WasteBid.com to Match Trash Haulers with Waste & Recyclables Customers

WasteBid.com Press Release
April 27, 2000

(Fairfax, VA - 27 April 2000) - Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc., a 20-year-old solid-waste management consulting firm based in Fairfax, Virginia, announced today the launch of a new company called WasteBid.com, Inc. It will use the Internet to facilitate business between the nation's 7,000 solid-waste haulers and the millions of commercial and residential generators of waste and recyclables.

GBB, whose professionals consists of engineers, planners, economists, environmental scientists, and policy specialists, started the new venture, separate from GBB, as a comprehensive, online intermediary for the nation's $40-billion solid-waste collection, recycling, and disposal business. As it grows, Wastebid will be the focal point for obtaining and exchanging industry information from government, commercial, and academic resources and other non-traditional sources such as user experiences and opinions.

Harvey Gershman, one of GBB's partners and a founder of Wastebid, said it is the nation's first operational Web site aimed at saving time and money for both haulers and generators of waste and recyclables.

The WasteBid system receives E-mail bids from haulers after customers electronically describe their current program and any additional waste handling and recycling needs. Savings for haulers accrue because marketing costs can be significantly lessened. And for customers having to choose haulers through yellow-page research and interviews, hours are saved. Wastebid's primary source of revenue is generated from commission fees paid by haulers for final transactions completed through the Wastebid site.

Gershman said that GBB timed Wastebid's entry into the e-commerce business because of its understanding of the industry, considerable research into e-commerce, several focus group interviews with potential customers, and GBB's own analysis of industry trends and needs. He noted that waste-service providers, as an industry, are in the midst of a dramatic structural change involving internalization of costs, horizontal expansion, and consolidation. Gershman believes that Wastebid is positioned to help the industry better manage costs and improve efficiency. "Participating service providers can count on more sales and shorter sales cycles because they will have access to real-time opportunities," said Gershman.

The "big idea" for Wastebid.com was prompted, said Gershman, when Kevin Callen, an international environmental management and strategic planning consultant brought to the firm an e-commerce, software technology concept that he thought could be adapted to the solid-waste industry and its customers. "What the idea needed was the GBB depth and experience to incubate and guide the Web site's development to the marketplace," said Callen. Furthermore, he said, "GBB contributed greatly to customizing the site's waste management strategies to allow access to information that reduces waste and increases recycling." Currently, Wastebid has a patent pending on the e-commerce process.

GBB registered its unique domain name (www.wastebid.com) in July 1999. It then opened Wastebid's Web site to register waste and recyclables haulers interested in qualifying to be Wastebid service providers, and customers interested in using the site to secure contracts for hauling and related services, and other interested parties wanting to use the solid waste community services planned to be offered by Wastebid.

For more information, contact:
Mr. Robert H. Brickner, Chief Operating Officer
WasteBid.com, Inc.
(703) 698-5001