Welcome back to cheddar innovates brought to you by curiosity stream everyone.
Our next guest is bringing innovation to the sustainability space.
Rubicon is a software platform that provides smart waste
and recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide,
setting all new standards for the industry joining us now,
Nate Morris chairman and Ceo over at Rubicon,
a digital marketplace for waste and recycling
Nate.
Tell us more about your mission and what exactly that means a digital mark place.
Yeah, thank you.
Rubicon is the largest digital waste and recycling marketplace in the world.
And what we've done at Rubicon is really
democratizing and power
a big portion of the waste and recycling market here
in the United States in various parts of the world.
About 50% of the United States
waste market is occupied by small business owners
and Rubicon is providing technology to the small business owners. These
waste haulers and recyclers
to have an opportunity to some of the
largest contracts in the world through the marketplace.
And in this process we're also aligning incentives
to recycle as much as possible are recycling rate today on the marketplace
is almost three times better than some of that of,
of the large waste players that have occupied
this industry for generations.
The other aspect of of what we do is also providing data and analytics.
We all know. Environmental reporting is more important than it's ever been
and we now have consumers that are making purchasing decisions
based upon things like your waist profile. How much are you wasting?
How much are you recycling?
What are you doing to drive efficiency inside your own supply chain
and a Rubicon. We help answer
these questions and a lot more.
I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the software that you utilize.
So tell us more how that implements
your mission of ending waste.
Well,
I believe technology can be the greatest driver uh
to help us achieve better outcomes for the planet
and we've invested lots of time and energy and resources
to building. I believe, the best products we'd ever
in the history of the waste and recycling category.
This is a category Prior to Rubicon that was highly antiquated.
You might find spreadsheets flying around, you might find carbon paper,
even faxes in this day and age and Rubicon.
We're working to digitize
A $2 trillion main street but also to some of the biggest customers
At the Fortune 500 level.
I think we have some technical issues of Asia. So I'm gonna jump in. It's Alicia here.
I'm curious what are some examples of how this software is used.
Well, obviously we're arming a lot of these independent haulers that I mentioned,
the thousands of these independent haulers and giving them a
product suite that allows them to really level the playing field
And democratize this very large and historically known as a very tough industry.
And so our products are helping to drive a new industry standard on the way we think
about the waste category uh and what we can do to bring it into the 21st century
and also beginning to use things like computer vision uh
to understand the waste characterization of what's being thrown away.
So we can make better decisions.
We can also spot things like contamination earlier,
so we can increase those recycling rates
for our Fortune 500 customers, midsized customers, even small businesses.
How do you see technology and sustainability evolving in the future?
Well, I believe Rubicon is at the intersection of how public policy, technology
and sustainability are all firing together in our economy.
And we all know that the consumer that we're dealing
with today is demanding more than ever and more transparency.
And I believe that uh some of the greatest opportunities uh to be
better stewards of the planet are
gonna come through technology based solutions and
that's what we believe here at Rubicon through environmental innovation um that we
can get to some of the goals that we all want to achieve.
I often say in the company that no one's pro garbage, no one wants to produce
more garbage. And
we have got to find a way to really meet the challenge
and to do something better than
to landfill are garbage landfills unfortunately are
still a part of our everyday society here in the United States.
But I believe there's gonna come a day when through the data that
we collect the information and the transparency we get in the market,
that we can help drive infrastructure uh,
to be better and to get off this landfill model
And to really move this industry fully into the 21st century
tonight to that extent. And you know, what, what's next for Rubicon?
Well, as reported by the Wall Street Journal back in last december, uh,
Rubicon is heading in a uh, to become a public business.
We have partnered with a with founders back
that's currently on the NASDAQ.
And we look forward to Rubicon becoming a public business in the near future. And
we think everything looks very bright.
We'll be sure to come back and join us when you go public.
You know,
I'll be here at the floor of the exchange so
you will be happy to welcome you and then kind
of see the plans that will continue to develop for
the company Nate Morris Chairman and Ceo of Rubicon.