Clean cameras.

• Author: Weigel, David
• Position: CleanScapes's innovative method won them service contracts - Brief article

IN EARLY October a small Seattle based waste management company called CleanScapes pulled an amazing coup: It defeated two huge national companies for $25 million in Seattle-area service contracts. One of CleanScapes' ideas: photograph clients with tiny cameras to find out whether they're following the city's compulsory recycling law. Cameras on CleanScapes trucks (not installed in front of the houses, according to company CEO Chris Martin) would snap the photos, which the firm could either use to recommend that customers change their ways or simply send to the city authorities.

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Billion-dollar sanitation giants usually dominate such contracts, and...