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An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

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Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#21

Post by Consultant32452 »

jelder wrote: post #5

This is great but what if, hold on, we paid taxes.

In spite of having tax funded garbage collection I often have trouble getting rid of certain things. Large items are collected infrequently and I might not want that sitting in my yard for a week or more awaiting pickup. Similarly, car batteries or other things that have special disposal rules can be difficult to find that information easily when it's something you deal with very infrequently. A service like this could help with that and I'd be happy to pay someone a few bucks to solve this problem for me.

Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#23

Post by Shivetya »

dexterp wrote: post #4

Don't most cities already provide garbage pick-up?

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

Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#24

Post by spapas82 »

pmalynin wrote: post #17
t0mbstone wrote: post #10

Startup ideas inspired by Always Sunny in Philadelphia? http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/The_Gang_Recycles_Their... What's next? An Uber-like service that will deliver gasoline directly to your car that is parked in your driveway? Hmm... Come to think of it, that would actually be pretty sweet. I would never have to stop and fill up my gas tank! It would just always be full! A gas delivery truck would come in the…

http://www.filld.com/

There are more similar start ups: http://www.wefuel.com

Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#25

Post by sbov »

blhack wrote: post #12

I can see at least one consumer use for this. When we clean out the garage, my girlfriend and I rent a uhaul truck to take everything to the dump/goodwill/storage. If I could use this service to just have somebody show up with a truck and pick up the things we want to throw away, it would be really helpful.

1-800-got-junk?

Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#26

Post by dullgiulio »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #21
jelder wrote: post #5

This is great but what if, hold on, we paid taxes.

In spite of having tax funded garbage collection I often have trouble getting rid of certain things. Large items are collected infrequently and I might not want that sitting in my yard for a week or more awaiting pickup. Similarly, car batteries or other things that have special disposal rules can be difficult to find that information easily when it's something you deal with very infrequently. A service like this cou…

It really is bad government. The city council should make a tender and have the local utility come and collect big items for free. That's how it works in the European city I come from. And the utility taxes are all but high.

Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#27

Post by santaclaus »

sputknick wrote: post #11

I want this for residential. Instead of having a "trash day" I wait until my garbage can is full, click a button on my app, and tomorrow morning someone comes and picks up my trash.

No need for a button -- add pressure sensors inside the trash can and it can signal the garbage person for you.

Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#28

Post by duncan_bayne »

jelder wrote: post #5

This is great but what if, hold on, we paid taxes.

Wouldn't it be better if we were allowed to interact voluntarily? Pay for what we wanted and used, and support people and causes through charity instead of under duress?

Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#29

Post by rpedela »

dexterp wrote: post #4

Don't most cities already provide garbage pick-up?

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.

Re: An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Series A funding

#30

Post by NDizzle »

zem wrote: post #14
dexterp wrote: post #4

Don't most cities already provide garbage pick-up?

i think the "on-demand" bit is key here. sometimes you really want something taken away on your schedule, not the city's.

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.

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