Stumping for Technology
Saturday, April 30, 2011
By John Trotti
As those who have followed this column for any length of time will confirm, I’m a card-carrying believer in the value of including emerging technologies in our list of options, particularly when it comes to holding our costs in check. While resistance to change, whether through inertia or the belief that “what was good enough for dad is good enough for me,” is part of the human condition, no doubt, I still wonder if there isn’t something else going on…perhaps a perception that technology itself is something of a villain. Whatever, I’d like to present my case for technology, citing a few areas with which we are all familiar.
There are still some of us around who recall our dependence on such things as Selectric Typewriters (accompanied by lots of white-out strips and fluid), carbon paper, and slide rules. Do you recall initial opposition to the arrival of first- or even second-generation PCs? Better still, do you remember how hard it was to justify your budget that included one or two of these machines? Now we lose sleep over how slow our two-year-old desktop is and perhaps even consider how much it’s going to cost to get rid of it to make room for the latest variant…but we have long since forgotten the drudgery this ubiquitous bit of technological magic replaced.
Developed initially for the military, GPS has been around for nearly four decades and has since been finding its way into a variety of civilian activities in which real-time location information is of value. Led by transportation and construction applications, the demand for GPS has emerged as a 21st Century “must-have,” second only to the cell phone for day-to-day wizardry, and the only wonder is why it seems to have taken many business applications longer than the general public to recognize its value. In our neck of the woods, collection and route management operators are turning to GPS to monitor and, in some cases, direct activities. Inevitably, these will become increasingly important as security concerns, traffic and facilities congestion, and destination scheduling both for the delivery of reclaimed materials to manufacturers and waste to intermodal sites for transshipment to remote landfills push us increasingly toward positive control of all vehicle movements.
Nor is GPS use in our industry restricted to roadway use. Initially conceived as a means of monitoring waste compaction, GPS is becoming more and more a mainstay at landfills where airspace is just too valuable a commodity to give away because of boundary errors that grow in magnitude with each successive lift.
Automated collection is not possible in many situations, and there are circumstances in which the transition from manual to automatic makes no economic sense, but to my way of thinking it should always be our goal to search for ways that protect the health, welfare, and sound backs of all of our people, not because it makes for lower workers’ comp costs, but because it happens to be the right way to conduct our business. This same logic should guide our thinking in the designing and equipping of all our waste systems where the risk of injury or even loss of life exists.
Finally, there’s the future. Except for those hopefully few souls who view themselves as hapless victims of an unfair destiny, most of us want to feel that our efforts are worthwhile and in fact contribute to the common good—and certainly part of this involves our ability to ensure that those who follow in our footsteps are among the best and brightest of their generation. In the competition for top young talent, we’re up against formidable opponents, and it would be foolish for us not to recognize that waste management may not be on top of everyone’s wish list. So what has technology to do with recruiting?
Were I just setting out to do my life’s work, my first task would be to rank my options in terms of their chances for bringing me success and personal fulfillment. Chief among the indicators I’d look for would be such elements as challenge, importance to our way of life, and proximity to the cutting edge of technology. Certainly, we rise to the top in two of these, and for sure they are the meat and potatoes of a career. I think we can work a little harder on the sizzle.
Author's Bio: John Trotti is the Group Editor for Forester Media. |
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