Dive Brief:

• Arwood Waste National  says it is the first waste company in the U.S. to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. The private waste firm, located in the Southeastern part of the country, reports at least one customer each month uses bitcoin to pay for services.
• The digital method of currency was created in 2009. Arwood Waste began accepting bitcoin in the summer of 2014.
• The conservative nature of the industry is primarily the reason David Biderman of the Washington, D.C.-based National Waste & Recycling Association, says it would come as a shock to him to find waste haulers at the forefront of paying with bitcoin.

Dive Insight:

Bitcoin's universal payment system, according to John Arwood, the president of Arwood Waste and Arwood Waste National, enables him to not need to stay up to date on current on international fund exchange laws and regulations.

Bitcoin is not yet a gamechanger for Waste Management. Toni Beck, a spokesperson for that company, said the waste and recycling company is monitoring bitcoin, but that "it’s a little too early to tell what role it will play in commerce."