Wastebid.com Aims to Reduce Waste, Increase Recycling

RecyclingToday.com
By: Internet Editor
May 11, 2000

The nation’s thousands of solid-waste haulers and the millions of commercial and residential generators of waste and recyclables are now able to use the Internet to facilitate business.

Wastebid.com, a new site launched by industry consultants Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc., aims to save its customers time and money by providing them with a high-content site.

“One of our primary services is to help a customer who buys waste and recycling services in the open market save time by using our offerings of service providers,” says Harvey Gershman, a partner at GBB and founder of Wastebid.com. “We’ve done a lot of work for local governments and we basically are convinced that a business-to-business site like we’ve designed will help accomplish better waste management and recycling for individual generators than could ever be done by local governments.”

According to the company, the idea for the site came from Kevin Callen, an international environmental management and strategic planning consultant who brought GBB 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,” Callen said. “GBB contributed greatly to customizing the site’s waste management strategies to allow access to information that reduces waste and increases recycling,”

The site works by taking e-mail bids from haulers after customers electronically describe their waste handling and recycling needs.

“Participating service providers can count on more sales and shorter sales cycles because they will have access to real-time opportunities,” Gershman says.

The founders of the site are hoping it grows to be “the” place where those in the industry go for information. “GBB has been a consultant for 20 years,” Gershman says. “We bring network and knowledge into designing the site and we think that’s very special. When it’s fully up and running, it will be rather unique.”

Content for the site will come from relationships with publications.“We’re talking to a number of people and other publications about content relationships and we’re negotiating with one,” he says, declining to say what publication he is negotiating with. “But we’re looking for others.”

In addition to a marketing program to drive traffic to the site, the founders are also focusing on recruiting new employees for the new company. The first major recruitment effort will be for a CEO to take over for Gershman, who is filling in temporarily. Management decisions will be announced at a later date, Gershman says.

GBB is a consulting firm based in Fairfax, Va., whose professionals consist of engineers, planners, economists, environmental scientists and policy specialists.

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