This is a really well done analysis of Rubicon's fundamental flaw and a huge reason why you see the main players all owning landfills. Trash is simply too profitable and easily corrupts any organization no matter how well intentioned they start out. That corruption has clearly hit Rubicon's sales team at least in some instances.

Not owning any of the "infrastructure" may seem like a huge positive from an cost standpoint, but I think they'll have to invest and re-invent a lot of the physical collection and processing tech in order to achieve their stated recycling goals.

Optimizing how/when waste is collected through modern software is a massive improvement and certainly we don't need to be collecting all materials every week. So there are huge gains to be had there from an environmental standpoint, but relying on infrastructure that is already optimized for moving trash to a nearby landfill is going to really hold back any effort to increase recycling rates.

I bet they can pull through this with all the funding they've received, but it sure does seem like they're a classic brokerage firm that happens to make an app for their haulers.