Rubicon Global
Rubicon Global provides waste and recycling services.
Every time a garbage truck dumps a load of trash at a landfill, the landfill gets paid a fee. And even though tipping fees were intended to discourage waste, the business model creates an awkward situation: If waste companies make money by filling up landfills, they might have less incentive to recycle. A new waste startup is trying to do things differently. Unlike the huge companies that dominate the industry—like Waste Management, which owns hundreds of landfills along with its fleets of garbage trucks—startup Rubicon Global is a waste consultant, rather than a company that actually picks up trash. Rubicon gets paid in part by how much it's able to recycle, not how much ends up in a landfill. They work with large businesses with large volumes of trash, and part of their job involves searching for unusual markets for that waste.