How technology can bring long-term results to society’s unending waste problems with Sophie Walker

“Know what your strengths and weaknesses are, and find people to plug the gaps”

Key Takeaway

• It is important to provide transparency on how to handle waste since most people rely on waste contractors. With this, it will make the waste into resources and will enable the people to be more resource-efficient to society.
• Ask and accept help from people who offer assistance because people naturally help each other
• Mission-driven and Purpose-driven businesses can solve bigger problems in the industry rather than a profit-focused company which limits themselves to just focussing on earnings.
• The waste industry is digitally immature thus hazardous waste consignment codes had to be created to regulate waste industry disposal.
•  Know what your strengths and weaknesses are and find people to plug the gaps.
• You should employ people who are better than you if you can and not be threatened by that.
• Educating people in terms of digital matters, waste compliance, and building the basic foundation of allowing the industry to go through digital transformation is still a work in progress.
• Monitoring the meta tags and keywords on a website is important to see what is valuable and what is working – working in terms of most visited articles and what pages gain the most traffic.
• Google Analytics can give you detailed answers to what people are searching for and what people don’t find answers from.

Mentioned Links and References:

Mentioned Links and References:

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About Sophie Walker:

Sophie Walker is the COO and Co-Founder of Dsposal a clean-tech company who along with its sister social enterprise Your Dsposal, is on a mission is to empower people to make better decisions with their resources and waste by increasing transparency and accountability to make a positive impact on our environment.

Sophie Walker’s passion is about sustainability and draws on her varied background and experiences. Born in Tamil Nadu, India, she spent her early years on rural development projects before moving to North Devon, UK. Prior to founding the company in 2016, Sophie gained a degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford, cycled 8,700 miles around North America, and enjoyed a winding career encompassing logistics and supply chain, the food industry, and sustainability. She brings a fresh pair of eyes and breadth of experience to her new-found passion for the waste and resources industry. In her spare time, she volunteers on the Tech for Good Live podcast and is a trustee for the charity Village Service Trust, which supports health and community development in rural Tamil Nadu.

Sophie Walker was voted joint 5th in the 2019 Resource Hot 100, is shortlisted for the Northern Power Women Outstanding Entrepreneur award 2020, is the secretary of the Waste Compliance Taskforce, and is an alumna of the CSC Leaders Programme. She speaks internationally on waste, digitalisation, open data, and open standards.