We are building more sustainable communities with a small but dedicated team. In this rubric, we give each member of our team the chance to introduce themselves to you. This week, it is Riccardo’s turn, our CTO.
Although you can find short introductions of our team members on the “About us” page, we thought it was about time for you to get to know us a bit better. This week, Riccardo will take you along on his journey at Byewaste, sharing his vision on sustainability and our company.
Hi there! Who are you? Tell us something about yourself!
Hello! I’m Riccardo, one of the co-founders and CTO of Byewaste. I’m 34 years old and I’m Italian.
I live together with my girlfriend in a flat that is located in a cute and quiet residential area. Amongst my personal interests are tech (of course), video games, cooking (and eating), trekking and travelling. I’m also a social animal and I love to spend as much time with my close friends as I can.
What do you do at Byewaste?
I am responsible for the technological layer of Byewaste. With the help of the development team, our graphic designers and continuous collaborations with members of the whole team, my aim is to build the best tool to let our users enjoy the Byewaste service.
How did you end up at Byewaste?
Besides all the roles that I fulfil within the company, I’m a mobile developer. A couple of years ago I was working together with Tommaso (one of the co-founders of Byewaste) on another project as an iOS developer.
One day he talked to me about Byewaste, and how he was struggling with building the technology he needed to take the idea to a more concrete level.
I immediately loved the concept of Byewaste and the mission behind it, as sustainability is something that I really care about. So when Tommaso asked me to join him and Francisco to create the Byewaste app, I said yes without hesitation.
Why did you want to work for the company?
The real question is “Why shouldn’t I?”. I work together with a great team composed of fantastic humans, doing what I love, building something which I truly believe in: a better world – not just for me, but for all of us.
What do you like most about your job?
The thing that I like most is that I’m able to work together with people that share the same values as me, and I also like that I can apply my skills to build something that is actually useful for the people around me.
And what do you like least about it?
When working in a startup, it could happen that you feel like things are not taking off, or aren’t going in the way you hoped. In these moments you can feel discouraged and lost, but we’re all humans, this happens. However, I truly believe in what we are doing, and these moments motivate me to put in even more effort to reach the goal.
Why do you think that people should start recycling more?
Because is the right thing to do would already be a valid answer, but as we can see this reasoning doesn’t work.
So, to expand on this, I think we should start recycling for all the benefits that we are already aware of (even though we often pretend that we don’t), but most of all because we live in a finite ecosystem. That means that in a year, or possibly a few dozen, we’re going to run out of natural resources. I don’t even want to imagine which this will cost us in terms of environmental damage.
Therefore, we really need to start thinking about a more sustainable solution, and we should start doing it as soon as possible, because we’re running out of time.
What is the nicest item that you have ever thrifted?
The clear winner is the mattress I bought when I was sharing an apartment during my time at University.
When I first entered the apartment, the guy that was leaving said that he was about to trash his mattress because he didn’t want to bring it with him to his new apartment, and I told him: “no I’m going to use it, it is almost new”.
Long story short, I slept on that mattress for 9 more years, and it still is one of the most comfortable mattresses I have ever slept on.
When would you have especially benefited from a service like Byewaste yourself?
I moved a lot of times in my life, and everytime i had a lot of stuff that was still in a good condition, but that I could not take with me.
When you move it happens sometimes that you have something in your new apartment that you already owned, and I think that Byewaste could have helped me a lot in those moments, to avoid turning good and working items into waste.
How are you contributing to a more sustainable future in your personal life?
I don’t do anything special, but I do keep my home temperature at 19º, use energy saving bulbs, use the washing machine no more than once a week, only buy something new in case I really need it and some other small habits that now come so natural to me that I cannot even think of them right now.
We don’t have to be superheroes to save the planet, we just need to try to be better humans.
Which sustainable habit would you like to apply in your daily life?
I’m struggling with my diet, I’m still an omnivore and I don’t know if I’ll ever adopt a vegan diet.
I cannot completely do this due to some personal health reasons, but my aim for 2022 is to completely eliminate one of the most polluting things on the planet from my diet: red meat. My consumption of it is pretty low at the moment, but I want to go 0 as soon as possible.
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