The Greeks Making Millions Out of Trash in Waste Removal

Three Greek Cypriots based in London — Aaron Marc Georgiou, Alexie Crassas, and Christos Yiannopoulos — gave up their stable careers in the bustling city to turn people’s trash into treasure with their waste removal business, called LITTA.

LITTA, founded in 2017 by Georgiou, is focused on sustainable waste removal services, which range from simply taking away junk and rubbish to recycling a range of detritus.

Rather than disposing of the trash in your bin, LITTA is focused on more bulky items, such as furniture.

Crassas and Yiannopoulos joined the team later on, after they connected with Georgiou through the vibrant community of Greek Cypriots in London.

Rather than waiting for bulk trash pickup, LITTA enables users and businesses to order the removal of their junk with just a few clicks. The platform is revolutionary in that it is “digital, cost effective, on-demand, and ethical,” according to the company.

LITTA already valued at £10 million

Georgiou, the Greek Cypriot founder of LITTA, spoke to Greek Reporter recently about the ambitious start up and the future of the waste removal business in the world of today, where nearly everyone is much more environmentally conscious.

The cutting-edge business has just received £2m backing from Beringea, a venture capital firm that is dedicated to backing environmentally-friendly and sustainable businesses.

Beringea also valued LITTA at a stunning £10m, recognizing the business’s potential to tackle England’s huge issue of waste disposal. Georgiou notes that, while he’s created many apps and started many businesses throughout his career, LITTA is his biggest success.

LITTA allows people to book the service of their choice online or through their app, which Georgiou created with a team in Greece; this makes the process much more convenient than other waste removal services.

LITTA has become the “Waste king”

Although the business provides a necessary service with ease of use, LITTA “did not get much traction” in the beginning, Georgiou tells Greek Reporter.

At first, when the business was only an app, it didn’t find much success. But when LITTA’s website was created in 2019, business began to pick up rapidly.

In a matter of just one year, LITTA went from receiving around 100 orders to over 2,000. The business, which currently employs an impressive 200 drivers, will quickly expand.

Already offering services across the UK, in London,Glasgow, Birmingham, and Manchester,  LITTA’s next step is to expand internationally into Australia and the US.

There is not yet any plan to expand into Greece and Cyprus, but Georgiou doesn’t count that idea out, either.

“We built it up from nothing,” Georgiou says with pride, embodying the Greek entrepreneurial spirit. “We’ve become the waste kings.”

LITTA’s Greek Cypriot founder attributes the business’s “rapid growth” to the hard work of his team, which “landed us the number one spot on Trustpilot,” a customer review site.

An eco-friendly solution to waste removal

LITTA was born out of a “huge problem” in England — private citizens, waste removal organizations, and others illegally dump trash on pristine natural land and along the sides of roads.

There are around 1 million incidents such as this each year in England, according to Georgiou.

Disturbed by this trend, Georgiou thought to himself, “why don’t we make an app where you can order and book trash collection?”

LITTA utilizes a system popularized by US ride-hailing giant Uber, which contracts with independent drivers while assuring a quality experience for users.

Similarly, LITTA’s drivers are contracted out, and dispose of the waste on behalf of the business, which enables users to book their service, track their driver, and even see where the waste ended up on their app and website.

Committed to disposing of waste in an eco-friendly manner, LITTA currently recycles over 90% of the waste it collects, preventing it from heading to landfills.

Additionally, LITTA always sends the closest driver to the pickup site in order to reduce drive-time and carbon emissions.

Not only is LITTA eco-friendly — they’re also quick as lightning. Their record time for the completion of a service is just 16 minutes, which includes the time passed from when the customer booked the service to when the waste was disposed of or recycled.