When we talk about sustainability in tech, we usually gravitate toward the clean stuff: renewable energy, carbon offsets, data center efficiency. Laptops occasionally make the list. The trash bin in the office kitchen? Almost never. Yet in Bogotá, that bin is exactly where a complex, often invisible human story begins.
The People Behind the System
Unlike many global cities with municipal trucks running fixed routes, Bogotá's recycling system runs through the hands of thousands of recyclers and organized recycling associations. They are a critical part of the city’s circular economy — but they work in punishing conditions, and the economics of their work are fragile in ways most people never consider.
Here's the part that's easy to miss: when materials arrive contaminated or poorly sorted, their resale value collapses — and for a waste picker, that’s a direct hit to their income. The quality of what leaves our office has a downstream consequence for a real person's livelihood — someone we'll never meet, in a part of the city we'll never see.
Starting With an Honest Assessment
Before building anything new, we looked at what we actually had. Our initial assessment with Amazóniko, a local circular economy platform, turned up two uncomfortable findings. First, our waste was regularly arriving mixed. Second, our team was genuinely uncertain about what went where. Neither of those things is unusual; most offices have the same problem. We chose to become more intentional about improving our role within an existing system.
So that's where we started. Not with a flashy rollout, but with the basics: better sorting at the source, clearer guidance for the team, and working alongside organised groups of waste pickers whose livelihoods depend on the quality of what comes through.
When materials are sorted correctly, waste pickers spend less time reclassifying and more time recovering value. What looks like a small action inside an office translates into more stable income outside of it.
Making It Visible
One of the quieter design decisions in this program is traceability. Through Amazóniko's digital tracking, materials can be followed from our office — and even from employees' homes — all the way to their final transformation. Recycling stops being something you assume happened and becomes something you can actually see.
That visibility matters more than it might seem. When people understand who is on the other side of a system, they act differently. Behavior changes when the abstract becomes concrete; when "recycling" stops being a bin and starts being a person.
We've also extended this beyond the office walls. Through Amazóniko's “Tribe” model, HubSpotters in Bogotá can schedule collections directly from home, applying the same practices in places where formal systems don't always reach. What started as an office initiative is becoming a daily habit — something that moves with people rather than staying behind when they leave the building.
What's Shifting on the Ground
The Bogotá program is still evolving, and we're honest about that. We now have a clearer picture of the waste streams we generate and where the biggest reduction opportunities are. We're piloting the collection of soft plastics, which are hard to manage. We're working more closely with building management to improve how waste flows through the entire system, not just our slice of it.
None of this is finished. But the direction is clear, and the next phase is already in focus: exploring composting at the Bogotá office, increasing participation and consistency across the team, and gathering the data that will help inform how we might approach office waste initiatives across HubSpot globally.
Why This One Matters
We won't pretend this work is glamorous. It doesn't sit on a billboard or headline a product launch. But responsible growth isn't only the work that's visible from the outside. Sometimes it's the work of looking honestly at a system you're already part of and deciding to make it better for everyone operating within it.
The Amazóniko program started with a simple question: what if waste wasn't something we managed, but something we took responsibility for?
It’s a question we’re still learning to answer — but we’re asking it in the right place, with the right people.
This article may include forward-looking statements. Please see our Sustainability Forward-Looking Statements for more information.