landfills; Garbitrage Technologies (TM) will arrange for the recover and resell of such assets. A reported $218 billion worth of food is grown and transported but then discarded every year in the United States. Garbitrage Technologies will tackle the food waste challenge; we will provide the structure for it to be sold as compost or donated to the hungry for a tax deduction.

We have designed a Zero Waste system that prevents fraud and lowers costs for the waste industry and businesses. Garbitrage Technologies achieves these benefits by offering distributed ledger technology that rewards participation in our system with credits backed by resources we divert from the landfill.

The Details:

Current market indicators point to a disruptive overhaul of the waste industry where technology-based customer convenience, dumpster optimization, and public distribution of reusable materials are setting the new standard in resource management. For example, Rubicon Global provides innovative, digitized peer-to-peer hauling services to not only remove discards from a variety of sites, but deliver them to local businesses for reuse and recycling. Money talks as Rubicon, considered the “Uber of Trash”, was recently funded for $50 million by venture capitalists. After this new round of funding, the “unicorn” received a post evaluation climb of $1 billion.

It is now a race to see who can stay ahead of the curve. Through the integration of our technology, waste companies can stay relevant instead of falling behind innovative companies like Rubicon. Garbitrage Technologies helps waste companies increase their competitive edge with a strategy that incorporates a mobile app, digital credit (rewards system), a distributed ledger and Internet of Things-enhanced smart products.

Businesses, material upcyclers and municipalities also have the opportunity to benefit by participating and/or investing in our closed, private system.

Current problems

Paying to Waste (Businesses, Municipalities and Waste Haulers)

In the United States, we are paying $50 to $70 billion dollars annually to transport and bury resources in landfills or burn them. There are more responsible and profitable methods of dealing with discards. Innovative businesses like Apple do not throw away things as quickly as many less efficient businesses; they profit by reusing parts in new products. The Garbitrage Technologies system provides motivation for businesses to employ the Zero Waste strategies that make Apple an efficient and profitable company.

In addition to throwing away perfectly good metals, plastics and wood that should be reused, we also throw away too much food. For example, in his article “How the US Manages to Waste $165 Billion in Food Each Year”, Brad Plumer describes how over 40% of food in America either spoils or is discarded. Grocery stores are estimated to dispose of about $15 billion worth of unsold fruits and vegetables in landfills annually. Only about 3% of food waste is composted, while the rest creates about 23% of the methane gases emitted from landfills.

Commodities Market for Materials Fluctuates Widely

There is a problem with a flood of recyclable materials into the market while there is not a big customer demand for products manufactured from recycled materials. This drives the financial value of recycled materials down and discourages the use of recycled materials in manufacturing.

Consistent supply of raw materials that can meet businesses’ supply/demand needs at a competitive rate will help even out the ebb and flow of the commodities market for recyclable goods.

Municipalities rely on a strong recycled materials market to drive revenue streams from each recycling category. When the materials market is weak, municipalities have less motivation to encourage recycling initiatives.

Centralized data is vulnerable to Downtime, Censorship, Fraud, and Third Party Interference

Historically, waste hauling industries have kept data proprietary. Any data collection and storage has been centralized, making information such as customer identity and credit card numbers susceptible to digital hacking, weather disasters, and other calamitous events.

Fuel and transportation costs/CO2 emissions

Municipalities are running out of landfill space and are paying big dollars to transport and ship discards to other cities and, sometimes, overseas. Waste hauling companies spend a significant amount of their budget on hauling equipment maintenance and fuel. Creating more efficient routes that distribute discards to local businesses for reuse or recycling would dramatically increase savings for waste haulers while significantly decreasing CO2 emissions.

Businesses Are Inefficient and Wasting Resources

Businesses are paying to throw all of their discards into a single dumpster. Many times dumpster sizes are too small and pickups are too infrequent. The resulting overflow causes offensive odors and attracts pests such as insects and rodents. Oftentimes, a large percentage of the discards could have been reduced, reused, or recycled by local businesses.

Other businesses pay for dumpsters that they don’t fill. Savings would be possible if they had the right size containers emptied “on demand” only when full.

Recyclers/ Haulers Need More Clients and Sales

Last year Garbitrage Technologies interviewed waste haulers and businesses to find out about their needs and problems. Every hauling company we interviewed expressed the need to increase sales and profits by gaining more clients and new market share. Hauling companies need to stay competitive by finding innovative ways to market their services and providing new products and services to meet public demand. Additionally, another big problem hauling companies face is getting paid on time (or at all) for their services.

Solutions

Our products and services solve these problems, offering solutions to waste haulers, and businesses with waste disposal needs.

Our Dapp: On Demand Point to Point Resourcery:

We of SMART hauling powered by our mobile app and Internet-of-Things smart devices. Instead of throwing all discards into a standard-size dumpster and paying money to have it hauled off to a landfill, businesses can sort out their discards into corresponding smart containers. Our smart containers will initiate a “smart haul call” when full, auctioning the pick-up to participating waste haulers. Dumpsters and waste haulers’ trucks will be fitted with our smart devices.

Participating waste haulers will have the opportunity to reach more customers through such smart container auctions.

Our system will lower businesses’ waste disposal costs by monitoring waste levels and notifying the waste haulers only to empty the containers when there is the need. Service cycles and container size can be optimized for the greatest costs savings.

Additionally, our smart devices will retain the data to prove their performance in meeting Zero Waste goals and certifications, as well as providing data for sustainability reports and internal efficiency audits.

2. Distributed Ledger of Information & Payments

Emerging technology will allow Garbitrage Technologies to catalyze new collaboration models along with a distributed ledger (blockchain technology) of information and payments, causing the disruption of traditional waste management practices. Hussein Dia explains in his article “ How Blockchain Will Transform Our Cities” that this technology is so effective because it utilizes resources that already exist but allows one to capitalize on multi-dimensional functionality to create new revenue streams. This technology allows for secure, “trustless” transactions.

3. SAVE Reward Credits

When businesses sort reusable or recyclable items into the proper containers instead of sending them to the landfill, the Garbitrage Technologies rewards them with credits. These credits can then be used to pay for products or services within the ecosystem or converted into cash. This reward system offers motivation for reuse, recycling, and composting, stabilizing the recyclable materials commodities market, reducing landfill space problems, and making a valuable product out of food waste.

ZERO WASTE PROTOCOL BENEFITS FOR WASTE HAULERS:

Stay relevant and don’t get disrupted
Get on-demand clients
Automated and streamlined billing
Better DATA that is more secure
Lower overhead
Decrease churn and bad debt
Extend the life of landfills
Lower contamination rates
Improve Safety

Smart Dumpster Prototype, Collide Village IOT Hackathon, Addison, TX (2nd Place Winner)

ZERO WASTE PROTOCOL BENEFITS FOR MATERIALS UPCYCLERS:

Buy and Sell locally with automated transactions
Increased value for your materials
Bring (re) Manufacturing back to the USA
Increase efficiency and profits

ZERO WASTE PROTOCOL BENEFITS FOR BUSINESSES:

Better PR and Marketing edge
Gain marketshare by proving you are a “green” company
Earn reward credits for being good steward
Supply Chain Insight to where your discards go
Transactions are cheaper than traditional bank
Information is encrypted for security

ZERO WASTE PROTOCOL BENEFITS FOR MUNICIPALITIES:

Comprehensive data reports for Zero Waste BETA Cities
Solves landfill space issues
Increased participation in city recycling and Zero Waste initiatives

ZERO WASTE PROTOCOL BENEFITS FOR EVERYONE:

Lower carbon
Healthier earth
Better economy

About Our Team

We are developing the business model and the technology that will make Zero Waste politically and economically feasible. Our team is comprised of top sustainability and Zero Waste leaders, advisors, and business owners providing a diverse wealth of knowledge and expertise in the field. Our first dollars were generated training local waste managers for the government. Garbitrage Technologies is fluent and experienced with local, state, and national diversion laws and policy changes. We are also a certified B-corp (For Benefit) meaning that we make profits by doing the right thing, committing to the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit, ensuring everything we do benefits our community and environment.

Landfill replacements will eventually happen called: Resource Recovery Parks

References

Plumer, B. “How the U.S. Manages to Waste $165 Billion in Food Each Year.” The Washington Post (Accessed December, 7th 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/08/22/how-food-actually-gets-wasted-in-the-united-states/

Johnston, D., et al. “The General Theory of Decentralized Applications, Dapps” Github (Accessed December, 7th 2016)

https://github.com/DavidJohnstonCEO/DecentralizedApplications/blob/master/README.md

Johnston, D., et al. “The Value of App Coins” Github (Accessed December, 7th 2016)

https://github.com/DavidJohnstonCEO/TheValueofAppCoins

Hussein, D. “How Blockchain Will Transform Our Cities” The Conversation (Accessed December, 15th 2016) http://theconversation.com/how-blockchain-will-transform-our-cities-69561

McKenzie-Mohr, D. “Fostering Sustainable Behavior” Community-Based Social Marketing (Accessed December, 7th 2016) http://www.cbsm.com/pages/guide/fostering-sustainable-behavior/

InfoMine Inc. “Aluminum Prices and Aluminum Price Charts” InfoMine Investment Mine (Accessed December, 7th 2016) http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/aluminum/

Recycler’s World. “Baled Waste Paper Exchange Listings” Recycler’s World (Accessed December, 7th 2016) http://www.recycle.net/Paper/waste/xv120600.html

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http://archive.grrn.org/zerowaste/twelve_categories.html

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