Welcome to the Haul of Fame, a weekly series from Rubicon in which we sit down with a hauler partner to talk about their company, their community, and how they’re collaborating with Rubicon in our mission to end waste.
As our nation continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the men and women at companies like these are on the front lines, continuing to drive their daily routes and keeping our communities safe and clean. Their work is the linchpin to safeguarding the public health and we thank them, now more than ever, for providing this essential service to our society.
Hillside Solutions, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is in their own words “the waste hauling company of the future.” Operating seven trucks in the Omaha Metro Area, Hillside Solutions is a first-generation hauler offering front-end recycling services. Hillside Solutions has been working with Rubicon since September 2018.
Hillside Solutions’ Director of Partnerships, Brent Crampton, sat down with Rubicon to talk about his company and mission for the Haul of Fame.
How does Rubicon’s mission to end waste match-up to Hillside Solutions’ own company mission?
Hillside Solutions: At Hillside Solutions, what drives us each day is helping people figure out ways to have a better approach to their waste than simply putting it in a landfill.
As a newbie to this industry back in January 2018, I came from a marketing and branding background, and I was stunned to realize that our industry hasn’t standardized basic things like signage and what colors we put on each stream. It is my belief that in order to get more everyday people to successfully participate in landfill diversion programs, our industry needs to come together and agree on a few simple things, such as the disambiguation around waste, garbage, and trash terminology. It’s too confusing. In the same way when something goes into the recycling stream, we call it “recycling,” we need to call our trash “landfill.” It helps people connect with where their waste really ends up.
How does Hillside Solutions distinguish itself from the competition?
Hillside Solutions: Instead of owning a landfill, we decided to own an industrial composting facility. That one decision changed our entire set of priorities and business model when it comes to waste and recycling.
How has the Rubicon technology in your fleet of vehicles helped you and your drivers in their everyday job?
Hillside Solutions: We’re a small, family-owned company in our local community. We don’t have the capacity to hire an app developer or coder to help us figure out routing software. Rubicon does. The tech they align us with evens the playing field so we can stay competitive with our billion-dollar competitors.
What do you love most about the community in which you work, and the customers you serve?
Hillside Solutions: Experiences like getting to divert 3.25 tons of recycling and compostable materials from Maha Music Festival last year. After a day of hard work persuading several thousands of people to separate their materials at our “Zero Waste Stations,” we wound up backstage for the Lizzo performance in the midst of her career peak.
Where does Hillside Solutions see itself five years from now?
Hillside Solutions: Us folks in the waste hauling industry, who are also committed to sustainability, find ourselves in an odd space. Volume of material is how we make money—and while recycling and composting are absolutely essential, if we’re truly earnest about the environment, all roads point to reduce, reuse, refuse as the real solution in order to, as Rubicon puts it, end waste.
We love thinking about future scenarios where we have a viable business model that simultaneously hauls waste, while also helping customers to have less of it.
Chris Watts is Sr. Director of Innovation and Hauler Relations at Rubicon. To stay ahead of Rubicon’s announcements of new partnerships and collaborations around the world, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, or contact us today.