There is treasure in trash. And one Sydney-based millennial entrepreneur is out to find it.
Aodhan MacCathmhaoil has poured his experience working in the waste industry in Australia into a new company called Waster, which aims to deliver low-cost waste and recycling services to small and medium businesses across the nation.
![Aodhan MacCathmhaoil, co-founder of Waster.](/web/20170107011634im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/r/z/y/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grr193.png/1475194760385.jpg)
"The waste industry is roughly $10 billion per annum in Australia," says MacCathmhaoil. "But you could categorise it as quite old-fashioned. Things are done the way they are done because that's the way they have always been done. We thought we could do things differently."
MacCathmhaoil says his business, which he co-founded with Joanna Wells, is a disruptor. "One of the reasons we call it Waster and use the Wi-Fi logo is to link, sort of, to the concept of Uber of waste," he says.
![Waster, which was set up last year and launched three months ago, allows online booking and eschews lock-in contracts.](/web/20170107011634im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/1/1/8/p/9/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grr193.png/1475194760385.jpg)
Australia generated 53 million tonnes of trash in 2010-11. Out of that recyclable waste services spin a $2.2 billion industry, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Waster was set up last year and launched three months ago. MacCathmhaoil says they tried to get the business to be almost profitable from day one. "We have a run-rate revenue target for this financial year of $1.5 million," he says.
Fresh tactics
One of the ways he is disrupting the industry is via 30-day contracts. "We don't do lock-in contracts," he says. "The industry has traditionally done lock in-contracts of long-term – two to three years. We wanted to move it to a 30-day flexible contract. You can cancel it at 30 days' notice whenever you want; there's a minimal bin removal fee and these sorts of things."
The other disruptor element, he says, is booking online. "The way the waste industry works is, say you open a business – whatever it is, a cafe – and you would call a company, you would ask them for a quote. They would come to your location, check your business, and give you a price quote verbally.
![Joanna Wells, co-founder of Waster.](/web/20170107011634im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/r/z/y/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grr193.png/1475194760385.jpg)
"If you call five different people, you could get five different prices. Then you would be signed up to a two-year contract. So what we have done is, you can book online."
Another disruptor in this space is US company Rubicon Global, a cloud-based waste and recycling enterprise that operates worldwide. According to the company's website, Rubicon Global was founded on an idea to disrupt the waste and recycling industry and create less expensive, more sustainable solutions.
Landfill leader
IBISWorld market research predicted the solid waste collection services industry revenue would grow at an annual rate of 4.9 per cent over five years through to 2015-16 in Australia.
Things are done the way they are done because that's the way they have always been done.
MacCathmhaoil says while residential waste is picked up by whomever the council buys the service from, whereby "one truck goes down the one street and picks 15 bins in a row", with commercial industry it could mean 15 trucks going down the same street and picking up one bin each. There is a huge amount of overlapping, he says, and with all the traffic it adds to pollution, inefficiency and increasing costs.
"That's where we felt the inefficiency was the greatest. The account management focus and the customer service aspect were limited because there was a number of inefficient things happening in that market we felt could be improved with a bit of refocus. And that's where we targeted our business model.
"If you are a mum and dad running a business, waste is one of those annoying things. When people start a business, almost 50 per cent think that waste is provided by your council. In most cases, it is not so. They are buying a service that they don't really know very much about.
"Our prime target audience is new businesses. Our customer would be a small customer who would probably fall under the radar of the big boys because they want the big volumes."
MacCathmhaoil says another way his business is a disruptor is in customer service. "On our website we don't show trucks, we don't show machinery, we don't show landfill.
"Customers just want their bins to be taken away and everything to be nice and clean and the environment to be looked after."
He says their major competitors are the incumbent suppliers who are "very efficient in collection; they are very strong in many aspects".
MacCathmhaoil says waste is processed correctly in Australia. "It is heavily legislated. Not just us, all of the suppliers. We look at grease traps; [they] prevent the pollution going in to the water supply. All across the country, there is a lot of innovation going into this technology.
"People are motivated by that. They are motivated to help the environment if it doesn't cost them very much."
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