Andrew Winston Joins RecycleMatch Advisory Board

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) Houston, TX - March 23, 2011 - RecycleMatch, the first online B2B marketplace for business recycling and waste diversion, today announced Andrew Winston has joined the company’s advisory board. Best-selling author of Green to Gold and Green Recovery, Winston’s contributions will leverage his extensive experience in sustainability consulting for large corporations like Bank of America, Bayer, HP, Pepsi, Boeing, and IKEA.   RecycleMatch is addressing a $90 billion market opportunity in waste and recyclables by giving companies a new way to buy, sell or give away their large volumes of waste and commodity recyclables. Companies list materials free of charge on the site, with their brands and identities kept confidential. Prospective buyers can ask questions, get samples and make offers on the materials which can be reused or upcycled as well as recycled. The listing company selects the party that is the right match for their goals, which may include environmental requirements as well as price.   Corporate zero-waste initiatives have become common in business, with recent announcements from GM, P&G, Kraft, Sunny Delight and Caterpillar to cite a few. According to Winston, “Going to ‘zero’ is more complicated than it first appears and requires new tools, resources and ways of thinking. RecycleMatch is well positioned to be a key resource for companies that want to not only achieve zero waste to landfill, but, more importantly, get the most value out of the materials in their value-chains.”    Industrial waste, defined by the EPA as the wide variety of non-hazardous materials that result from the production of goods and products, is estimated at 7.6 billion tons per year in the US alone. That figure is 60 times the size of residentially generated materials, but the majority of recycling resources are tailored to recycling at home.    Latest EPA estimates indicate two-thirds of waste is still being disposed of by traditional disposal methods instead of being recycled or otherwise reclaimed, while EPA vision documents outline a near zero-waste reality by 2020. The existing recycling industry represents a $47 billion market, primarily managed offline. Waste industry leaders have also estimated another $20 billion in untapped value in the commercially and industrially generated materials currently going to US landfills today. With additional cost savings from avoiding landfill tipping fees, estimated at over $22 billion annually, large corporations now see clear economic reasons for taking a more active role managing their waste and recyclables. GM’s sustainability report indicates it has generated over $2.5 billion in revenues just from the sale of recyclables over a five year period, while Sunny Delight reported savings of $2.5 million from waste diversion efforts in three facilities.   “We’re pleased to have Andrew’s perspective on the board,” said Chris Porch, CEO of RecycleMatch. “We have built a model that aligns financial incentives with environmental benefits, which is the Holy Grail that organizations of all sizes, from large multinationals to small and mid-sized manufacturers, are seeking in triple-bottom-line sustainability. Andrew brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in how that kind of alignment has the potential to be very disruptive to business as usual.”   About Andrew Winston Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, is the author of Green Recovery, a strategic plan for using environmental thinking to survive hard economic times. He is also the co-author of Green to Gold, the best-selling guide to what works - and what doesn't - when companies go green. Andrew is a globally recognized expert on green business, appearing regularly in major media such as The Wall Street Journal, Time, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, and CNBC. Andrew is dedicated to helping companies both large and small use environmental strategy to grow, create enduring value, and build stronger relationships with employees, customers, and other stakeholders. His clients have included Bank of America, Bayer, HP, Pepsi, Boeing, and IKEA. Andrew also sits on the Sustainability Advisory Board of Kimberly-Clark Corporation.   About RecycleMatch RecycleMatch is the first B2B online marketplace that allows companies to buy, sell or give waste and recyclables through online transactions. The company’s goal is to make landfills obsolete by making the commodity recycling market more efficient and opening up new markets for materials currently considered waste. RecycleMatch connects companies that have waste such as plastics, textiles, paper, chemicals, food and organics, metals, building materials and others, with those seeking to reuse, upcycle, recycle or downcycle materials in a wide range of industries. Located in Austin and Houston, RecycleMatch was named Entrepreneur Magazine’s Most Brilliant Ideas in 2010. For more information or to make a match, visit http://www.recyclematch.com.   RM12564