Turning Trash into Treasure
By Jennifer Raiser
May 2024
Martin Junck of Musa doesn’t just take out the trash — he gives it a second life.
The São Paulo–based B2B company is disrupting Brazil’s $32 billion waste management industry, using technology to ensure that 100% of their clients’ discards becomes a resource, a raw material, or a recyclable.
In Brazil, only 3% of the 11.4 million tons of waste generated annually is reused or recycled. “The waste management business has been operating the same way for 50 years,” explains Martin, who co-founded the business with Fabrício Guimarães. “In Brazil, businesses are required to pay for waste collection that normally ends up in sanitary landfills, dumps, or in nature — including the ocean. We contract with all types of businesses — hotels, malls, schools, universities, restaurants — and redirect their waste for the same price or a lower price than they were paying to discard it. We implement a simple model to help them segregate types of waste, and use outsourced transportation to deliver different types of waste to their most useful and profitable destination, then share that revenue with [the client].”
"The waste management business has been operating the same way for 50 years."
Musa’s reliance on technology helps determine where the greatest revenue lies. Understanding the collection and revenue data from Musa’s 700+ clients has narrowed Martin’s focus to acquiring medium and large business accounts. “We want to add higher value with higher volumes and more specific materials,” he says. “And we are switching our transport company model to using outsiders, not working with the usual incumbents who have traditionally transported waste.”
New haulers are often more open-minded about what can be recycled, Martin finds, and also help him lower costs and include more aligned business partners. He still uses incumbents for certain things, like organic food waste, which has to be transported in an organic food truck. He has also worked to eliminate brokers and other intermediaries to improve the shared client return. “Once you understand where volumes and frequency are, you can direct major resources like paper, glass and aluminum directly to buyers, which leads to profitability,” he says. “Data is allowing us to have more sophisticated routes to track specific types of materials.”
Martin is excited about the potential to grow the business beyond São Paulo to other parts of Brazil, and expanding some of his large accounts with multiple business locations. He plans to enter those markets thoughtfully, “as an MVP,” he says. “We want to go in with excellence, go in with good clients, and with a profitable model.”
Martin is excited about expanding the benefits for Musa, its clients and the planet. “We remain relentlessly focused on improvement,” he says. “We have a lot to do.”