Came here to say the same. Love seeing waste industry stuff at HN :)
Prairie Robotics (and similar) is another interesting take on the problem at the industrial scale. They are recognizing contamination as the waste is collected so the generators (houses/businesses) can be notified and educated.
Never heard of Prairie Robotics but I was curious if they had anything to do with where I live since I'm in a prairie province. Turns out their corporate HQ is in my city!
It really depends on the region since landfill rates vary wildly. In California: most likely yes since landfilling is relatively expensive, but again depends.
Waste haulers have always had a non-zero expense for recycling even when the processed materials had strong values. This is because the recycling has to be collected, transported, sorted/processed, then shipped again. Depending on the local market, regulations, incentives/subsidies, and distances involved for shipping it can very easily end up that a negative commodity price tips the scales in favor of landfilling.
Also, it's worth noting that some portion of the recycling stream will end up in a landfill regardless of the commodity price because it's contaminated (or just not a recyclable material) which has an impact on the overall cost per ton of recycling. Commodity prices going negative just push this to include more of the stream since it means only the "best" materials are economically viable for further processing and shipping. It's a balancing act that the industry has been doing internally for a long time, but now it's becoming a serious issue since large amounts of the recycling stream need to be landfilled if we don't want to spend a whole lot more than we already do on solid waste.
I work in the industry too. I'm always curious about what other's in this industry do when they're on HN, so if you're able can you share what you do?
As far as me: I'm the lead engineer for the mobile and api products at one of the major software providers for independent waste haulers in the US. My family owns and operates a hauling operation in CA, so I've spent my entire life surrounded by the inner workings of solid waste collection, hauling, and processing.
I'm an software engineer as well. I work for one of the top 3 waste management companies. I've worked on both consumer side web/mobile apps as well as operations side projects, both in hauling and MRF operations.
Oh interesting, we generally don't go to WasteCon due to how focused it is on public sector since we have a better product fit with independent haulers (we do have several municipalities using our software though). Maybe we should be going though - always good to expand our horizons. Feel free to shoot me an email at: my first name at edisoncode.com
Nice ride! We don't have Bend's views, but the gravel is good down here on the central coast of Ca. So cool to see other cyclists/athletes in the comments on HN.
That's a nice amount of climbing! One of the few things I sort of dislike about this area is that it's not very 'rugged'; in the sense that while there's an incline towards the mountains, there aren't lots of smaller hills. My Sunday ride was comparatively flat:
Not only that, but once they realized the message was sent in error they didn't have a simple way to correct course so there was a big delay between the realization and informing the terrified public.
Your suggestion of having multiple user confirmations coupled with a simple way to "cancel and correct" the notice would have likely meant this never became news worthy.
What is confusing is that the article still points to the UI as being a part of the problem though while they're now saying the employee intentionally sent the live message. Looks like the PR campaign is still trying to deflect blame or perhaps keep things just ambiguous enough that they'll be able to rush through some extra spending to "fix" the UI issue.
Hopefully more details will continue being shared and they deal with the organizational flaws instead of pouring blame on scape goats (software and individuals).
A bit of background: I've done thousands of hours of driving in rolloff trucks. They're semi's that load debris containers onto rails mounted over the chassis, haul the load to the transfer station/landfill, and deliver containers to job sites. Now I write software for the industry that I used to labor in.
I completely sympathize with the concerns in the article, but I have faith that Tesla will be able to overcome the challenges and some of them are perhaps not looking at the trucking industry "of the future" here's a good example:
The concern about a roll down window isn't that big of a deal. Doing rolloff meant crossing a scale multiple times per day where you'd exchange paperwork with the scale house attendant. I just completed a project that will keep drivers in the cab while at a landfill/transfer station if they have a tablet and the site is connected with our scale software. All of the interaction is done on a tablet while the truck is on the scale, the driver never leaves their seat or rolls down a window. If we're doing stuff like this for garbage, surely other trucking is going to be be digitizing these types of interactions and there are some nice big screens in the truck to make it easy.
The biggest concern that I share is the passing issue with a center seat, but that should be easily solved with a camera that shows a forward view when a turn signal is engaged. Two big screens mean you'd get a forward and all the blind spot views necessary to make a safe pass.
Side note: If Tesla wants to make a version for hauling trash, they could have an enormous impact on local emissions.
It'll be interesting how this works at homes with pets. I could see that being a major concern for a household that would otherwise be fine with an in home delivery. Will Amazon have couriers that are diligent enough to ensure an escaped cat is returned?
It's also worrying for households that have animals that are not particularly friendly toward strangers. Would the delivery person be able to press charges should a home owners dog bite them?
Yes, you are responsible if your dog bites somebody. They might not press charges, but they would likely sue you (or Amazon's insurance company would directly or through a subrogation company).
You should probably talk to your own home insurance company as well. Owning certain breeds raise your premiums already (at least ours does), and enabling strangers into your insured property to now potentially interact with those breeds probably needs coverage.
Amazon CloudKennel™ will lure your pet into the kennel before the courier arrives and keep it secure while the delivery takes place. Choose from an extensive range of pet-bait on Amazon Fresh and Amazon Video. Suitable for common domestic animals only. Monthly subscription and wifi connection required. Restrictions apply.
I'm not sure why this is being downvoted. The Amazon rules have an exception specifically for this case: if your pet can access the front door on delivery day. They've framed it slightly more positively and gently (I'd prefer, for my pet's sake, that they require the dog to be in a closed room), but that's exactly what it means.
I suppose some people might assume this means something silly like locking your cat in a broom closet of your one-room studio apartment, when many homes with dogs have a 'dog room' which is where the pet(s) stay when the owners are out of the house. Separating your pet from potential problems is a part of responsible pet ownership.
As the owner of a Newfoundland mix, I highly recommend it even without Amazon Key - not only does my dog appreciate having her own comfortable space in which she sleeps and to which she can retreat when there are too many people over, but it helps slightly contain the hopeless shedding and drool.
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.
Be sure to give your parents (and other seniors in your life) a phishing and subscriptions checkup this weekend!
https://edisoncode.com/articles/holiday-phone-safety-guide-f...