News from the ISWA World Congress

Waste management companies ready to use technology to develop new solutions are in for a busy future, according to several speakers at the 2017 Wastecon/ISWA World Congress. “A huge shift is coming,” said Antonis Mavropoulos, the President of International Solid Waste Management (ISWA). In a survey of 1000 industry leaders, 97 percent indicated that technology will have a big role to play in the future of waste management, particularly in developing economies.

That’s great news, because technology is one of our favorite words. Rehrig Pacific incorporates technology into every aspect of the supply chain, from equipping waste bins with trackable RFID chips to calculating ways to safely load more crates into delivery vehicles. Technology improves the bottom line, but if the speakers at Wastecon/ISWA World Congress are right, the implications are huge.

Our technological, innovative approach can be the key not just to business success but also to building a better, cleaner future in developing countries. Because developing economies have younger infrastructures, waste management companies can more easily design around their future needs using the latest technology.

Mavroupoulos says this all bodes well for achieving a circular economy—that is, an economic cycle that ends not in disposal but recycling. We already make our products with that model in mind—many of our plastic bins, crates and pallets are recyclable and were also made with recycled plastic.

For some companies, the future is coming. For Rehrig Pacific, the future is where we’ve always been.