Waste Industries is a provider of non-hazardous solid waste and recycling collection, transfer, and disposal company in the southeast United States. The company has over 1.9 million service points. On October 10, 2018, the company announced its intentions to merge with Canadian-based GFL Evironmental for an undisclosed amount. The company will continue to operate as Waste Industries in the US and will be remain headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Company history
Waste Industries was created as a waste disposal firm in 1970 by Lonnie Poole Jr. who used funds from the sale of his Ohio home and borrowed money from Gregory Poole, Owner of a local construction company, to create the company. The initial idea of Waste Industries stemmed from market research Poole conducted, while concepting a new mobile landfillcompactor while he was living in Ohio. His compactor idea failed, but Poole soon discovered his calling, and started Waste Industries in Raleigh, North Carolina. After a few years, of stagnation, the company grew in the 1970s and quickly expanded past Wake county and the city of Raleigh. By 1980 the company had reached ten million dollars in revenue and soon after, they named their first employee, Jim Perry, as President and Chief Operating Officer. In 1997, with an estimated revenue of $100 million, Waste Industries went public. The company continued to grow that year with an estimated 20 branches, 11 transfer stations and 4 recycling facilities under its belt. In 2000 Waste Industries went through a tech revolution and updated its website. With the website upgrade they also became the first company on the east-coast to incorporate e-billing for waste pick-up customers. In 2008, the company went private again and experienced a restructuring in its management. Vern Poole, son of original owner Lonnie Poole and long-time company leader, would become Chairman and CEO and would create his personal board. Greg Yorston would later become Chief Operating Office, Steve Grissiom Chief Financial Officer, and Lisa Inman Senior Vice President and General Counsel. In 2010, North Carolina State University unveiled a wall display highlighting original Waste Industries founder Lonnie Poole as well as the progress Waste Industries has made over the years as it has grown. Poole is a longtime supporter of NC State and provided major investments to create their graduate business degree programs after switching schools to get his MBA due to the lack of a program upon his graduation from NC State with his bachelor's degree. As of 2014, the company was valued at $570 million with over 1600 employees. On October 10, 2018, the company announced it was going to be sold off to a Canadian Company, GFL Environmental, for an undisclosed amount. Under new ownership, Waste Industries began acquiring independent recycling companies, including Wilmington-based Pink-Trash, Richlands-based Ray’s Rural Garbage Collection, and a few others. Around the same time, GFL began dissolving the Waste Industries brand on company owned bins, and replacing the Waste Industries logo with the GFL logo.
In 2014, Waste Industries created the Full Circle Project. The Full Circle Project allows employees and customers to give to their favorite non-profit through Waste Industries. To date, Waste Industries has given close to $1 million in non-profit donations.
