People pay lots of money to acquire consumer purchasing data to make predictions about their behavior. However, waste management seems to be able to get just those information -- you can't throw away something unless you've bought something before.

Of course, waste data is a backward indicator for purchasing behavior, but the fact that the acquisition cost is significantly lower than purchasing data (people pay you money to take away their trash), I'm not sure why aren't there enough people trying to do this business that could be the next biggest thing.

The most valuable waste management companies are worth under $50b. That's about the same market cap as a company that sells indoor bikes at its peak.

Sorting wastes could be a huge cost and could significantly drive the cost of acquisition of data, but if tech is incorporated within waste management, it is possible to implement a credit scoring system to incentivize people to dispose their trash properly.

What do you think about this idea? Is there a really bad risk I'm missing that makes people reluctant to get into this space?