What Will Collection Look Like in 10 Years?

At one time, waste was often deposited on land just outside developed areas, leading to groundwater contamination, methane gas formation and migration, and disease vector hazards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency points out in a March 2022 report on trends in wastes and their effects on human health and the environment.

Current approaches to waste management evolved primarily due to health concerns and the need to control odors, the EPA notes.

It begs the question: what will solid waste management look like 10 years from now?

What kind of waste will be generated? How it will be collected? How might workers’ jobs be different? How waste will be processed? What technologies will be commonplace? What will the monetary aspects of waste collection look like?

In its report, the EPA points out that the amount of municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, industrial non-hazardous waste, agricultural and animal waste, medical waste, radioactive waste, construction and demolition debris, extraction and mining waste, oil and gas production waste, fossil fuel combustion waste, and sewage sludge is influenced by economic activity, consumption, and population growth.  

Developed societies such as the U.S. generally produce large amounts of municipal solid waste and commercial and industrial wastes. The U.S. is one of the largest generators of municipal solid waste per person on a daily basis among industrialized nations, according to the EPA.

In most cases, waste generation represents inefficient use of materials. Tracking trends in the quantity, composition, and effects of these materials provides insight into the efficiency with which the nation uses—and reuses—materials and resources and provides a means to better understand the effects of wastes on human health and ecological conditions.

How North America deals with hazardous waste, chemical waste, and municipal solid waste going forward is significant.

Municipal solid waste landfills, for example, are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the U.S., accounting for approximately 16 percent of these emissions in 2016, the EPA reports.

Methane is one of several non-CO₂ gases contributing to global climate change.  Recycling and reuse practices can have a significant impact on environmental concerns.

EPA’s Report on the Environment indicates over the past 35 years, the paradigm has shifted from a ‘waste management’ approach to ‘sustainable materials management’ focusing on resource, environmental, and human health impacts over the entire life cycle of materials.

The EPA is interested in better understanding trends in the use and management of materials. The agency indicates while there have been changes in waste management over the past few decades designed to reduce potential exposures, data that more concretely measures the overall exposure—and effects on human health and the environment caused by wastes and waste management practices—are still lacking.

David Biderman, former Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) executive director and CEO, notes he believes the basics of waste collection in 10 years will be similar to today’s experience.  

“A substantially larger number of communities will be offering curbside organics collection in addition to waste and recycling,” he adds. “There likely will be more automated and semi-automated collection vehicles, and fewer manual rear-load trucks.”

In terms of what will be powering solid waste collection trucks, Biderman says if the current EV pilots being undertaken in a growing number of communities are successful, there will be a lot more EV waste collection trucks on the road.  

“There will continue to be lots of natural gas-fueled trucks, and a declining number of diesel-fueled trucks,” he adds.

The collection of waste will change drastically as well with many trash companies looking to utilize electric, hybrid, and alternative fuel truck fleets, predicts Kiel Harvey, Fleet Genius director of business development,

“Some states already have rules and legislation that will ban the use of fossil fuel trucks in the coming years,” he points out. “It is likely that waste disposal habits will change drastically in the next 10 years. Countries across the globe are introducing legislation to reduce the amount of plastic.”

Biderman also predicts the use of RFID chips in containers could become much more widespread in the coming decade.

Among Biderman’s uppermost concerns; the state of those working in the industry.

“It is my fervent hope that in 10 years, if not sooner, waste collection workers are not on the federal government’s list of the 10 most dangerous occupations,” he says. “This is the first of SWANA’s strategic goals over the next five years. We’ve already seen some improvement recently, as the industry has improved from fifth to seventh in rankings.

“However, there are still too many fatal and non-fatal injuries, and we need to provide more safety resources and information, especially to small haulers who do not have robust safety programs and need our assistance.”

Harvey points out as the global population continues to grow, so too does the amount of waste produced.

“Trash disposal has become an increasingly important topic of discussion as the environmental effects of improper garbage disposal methods are becoming more and more apparent,” says Harvey. “As a result, future trends in trash disposal are likely to be focused on finding sustainable solutions that reduce the impact of our waste on the environment.”

Fleet Genius provides sustainable compactor and container options.

“In the next ten years, it is likely that we will see a greater emphasis on recycling and re-use,” Harvey notes. “Governments across the world are introducing policies to encourage recycling and reduce the amount of trash being disposed of in landfills.”

Harvey notes that in the U.S., for example, the EPA has implemented rules and regulations to reduce the amount of solid waste being sent to landfills.

“These efforts are aimed at encouraging people to reduce, reuse, and recycle their waste whenever possible,” he adds.

The development of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal will also be a major part of waste management strategies, says Harvey.

“As these technologies become more widely available, it is likely that more of our trash will be converted into usable energy,” he adds. “The waste itself can be used as feedstock for biogas production or as a source of heat and electricity. This will go a long way in reducing the amount of trash that needs to be disposed of in landfills.”

An increased use of composting is another trend Harvey notes.

“Composting is a process that naturally breaks down organic matter and turns it into soil. It offers a great way to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and can also be used to create rich, fertile soils for farming,” he says. “The use of composting can drastically reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfills and help to create healthier soil for plants and trees.”

Look for an increase in the number of waste-to-energy conversion plants, says Harvey.

“These plants are used to convert different types of waste materials into usable energy, such as electricity and heat,” he adds. “This process is becoming more common among countries that lack access to traditional energy sources and could also be used to create energy from our trash. It is a great way to reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills and to make better use of the waste we produce.”

Collections technology is always going to be about chasing maximum efficiency, notes Jon Leeds, Carolina Software vice president.

“From fuel efficiency to route optimization, to minimizing wait times at disposal facilities—it’s about saving time and money,” he adds.

Carolina Software’s WasteWORKS is designed to meet the needs of waste facilities to employ modern software tools that offer maximum efficiency.

“If you have one scale of 12, our suite of products can help shave seconds and minutes from every stop a collection vehicle makes at the local landfill, transfer station, or MRF,” Leeds notes. “Those seconds really add up through the day.”

Leeds observes that going forward, “I imagine collection vehicles will continue to get smarter and make disposal even more efficient.”

That means vehicle identification technology and communication with facility management software will become even more streamlined and create higher levels of automation, he adds.

“There’s already some great tech out there and it’s constantly improving,” Leeds points out. “Things like license plate recognition will become common for a wide range of transactions and will allow facility managers to inch closer to fully automated scale house management.” 

 A QualPay white paper points out the payment tools most waste marketers use today were created in the early 2000’s or the late 90’s and have remained relatively unchanged over the years.

While payment tools have mostly remained the same, the industry has evolved to accommodate the unique way waste haulers runs their businesses. It will have to continue to do so in the ensuing years.

While waste haulers have been able to qualify for utility pricing since the early

2000s, a lack of access to updated technology means marketers will unknowingly fall out of utility pricing and increase their costs, the white paper points out.

While ensuring haulers are set up correctly with each card brand, the challenge is that interchange—the cost from the card brands—dwarfs processor expense and accounts for 90 percent of a hauler’s bill.

QualPay instructs waste operations to ensure a company is set up correctly with each card brand. In the early 2000’s, the card brands qualified curbside pickup as a utility, reducing the cost of accepting eligible card types at the card brand level, largely impacting the fees paid.

 To qualify for these rates, an operation has to be configured properly as a waste hauler. Haulers that do not perform curbside pick-up should ensure the company they’re working with can pass both utility and service codes as to qualify the transaction at the best rates across all card brands, QualPay points out.

Case in point: AMEX also offers a services rate that is a little more expensive than the other brands, but less expensive than the standard rate and will lower AMEX fees.

Secondly, updated payment technology clears up any downgrades. Each card type a business accepts has an interchange price set by the card brands. There are approximately 30 interchange categories that typically affect waste haulers between Visa and MasterCard, according to QualPay.

 Variations in card acceptance, business classification and platforms result in more than 500 potential interchange expense buckets.

Card brands associate a cost bucket on each payment card a company accepts. The least expensive rate for each card type is a target interchange and is the best possible rate for which a transaction can qualify, according to QualPay.

To achieve this target interchange, card brands require that everything is set up properly, following all card brand rules, with all necessary data per card type passing through, be it a CVV or more complex data such as tax rate or customer ID.

Outdated technology could result in an inability to pass along certain qualifying criteria with payment transactions. The most common payment gateways utilized in the industry were created in the early 2000s and developed for generic business types rather than contemporary waste haulers.

Given that data exchange happens at the gateway level, if the gateway cannot

pass the necessary data, the card brands place the transaction in a more expensive bucket. Downgrade occurs when target interchange is missed, resulting in waste haulers paying more money than they would if the qualifying data had been passed correctly—in some cases, one percent, as QualPay notes.

Outdated technology may not be able to pass a tax ID, a data requirement for target interchange on business cards. If the data is not being sent with these transactions, target interchange for a business or purchasing card transaction is missed.

Additionally, some of today’s most popular card types were not around 20 years ago, so the capability to pass the qualifying data needed for target interchange was never included in products built then, the QualPay white paper points out.

Up to 90 percent of the expense found on the processing statement can be made up of interchange and roughly 10 percent of the cost attributable to credit card processor expense and profit.

In most cases, an interchange downgrade costs waste haulers more than the processor expense on the transaction.

Lastly, the white paper notes that an operation should focus on the processor’s proposal: basis points, monthly fees and expenses that make up the last 10 percent of the statement, adding that since all processors have the same interchange costs, it is the easiest factor to negotiate.

QualPay also recommends reviewing the basis points – the markup on the interchange—and there should be a fair assessment based on business size and associated risk.

In reviewing the proposal, consider fees such as  ‘club,’ ‘portal,’ or ‘security’  as these could be hidden costs, adding up quickly on a monthly basis.

Review the gateway statement. It is sometimes a separate bill—savings at the gateway level could save five or 10 cents on every transaction, QualPay notes.

David Bragg, QualPay business development manager, predicts in 10 years, “we’re going to continue to see more people figure out alternate ways of payment like QR codes and some wallet types of payment as far as how the consumer is going to pay for their services.

“For the waste business, what they need to be doing is start to get on the forefront of that and make sure they have technology through their processor to handle all those different alternate forms of payment.”

Down the road, “people are going to be more cost sensitive and start looking at different ways that they can save money in their business,” says Bragg. “Waste haulers need to be looking at the nitty gritty of stuff and they can save in payment processing because there are those programs for utility businesses or service style businesses.”

Operations need to ensure they're taking advantage of that to save some money, he adds.

“It’s going to force a lot of people to update their technology and get in front of that to be able to service their customers,” Bragg adds.

Given there are so many costs inherent in solid waste collection, to be able to have updated technology for credit card processing helps save the most money so businesses don’t necessarily have to push that on to the consumer, Bragg points out.

Marci Gagnon, QualPay’s vice president of strategic alliance concurs that the ability to accept contactless payments as the industry moves into the future will be key.

“That would be sending mobile payments out and links for folks to be able to make a payment, even if someone has delivered a container to your site or your home and can send an invoice directly on the spot with a QR code so that a consumer would be able to make that payment,” she says.

“I think we’re also going to see an increase in folks wanting to lower their costs. There will be an increase in the request for adding convenience fees and surcharges. Something to think about as an industry is does it make sense to add that it will lower your costs, but depending on where you are, could it alienate your customers?”

There will be a lot of research on what that will look like in the future.

“We’re going to see folks getting in there and seeing if it makes sense for their business, specifically municipalities,” says Gagnon. “What’s going to make the most sense is to make sure that the technology you're utilizing is up to date.”

It’s not just the payment technology, but it's the overall technology being utilized in the office, she adds.

As a processor, QualPay has the ability to merge different business units through reporting and have multiple different brands underneath one merchant account, depending on how they want to make their payments.

“It’s going to make a lot of sense to make sure the technology you're utilizing from a software perspective has updated all of those payment features,” says Gagnon.

To prepare for future payment changes, Bragg recommends “to start digging into how you're accepting your payments, finding out if it's really the most efficient way for your business to accept payments, if you are positioned so you can accept all kinds of payments, and if your company can grow with that current provider.”

Gagnon recommends operations review their credit card processing annually from a rate perspective and reach out to the processor to see if they offer new tools or services.

“The credit card fees that come from the card brands change at least twice a year,” she says. “Sometimes they're for the benefit, such as this year when Amex rolled out their new utility program. Sometimes they add fees or they change fees around a little bit.

“You want to make sure that you're in the best program for you as a hauler or for your commercial side of the business. The best way to do that is to take a look at it at least once a year and reach out to your processing partner and have them do an analysis for you so you have a really good understanding of all the rates and fees you're paying.”

Gagnon advises to not be reticent to shop around and check in to see what other people think about the rates being offered.

“That way, you have a good understanding of what your costs are and if anything has changed over the year and sometimes your rates go up,” she says. “It’s just the cost of doing business and that’s okay. But sometimes, you might be able to find that another company offers a service that you're really looking for and it might make sense for you to switch.

“Or you might realize that the company that you've been utilizing offers exactly what you need for a really great rate and then you can close the books on it for a year, but know that you're getting the best rate for that year.”