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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

#271

Post by dwaltrip »

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #264
dwaltrip wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governments are a default state produced by groups of humans. They are inevitable. Making them better is incredibly hard work, but that is the only option. Often times, they are improved by working outside the system itself, it seems. So there are some interesting options for tackling this hard problem. The company mentioned in the article may turn out to be a great example of this. Governments do come in many forms,…

>However, the ancap vision of no government and everything done by "voluntary" contract has no meaningful basis in reality at this point What about tribal societies?

I'm talking about larger groups of humans. Things are very different when you have only a few hundred humans or less. Dunbar's number[1] is an important factor here.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

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

#272

Post by kwhitefoot »

rurp wrote: post #171
mtanski wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's lots of reasons that you have beyond the normal amount of garbage or difficult to deal with garbage. It's really hard to get it removed if you need it on a short notice. A lot of municipalities have limits refuse. For example in NYC you can no longer get rid of electronics in the regular trash. You're supposed to take them to a place that can deal with it. Fair enough. The problem is that there aren't many pl…

I have had good luck getting rid of old things by posting them for free on Craigslist and leaving them outside. If it's at all usable someone usually comes by within an hour or two.

Freecycle works pretty well too.

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

#273

Post by baybal2 »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #244
catmanjan wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even so, they have to pay their own fuel costs...

I meant number of vehicles per physical location. Delivering to a bunch of vehicles on one street or hitting a bunch of vehicles in one lot/garage is better than one fill per location. It seems like they shouldn't be targeting consumers except as a means to target small businesses and municipal fleets. Modern fuel pumps are slow compared to the old ones. (Seriously, if you stop at a gas station with the old style pum…

Some do intentionally limit the pump power to make refills take longer and increase chance of you buying overpriced snacks on the station

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

#274

Post by ingenuous2 »

zo1 wrote: post #270
ingenuous2 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that resolve? If I pay 0% to the military, but the US gets a favorable trade deal b/c theyre worried for invasion, do I get the reward without any skin in the game? Wouldn't a savvy gamesman just vote for their own self-interest?

Perhaps that could be a feature? Everyone voting not just for their own self-interest, but for the things they think are important government features. Over the entire populace, it'll average out and their gaming won't amount to much. The idea is that it's more "expressive" than one person = one vote. And it's more manageable than pure direct-democracy. Look, you could fiddle with things and have "minimum" amounts so…

Do you think it's desirable to give more power to individuals? Personally, I think enlightened despotism is probably the best form of government in terms of fairness, efficiency, etc.

In the US (a democratic republic), I see that the decision makers act in their own short term self-interest.

The risk with an enlightened despot (think typical corporate structure) is that the person at the top can really cause damage, because they don't have checks on what they can do. We can imagine the downside right now -- the strength of the republic is currently being stress tested to see if it can salvage itself simply by resistance, friction, and inefficiency to prevent Mr. Trump from destroying so much.

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

#275

Post by ryuker16 »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #172

Is this not already a thing? I needed an old chair disposed of a few days ago, googled "Seattle Trash Removal", got like 10 results, and the next day somebody came by with a truck and took my chair away. Is this company different because they have an app? Because they offer speedier pickup?

That's resale companies that recycle or sell used goods.

They often won't take pure trash on junk that can't be sold(food waste).

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

#276

Post by ryuker16 »

jimmaswell wrote: post #184
warent wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of neighborhoods where you'll be fined by the HOA for doing that. Just "tossing in the front yard" isn't a feasible sustainable solution. Anyway if he's paying 50% in income taxes then it's unlikely he even lives in a neighborhood where junk collectors drive around

I don't think I could live in an HOA even if I was paid to. Those things are atrocities. To anyone in the market for buying a home, watch out for those and never buy one if it's under an HOA. You can find lots of horror stories about them online with a quick search. A good tip for anyone suffering through one: they can't legally interfere with amateur radio towers, so if you're dissatisfied with having to live with y…

Usually they will ding you on every other HOA law to make up for it.

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

#278

Post by yitchelle »

Coincidentally, I just listened the pitch podcast S2 E3 where the company Industrial Organics was also describing themselves as Uber for Garbage. However, they are niching into garbage from restaurant kitchens.

https://gimletmedia.com/episode/industrial-organic-s02-ep03/

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

#279

Post by brianwawok »

phil21 wrote: post #133
degenerate wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do, it's called throw it in the front yard. Anything metal will be picked up and melted down for $ by junk seekers. Used motor oil, insulation, car batteries, and other toxic stuff, I could see a door service being useful.

This works in major cities with a self-sustaining population of scrappers. Chicago trash service is utterly amazing. Literally anything that fits in your house you put in the alley and either the scrappers take it within hours, or the trash men haul it away without complaint. Other cities I lived in were atrocious. You'd be looked at crazy if you had anything remotely considered an abnormal need. Such as traveling a…

The chicago mexican junk trucks are amazing. Your old stove is gone in 30 minites flat for free.

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

#280

Post by brianwawok »

Tharkun wrote: post #220
warent wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of neighborhoods where you'll be fined by the HOA for doing that. Just "tossing in the front yard" isn't a feasible sustainable solution. Anyway if he's paying 50% in income taxes then it's unlikely he even lives in a neighborhood where junk collectors drive around

HOAs can issue fines? That's madness. I'll get fined for putting trash on my curb on the wrong day of the week, or the wrong kind of trash, but it'll be by my local government's very efficient income generators/police.

People voluntarily agree to more strict rules to not have their home value lowered by a dirty house in their block.
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