JOE BENEDETTO III

President

Joe is a third-generation member of the recycling and solid waste industry and has worked in and around recycling facilities his entire life. Joe’s earliest work was at his family’s Recycling Plant in Chesapeake, VA where he was a general laborer and equipment operator. From there Joe obtained at BSBA in Finance from American University and went on to work for the largest manufacturer and consumer of corrugated containers in the world, Stone Container Corporation.

At Stone Container, Joe oversaw managing and marketing of over $85 million dollars’ worth of recycled fiber annually. After Stone Container, Joe accepted a position with Paper Recycling International (PRI) where he became Procurement Manager and provided recycled fiber analysis and procurement strategies for 12 paper mills along the East Coast of the US and Canada. His responsibilities included negotiating contracts, setting up controls and procedures to track and monitor shipments, market and price analysis, and general export responsibility. In 1999 Joe decided to return to Hampton Roads and work for his family’s recycling company as a COO.

After a few years as Vice President overseeing the operation and management of 3 facilities, Joe left to join Cellmark, a multibillion-dollar recycling and paper sales company as COO. Joe was responsible for management of their four recycling facilities. In 2005, Joe started RDS and starting with a vacant piece of land, built an industrial building and started operations. RDS then expanded into Roanoke, VA, and Athens GA, and Greenville North Carolina. RDS specializes in Transforming Municipal Recycling Operations with an emphasis on Single Stream Processing, utilizing the most advanced technology to keep production levels high while maintaining a cost effect solution for managing municipal recycling programs.

RDS employes robotic sorting technology in our facilities and was one of the first facilities to utilize AI Robots to perform material sorting. Joe has spent years as a paid advisor to GLG, as their expert in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. GLG connects clients with industry experts with first hand experience so clients can learn and make decisions with confidence regarding topics they have limited experience in.