How Waste Company CheckSammy Leverages Technology for Better Outcomes

CheckSammy got started in the solid waste management business, which is still its primary focus, today leveraging a network of over 5,000 haulers. But in addition to its trash removal and diversion services, the company now offers a few tech-based products to support multiple operations and tasks.

CheckSammy co-founders Sam Scoten and Paul Botelho discuss the company’s model, including on-demand waste pick up in situations requiring fast responses, and how technology fits into the picture. They explain most pressing problems they try to solve for their clients; how they help them with their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals, and why they expanded into this emerging space.

Waste360: Who are your customers and what services and products do you provide?

Scoten: We work primarily with Fortune 500 companies, including retailers, municipalities, venues, warehouses, and property managers. At the core, we are a sustainability and waste management company, identifying and offering diversion options for our customers.

We pick up waste on demand, within 24 hours of the service request, from customers who typically have urgent situations requiring immediate attention.  It could be a facilities manager with an overflowing dumpster that’s creating a safety hazard for residents or waste haulers. Or a national retailer with cardboard overflowing in the bays where they need a new shipment of toys tomorrow. Or a retail outlet that experiences an uptick in illegal dumping of items such as couches or mattresses.

We address the interruption as quickly as we can, to allow for the resumption of business as usual.

In addition to providing hands-on waste management services, we have several apps and tools. They are designed to facilitate functions such as capturing and transmitting data; generating reports; and/or supporting drivers and customers in their day-to-day operations. I will get more into the apps and tools and their features later. But know that the idea is for  our services and technology-based products to work together, with the technology serving as a mechanism to improve efficiency and outcomes of the waste diversion operations.

Waste360: Can you give examples showing how your platform facilitates your overall waste management offerings?

Botelho: One example involves a large CPG brand that was facing a recall of over 65 tons of tainted peanut butter. At their size, finding a sustainable way to avoid creating such waste was a high priority. We sent over 130,000 pounds of the peanut butter to an anaerobic digestion facility to convert the organic material to biogas for reusable energy. The packaging was then recycled.

In another case, a retailer contacted us to remove over 55,000 mannequins nearing the end of their life span. Our national scale allowed us to retrieve the mannequins from 600+ locations and pursue a mix of sustainable solutions to 20 different end facilities. We used shredding, source separation, waste to energy, and standard recycling and provided a comprehensive final report with data on the outcomes.

In both situations, our platform enabled the brand to communicate with us, and allowed us to configure route management, monitor job progress, and share updates with all stakeholders.

Waste360: What are the most pressing problems that CheckSammy tries to solve?

Scoten: One common challenge of companies, at least if they have multiple locations, is trying to coordinate a multi-location diversion program. They must coordinate for each location separately or negotiate with individual franchises, and the complexity of these logistics is difficult to manage. We are able to respond rapidly, at any of their locations across North America, by leveraging our network of over 5,000 haulers.

Addressing the entire “waste emergency” is another task that can be hard. The after-effects of an overflowing compactor or organics spill is an unsightly mess. Now, the business needs to source a power washer or wait for their next scheduled power washing. We can simplify that process by providing an all-in-one waste removal and power washing solution.

Determining how to begin the sustainability journey can also be difficult. Many clients say they don’t know where to begin. Others say that their efforts to increase recycling or improve ESG scores are typically one-time initiatives rather than sustainable programs. We can find opportunities to divert waste through repeatable, scalable programs, and track outcomes.

Waste360: Describe your cloud-based platform and apps – what do they do?

Botelho: We have CheckSammyALL, which unites our proprietary applications, including SmartAPP, SmartFLEET, and SmartDASHBOARD, into a consolidated technology platform.

The platform provides app-based scheduling, pricing, service activity, and invoicing modules. Additionally, it tracks cloud-based waste data to enable actionable insights. It also provides field management and communication with a hauler-friendly interface for end-to-end job management and data capture with messaging capabilities between haulers and the CheckSammy team, enabling real-time routing and logistics management to improve hauler efficiency and job flow.

We also have SmartBINS and SmartBAGS, which were developed to provide an outlet at properties for the disposal and collection of pre-and post-use consumer goods on premises. These bins are provided on a per-unit, per-month basis for rental, with pickups of goods charged separately.

SmartBINS have remote fill-level monitoring that integrates with the CheckSammyALL platform to improve collection and route efficiency. The sensors monitor real-time fill levels, 24/7/365. Once SmartBINS hit 85 percent capacity, a driver is notified for pickup. The bins also provide reuse summaries, track overflow frequency, and store collection history.

SmartBAGS can be deployed where real-time level monitoring is not needed, allowing temporary deployment for textiles, e-waste, or other materials.

Waste360: Do you work with others in the industry and, if so, how?

Scoten: Yes; we work with industry partners to increase the scope of the solutions they can offer their customers. We support our waste management industry partners in cases where they run into an unforeseen issue, such as if customers put out excess material, weather-related issues, container misuse, or illegal dumping.

Consider how today’s popular third-party food delivery apps connect restaurants, drivers, and diners. Our model connects customers to haulers or brokers and the waste and recycling facilities. We are the single point of contact to provide problem-solving efforts and ideas about where to send material.

Waste360: What did you consider as you developed your products?

Botelho: We originally identified a complementary service provision in the waste management industry through the integration of technology to streamline processes. We developed technology to improve our ability to provide solutions across multiple spectrums - from the sheer size of the job to the number of locations being serviced, to solving for niche sustainability and recycling needs.

The majority of our product ideation has actually been at the request of our clients. They’ve told us about a challenge they face, and we’ve come up with products or services to specifically solve those challenges.

Waste360: What have been some client requests that you’ve catered solutions for?

Scoten: There are a number of examples, but we can focus on two key requests.

First, there are several clients who have wanted documented proof of a job being done, particularly in the cases of clients with hundreds of locations across the continent. So, we integrated the capture of “after” photos to document the successful completion of the job. These images are also used by our internal Quality Assurance team to confirm jobs are completed properly.

Second, a number of clients wanted to record the materials’ weight for their ESG tracking, so we incorporated that into the data provision. Some clients want that data in an aggregated report while others expect it to be provided via an application programming interface (API), and our customized approach means we can activate whatever integration methods, data sets, or processes that work for their internal processes.

Waste360: Describe the reporting, what you capture, and how.

Botelho: Every job is unique to the client. With clients who can accept API-level integrations we transmit data via API. Others request an aggregated reporting summary each month, via spreadsheets.

We’ve purposely structured the CheckSammy platform so that it reacts to a client’s specific infrastructure, rather than imposing our technology footprint on them. We’ve learned the hard way that we can’t expect them to adjust their operating processes to accommodate our technology - it’s the reverse. In a typical project, we’ll work with the client to understand more about the data they want and the data they’re able to economically capture within the scope of their existing systems.

In general, we provide a digital chain of custody report, including geo-location data, image assets, as well as date-and-time and tonnage data. As part of the planning process, we’ll identify other capabilities or future reporting needs to help them achieve their reporting and analytics requirements.

Waste360: How do you support ESG goals? And why did you add this service to your portfolio?

Scoten: In helping clients measure their ESG scores we map out all the components of their scores and identify opportunities for growth and change.

We either take their benchmarks or help them measure and establish those benchmarks if they have not done so already. With ESG, it’s less about the specific score today and more about identifying opportunities to change it, capturing the relevant data, then tracking the data as we implement programs to improve the metrics.

Why do we offer ESG support? Although Environmental, Social, and Governance factors were only important for activist investors a decade ago, that’s no longer the case.

Today, data shows that:

■ 79 percent of investors say ESG reporting is crucial to their decision-making.

■ Almost 50 percent of investors say they’re willing to divest away from companies that aren’t taking significant ESG action.

Financial regulators at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are also looking into instituting ESG reporting requirements to ensure that organizations are honest about their ESG activities.

There’s a good reason for this. Researchers have found that:

 ■ 55 percent of funds marketed as fossil fuel-free, low carbon, and low energy were over-exaggerated.

■ More than 70 percent of funds that promise ESG goals fall short of their targets.

Without a way to measure what was actually happening, companies couldn’t report ESG efforts to their investors, customers, and communities. In some cases, “sustainable” waste management wasn’t actually sustainable at all.

We at CheckSammy find it important to address this, and we focus on doing so by making it possible to track and trace every single piece of waste that comes out of a company.