Q&A

Founder

Waste Labs

Why did you start Waste Labs and what problem are you solving?

Yeah, you don’t meet a lot of people that say “Oh, I like to work in waste”. It’s a bit of a niche field in that sense. But what got me into it. My background is in optimization and AI for a very long time, over 10 years. And when I started to explore this field, there's this concept of where you use mathematical models to solve business problems. So you take the business problem, you turn it into a mathematical problem, you solve the mathematical problem, you have a solution for your business problem. And I thought, this is brilliant This is how you solve business problems But then the question became like, do I just want to solve business problems? I mean, companies are making enough money as it is. Like isn't there other problems that you can solve in the same way? Turn it into a mathematical problem, solve the problem. I was living in South Africa, for a service delivery. And I kind of got exposed that people were actually using maths and mathematical modelling to save waste collection problems. And that's what started intriguing me like, oh, you can actually use this instead of helping businesses, you can use it to kind of touch on an essential service which is waste.

So that got me down the rabbit hole of can I use the skill that I have of solving business problems as mathematical problems? Can I apply that into an area that has a real impact? That can actually improve people's lives and deliver essential service So that got me into waste So initially I didn't know much about waste, so then I had to educate myself a bit and I was shocked at the scale of waste. I never knew it was so big. The amount of money involved, the amount of resources involved. That came as a shock to me. And I still think it comes as a shock to a lot of people. And after that shock of how big it is, it kind of became an obsession of how to make a difference in this space. Because it's important. Nobody likes to think about it. But the moment it stops, the moment they strike, the moment nobody collects waste - then it's a crisis. But I think everybody understands how important it is. So that's how my journey started into waste management and thinking ‘How can I make a difference in waste management?’

So, on your second question, what we're doing is we're specifically looking at the transportation of waste. So, you know we as people produce waste, we put it in our dustbin and you know maybe on the side of the road, maybe in the container and we forget about it But the moment you do that, there’s this whole process of ‘How do you take care of it?’ And a lot of that involves transportation. Like, there's a lot of waste just being driven around cities. I mean, once you start to look for waste trucks, you will see them everywhere. So what we do is, we focus on that transportation bit. How do you get that transportation bit right, How do you make sure you do it as efficiently as possible so that you use the least amount of resources? Because if you use fewer resources, it means that a city can spend money on other stuff like building hospitals instead of driving with waste around, or they can actually collect more waste. Because if through our system, we tell them, “Ok, you used to use 10 trucks, now you can use nine ” That means they now have a tenth truck to collect some other waste So they can collect recyclables, They can collect food waste. So it actually allows cities and even companies to collect more waste and divert more of it away from landfill and more of it away from improper disposal.

Just to add to that, are you also looking at the collection points as well and calculating the most efficient way to go about that?

That's a very good question, so what we found is that we are still people. We are suckers for convenience. If something is too inconvenient, it doesn't matter how good our intentions are, chances are we won't do it. So part of what we do is we do what we call coverage modelling. It's ‘Where do you place bins?’ ‘Where do you place a reverse vending machine?’ Where do you place those things so that you can give the best accessibility to the highest number of people? You know, so that can be, how do you place it so that you’re within 5 minutes walking distance of a bin? So we do look, look at those as well and it's a good question because it's important to at least make it easier for people to get involved with proper waste disposal and then recycling as well

How are waste collection systems usually created and what was it like before the digital transformation and presence of AI?

Again, a good question. So first, waste collection systems are very old. They've been around for like thousands of years. So even before AI, before our tools, the systems were there. So in the past, the process was pretty simple as well. Like, people throw everything together at one point, you come around, you collect it, and you take it to the nearest landfill site. So these systems were designed, sometimes with pen and paper, on a map. Otherwise it was trial and error. It would be, well, let’s just send the trucks out or the wheelbarrows out, or the donkey carts out or whatever was fashionable at that point in time, you know And then afterwards you walk around and see if everything is collected If it's not collected, then you get complaints and they send the donkey cart out again. So it was a lot of trial and error. Surprisingly, the systems got pretty efficient through trial and error. If you look at collection and logistics systems, Waste collection is pretty efficient because it's a lot of stops, there's not a lot of travelling or what we call like ‘between stops travelling’ and they get quite full. So the systems used to be pretty efficient through this trial and error and manual process. But then what happened is people became more environmentally conscious and they said, you know what, we need to recycle. We can't just throw everything in the same bin. You need to have separate waste streams. And that confused things a bit because now suddenly 40 years of experience of doing it in a certain way is no longer valid because the system has changed, the regulations have changed. And this is where digitalization and AI became important Because you can't wait another 30 years to get it right by trial and error You need to get it right a lot quicker, and one of the best ways to do it is to use digital tools and to use data and to use algorithms to design the system so that you get to an efficient system a lot quicker.

So why do waste management companies not already have a sustainable waste management system?

Yeah. So I think waste collection companies are reactive. So they can only do what the end customer requires. So if a city says we want you to collect waste, but we're going to pay you as little as possible. Then the waste collection, companies have to do it in a certain way that's probably not sustainable. Then it's going to be “we can't recycle”, “we can't do this” because you're not supporting that initiative So it's up to waste collection companies to provide a service and the cities and us as customers decide what that service should look like. So I would kind of flip the question around and ask “Why do we as customers or cities not demand sustainable waste collection services?” and then importantly “Why aren't we willing to pay more for sustainable waste collection services?”.

So that for me is the question because the waste collection companies react to what we want.

What are the benefits for a company to analyse their waste logistics?

The first one is it allows them to be more reactive and to understand how they should change their operations when legislation changes or when things on the ground change. So if somebody says ‘You know what, we want to collect food waste’. Then if you are digitised and you use data, you can react and plan and execute that a lot quicker than you would without data So that's probably the biggest benefit The second benefit is efficiency. If you design the system through AI and data, the system becomes more efficient, which means you can either deliver a better service or again, you can use the resources that you've freed up and you can offer additional services. Like maybe you can collect diapers, collect anything you want basically. So those are the two main benefits: reaction time and then efficiency which frees up resources to do something more.

Do companies and cities you work with react fast enough to implement more sustainable practices? Or do you feel as though there's still a lack of prioritisation and urgency to be more environmentally conscious?

That's a good question Usually by the time they engage us there, there's usually already some sense of urgency. So as much as we would love to go to waste collectors and tell them like, yeah, you need to prioritise this and pay us. It doesn't work like that. They decide, ‘you know what, this is a priority, how do I do this?’ And then they come to us. So then it's a priority. What we have found with our customers is that by working with us they can actually exceed their requirements. So without us, they had an idea of the service that they can deliver and what their kind of ceiling is. And then through our AI we can show how we can actually push that a bit. We can deliver even better services. We can tell the city or our or their clients that we can actually exceed their expectations using our services. So we help them to run a little bit faster, but they're already running by the time they come to us.

So as a company, who is your target audience and who do you want to influence?

So we are a startup We're still young, which means we change a lot We're agile When we started it was waste management companies. We liked to work, and we still do like to work, with large-scale waste management companies. To help them improve their operations, improve their efficiency and do better service delivery. And what's happened now is we've actually shifted quite a lot towards the big producers of waste. So these are big companies that produce waste. So this would be like CocaCola or Nike. And they are now actually taking a direct interest around how can they better recycle, how can they better get their waste materials from their product back into their supply chain. So the same services that we used to give to waste management companies in terms of helping them improve their efficiencies and helping them collect more - we’re now giving to brands, to polluters to actually help them almost become better collectors of their own waste So at the moment, that is our main target market. Brands that want to be sustainable and that care about what happens to their endproduct.

Going Global: Measuring Globalisation's Impact on Global Banks' Ability to Meet Sustainability Goals

By Dylan Remmer-Riley

In an age of social media, low-cost air travel and information overload, meeting sustainability goals for global corporations is no mean feat The last few decades have been characterised by escalated globalisation, manifested in the sharp advancement of world trade, FDI and the free movement of people. Various left-leaning critics of globalisation have criticised the stark, negative consequences of such rapid globalisation. These include former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who in 2017 proposed to ‘rewrite the rules of the economy so it works for everyone: not just the billionaires’. Problems of wealth inequality, environmental destruction and civil disobedience remain key challenges. So, how do global banks navigate these choppy waters and meet their ambitious sustainability goals?

Globalisation allows for greater access to global markets and supply chains. Many, particularly those with conservative attitudes, feel this presents global banks with the best opportunity to meet sustainability targets. Access to these markets can lead to increased revenue and profitability, which can be reinvested in sustainability initiatives (Financial Times 2019).

BlackRock, for example, uses greater access to global markets and supply chains afforded by globalisation to meet sustainability goals BlackRock offers a range of ESG ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and mutual funds that enable investors to align their investments with their sustainability goals. By providing access to these products in global financial markets, BlackRock is helping to drive demand for sustainable investments and encourage companies to improve their ESG performance. This demonstrates an important benefit of globalisation, which positively impacts wider sustainability.

Supply and Demand

Supply chain complexities demonstrate a significant challenge for financial institutions in achieving sustainability goals. EY, for example, in September 2022, posted an update on their website, advising readers to ‘prepare now for the new era of globalisation’. The accounting firm asserted that ‘geopolitics has shifted dramatically and the outlook for the global operating environment is increasingly uncertain’ This illustrates a weakness of globalisation, as it makes companies susceptible to external shocks (such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) This major world event, compounded by the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and rising inflation, has created key trade-offs for financial institutions looking to achieve corporate responsibility goals (Ernst & Young 2022).

However, the benefits derived from technology and innovation arguably offset the costs of supply chain complexities. Globalisation promotes technological innovation, which can enable companies to develop new products and processes that are more sustainable. For example, advancements in renewable energy technology have enabled companies to shift away from fossil fuels and reduce their carbon footprint. ING Bank, for example, a Dutch bank has developed a blockchain-based solution called Katana that enables sustainable supply chain financing. In addition to supporting sustainable supply chains, Katana allows ING Bank to reduce the risk of financing unsustainable practices, such as deforestation and child labour. By tracking the movement of goods and materials from source to destination, the platform identifies ESG risks and enables the bank to make informed decisions as to where to allocate its capital (Business Chief 2020)

Increased competition, which is a fundamental consequence of globalisation, creates opportunity costs for corporations when assessing sustainability targets. Pressures to innovate and retain customers often incentivise cost-cutting. This is a clear challenge to meeting sustainability goals, as doing so contrasts with spending on social responsibility.

Speaking in 2015, Pope Francis criticised this aspect of globalisation, stating: “It [globalisation] has damned many to starve to death… It is not enough to ensure economic growth if in doing so we create greater injustice”. The sharing of practices is a crucial advantage of globalisation, which allows global banks to meet sustainability goals. Globalisation facilitates the sharing of best practices amongst big corporations’ operations across all corners of the globe. This enables these firms to identify innovative approaches to sustainability and adopt strategies that have been successful elsewhere. An example of sharing of practices is the adoption of investment into clean energy by JP Morgan Chase & Co In 2021, the investment bank set out the goal of financing $200 billion in clean energy and sustainable development projects by 2025. This followed the 2020 announcement by Goldman Sachs to invest and finance $150 billion in clean energy by 2025. The latter aims to support the transition to a low-carbon economy, consistent with the largest investment banks This exemplifies a key benefit of sharing practices, which significantly positively impacts sustainability goals. This promotes greater equality when those in fortunate positions profit from something they were not responsible for. With natural resources being one of the United Kingdom’s greatest assets, the gains made from overseeing the extraction of these resources should be reinvested in the nation, instead of going into the hands of some of the wealthiest companies in the world

Moving Forward

Despite these points, regulatory differences are key to an increasingly globalised world and can harm corporate sustainability goals. Globalisation can make it challenging for companies to implement consistent sustainability practices in their global operations In some cases, firms may be forced to comply with weaker standards in order to operate in certain countries. This certainly creates conflicts of interest, given differences in cultural attitudes to some ESG targets.

On the whole, globalisation has a more positive impact on global banks’ ability to meet sustainability goals While globalisation can create challenges related to increased competition, supply chain complexities and regulatory differences; it provides access to new markets and technologies that can support sustainability efforts. The various challenges, with careful planning, can be navigated by top firms and global banks. It is therefore clear that the opportunities presented through globalisation outweigh any cost, as big corporations strive to meet sustainability goals.

References

America Magazine (2015) Pope Francis: To Care for the Poor is Not Communism, It is the Gospel

Available at: https://www.americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/popefrancis-care-poor-not-communism-it-gospel

Business Chief (2020) ING introduces ‘Katana’, its artificial intelligence bond trading tool

Available at: https://businesschief eu/corporate-finance/ing-introduceskatana-its-artificial-intelligence-bond-trading-tool-1

Ernst & Young (2022) Prepare Now for the New Era of Globalisation

Available at: https://www.ey.com/en gl/geostrategy/future-ofglobalization

Financial Times (2019) Jeremy Corbyn’s Plan to Rewrite the Rules of the UK Economy

Available at: https://www ft com/content/e1028dda-ca49-11e9-a1f43669401ba76f

Goldman Sachs (2020) Clean Energy, The Future is Here

Available at: goldmansachs.com/insights/new-energy-landscape/lowcarbon-economy/clean-energy/

JPMorgan Chase (2021) JPMorgan Chase Targets More Than $2.5 Trillion over 10 Years to Advance Climate Action and Sustainable Development

Available at: https://www.jpmorganchase.com/news-stories/jpmc-toadvance-climate-action-and-sustainable-dev-goals