Alastair Mackie is the founder and managing director of WasteSync, a Strathaven-based company building offline-first software that lets weighbridge teams record waste movements even when the mobile signal drops out.
Digital waste tracking becomes mandatory for permitted waste receivers in England and Wales from 1 October 2026, with Scotland following in January 2027, and WasteSync says it passed all 14 of DEFRA’s test cases in July and has been approved to connect to the live system. The former Lloyds Banking Group manager and Strathclyde MBA graduate also won the Strathclyde Inspire 100 competition in June. He tells Business Matters why software has to earn its place at the gate, and why unglamorous industries are worth a founder’s attention.
What do you currently do at WasteSync?
I call myself MD, so it is founder, products, selling, growing and joining the dots. In a nutshell, my job is taking an operational requirement and turning it into reliable software that teams on a busy waste site will use every day without complaint, without stopping trucks and without incurring fines.
I lead our commercial strategy and long-term vision, run customer discovery and track shifts in UK environmental legislation. As an early-stage founder, my role changes by the hour, moving from commercial positioning to the granular detail of how a weighbridge operator inputs tonnage on an uneven yard.
Waste management is massive. It is essential national infrastructure, yet vast swathes of daily operations still depend on physical clipboards, crumpled paper tickets and siloed spreadsheets. Crucially, waste facilities and transfer stations often sit in connectivity blackspots where standard mobile signal drops out entirely.
If software requires constant 4G or 5G to function, it fails at the gate. We built WasteSync from the ground up to be offline-first, meaning crews can log movements, verify loads and store records uninterrupted, with everything syncing automatically the moment a connection returns.
I spend a substantial part of each week on site visits and calls with weighbridge teams, local authorities, independent carriers and compliance managers. I work backwards from their daily operational friction. Where does poor connectivity halt throughput? Which steps in the waste transfer note lead to errors? Who holds the budget, and what concrete outcome makes their shift easier? Software must earn its place on the ground.
What was the inspiration behind your business?
A mix of wanting to build an independent business and spotting a broken, overlooked industry problem worth fixing.
My career was never mapped out in a neat straight line. I took a law degree in Edinburgh, realised early on that my natural strengths lay in commercial execution, and moved directly into advertising sales. That gave me an early education in cold outreach, negotiation and how clients make purchasing decisions.
After serving as a director in an SME and completing an MBA at Strathclyde, I moved into financial services. I spent over a decade in senior management and private banking, working day in, day out with regulatory governance, risk management and audit-ready data.
The catalyst arrived when I was leading AI and digital innovation initiatives at Lloyds Banking Group. Looking closely at automated workflows and modern data pipelines, I saw how much friction could be removed from traditional, paper-choked sectors. As a father of two, that sparked my entrepreneurial drive.
I wanted to move from watching digital transformation unfold inside a corporate institution to creating an independent venture where accountability rested squarely on my shoulders. I was searching for work that brought together commercial viability, intellectual challenge and tangible societal utility.
When I looked at waste and resources, the market gap and timing were incredible. Upcoming digital waste tracking mandates and other regulations, rising supply chain audit standards and decades-old paper habits meant operators needed better tools. WasteSync was founded to turn that regulatory headache into an operational advantage. You know the massive fly-tipping you see on the news? We are part of the solution to that.
How is WasteSync preparing for the digital waste tracking deadline?
In July we passed all 14 of DEFRA’s test cases and were approved to connect to the live Digital Waste Tracking system. Records are captured on site, even with no connection, and filed automatically to DEFRA and SEPA once the signal returns.
In June we demonstrated WasteSync to a Scottish local authority and an electrical waste processor for the first time. Both watched it capture a load offline, and both agreed to pilot it.
Who do you admire?
Naval Ravikant’s ideas helped crystallise how I approach building a business. My co-founder, Iain Baxter, introduced me to The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, which gave words to principles I had spent years circling: developing specific knowledge, taking direct accountability and creating leverage that outlasts your daily hours.
It is an exceptionally grounding framework for any founder, shifting the focus away from vanity metrics and towards durable, compounding value. Naval is the man.
I also lean heavily on classic commercial fundamentals. Dale Carnegie remains the gold standard for understanding that business is built entirely on trust, listening and treating people with respect. Brian Tracy’s rules on prioritisation keep me focused every morning. When you run an early-stage company, incoming demands always exceed available daylight, so deciding what not to do is just as important as the tasks you complete.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
I would not change the core path, because every chapter contributed directly to the founder I am today. Law trained my analytical discipline and contract awareness. Commercial sales taught me resilience and how to listen to clients. Banking gave me a deep respect for governance, risk and data integrity. Modern tech showed me what software can achieve when applied with discipline.
I should have trusted my gut and backed myself sooner. Corporate life provides regular income and stability, and it is easy to become comfortable in those patterns. Eventually, you must confront what truly motivates you and take the leap.
I also would have put rough prototypes in front of paying customers even earlier. It is dangerously tempting for founders to sit in a room refining product specs in isolation. The fastest way to learn is getting dirty boots on site, watching someone use your interface and letting real operators dismantle your assumptions. That direct feedback prevents you from solving problems that do not actually exist.
What defines your way of doing business?
Commercial discipline, technical defensibility and trust. Coming out of private banking, data integrity is non-negotiable. In our sector, bad data is worse than no data.
That is why our competitive moat rests on building the best data foundation in the industry. By solving the tough engineering problem of reliable offline capture in harsh operating environments, we ensure the data feeding compliance reports and downstream systems is accurate, complete and auditable.
I strip out technology buzzwords and empty marketing claims. I care about whether our software saves an administrator two hours of manual rekeying, eliminates duplicate records and protects a licence holder during an audit. Grand ambition is easy to pitch, but quiet execution, engineering reliability and delivering on your word are what build an enduring company.
I need to give a nod to agentic engineering and AI in general. I am a heavy user, and I believe this is the gold rush we have been waiting for. We are in the era of ideas, which is exhilarating, and scary too, but let us focus on the good parts.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Do not wait for complete certainty. If you wait until all the risks disappear, you will never launch. Any meaningful venture begins with imperfect data, so pick a sensible next step, test it and adjust as you learn. Action consistently generates clarity, where standing still only creates doubt.
Second, fall in love with the problem rather than the technology. Identify who feels the operational pain, calculate what it costs them every month, and make sure they have both the authority and the budget to pay for a solution. A clever piece of software without a willing buyer is merely an expensive hobby.
Finally, give yourself permission to reinvent your direction. You are never trapped by the degree you chose at 18 or the corporate ladder you climbed in your thirties. If you can combine your hard-earned experience with an unglamorous real-world problem that demands solving, back yourself and make the jump. And do you know what? Unsexy industries are cool.
Amy Ingham
Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College's journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel's nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.
