RECYCLING BUSINESS SALE BRINGS NEW LIFE
The founder of St. Petersburg's only curbside service finds relief during a time of growing pains.
St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg, Fla.
Author: NICOLE NORFLEET
Date: Jun 24, 2009
Start Page: 3
Section: NEIGHBORHOOD TIMES
It started out as just an idea out of school. Greg Foster, then 22, noticed that despite being labeled a green city, this burg didn't have curbside recycling. "It was a need. It was a need in St. Petersburg," Foster said. "I think actions speak louder than words." A pair of maxed out credit cards and 2,000 recycling bins from Canada later, Foster started his own curbside recycling service, St. Pete Recycling Solutions. With the help of family and friends, he collected residents' paper, plastic and other recyclables once a week for a $15 monthly charge. After being in business for more than a year, St. Pete Recycling was acquired by larger recycler Waste Pro USA Inc. And Foster couldn't be happier.
In January 2008, he took out a $20,000 business loan and used his personal savings to start his business. Foster had recently graduated in May 2007 with a finance degree from the University of South Florida
"It was a huge risk," he said. "My parents are not loaded. I don't come from a lot of money."
His business grew from 100 environmentally conscious households to a clientele of more than 1,000 residential and commercial customers including Starbucks and the Salvador Dali Museum.
"It would have been a golden business," he said. "It was growing. It was growing so fast that I wasn't able to handle it all."
Foster saw profits in his first year, he said, but he was crippled by debt and his company's growing pains. He was paying himself $250 a week and clocking in hours at Lifestyle Family Fitness.
Last September, the Pinellas County Commission threw Foster a curve ball.
The commission decided to make curbside recycling mandatory in 2010, meaning it would be near impossible for private recyclers like Foster's to compete with the free services of a county contractor.
"I felt really screwed, really afraid," he said. "I had nights where I stayed up and tried to think what I was going to do."
As luck would have it, Longwood-based Waste Pro was eyeing Pinellas County and its more than 185,000 households. Waste Pro representatives contacted Foster, and in mid May the acquisition was finalized.
"I think it was beneficial to do this acquisition to get people used to seeing us in the county," said Keith Banasiak, Waste Pro regional vice president.
Banasiak said that Foster did not have the capital or the experience to be able to bid for a county contract, but he said, Foster had developed a respected business.
With the purchase, Foster was able to pay off his debts and is now working for Waste Pro as a business development manager.
"Basically, I was in a spot that I started a good thing here and I figured if the city wasn't going to do anything that I would be in business for a few years. ... Due to the situation, I had to adjust my plan," Foster said.
Foster said that the service has seen growth, but there have been people who stopped because of the impending county transition.
The implementation was pushed back from its January deadline to later next year, said Andy Fairbanks, county recycling coordinator.
The county will be divided into three areas with 40,000 customers minimum each, he said.
"Even for one service area, it's going to be a relatively large area," Fairbanks said. "To expect people to go from doing a small amount of households to several thousand homes may be a bit unreasonable."
The invitation for bids won't be publicized until the fall.
Waste Pro is considering starting a satellite operation in St. Petersburg, Banasiak said. Since the sale, it has been sending a collection truck from Bradenton.
"Since the transition, when I pull up to people's houses in the truck people smile," Foster said. "They are happy that it was a success."
It started out as just an idea out of school. Greg Foster, then 22, noticed that despite being labeled a green city, this burg didn't have curbside recycling. "It was a need. It was a need in St. Petersburg," Foster said. "I think actions speak louder than words." A pair of maxed out credit cards and 2,000 recycling bins from Canada later, Foster started his own curbside recycling service, St. Pete Recycling Solutions. With the help of family and friends, he collected residents' paper, plastic and other recyclables once a week for a $15 monthly charge. After being in business for more than a year, St. Pete Recycling was acquired by larger recycler Waste Pro USA Inc. And Foster couldn't be happier.
In January 2008, he took out a $20,000 business loan and used his personal savings to start his business. Foster had recently graduated in May 2007 with a finance degree from the University of South Florida
"It was a huge risk," he said. "My parents are not loaded. I don't come from a lot of money."
His business grew from 100 environmentally conscious households to a clientele of more than 1,000 residential and commercial customers including Starbucks and the Salvador Dali Museum.
"It would have been a golden business," he said. "It was growing. It was growing so fast that I wasn't able to handle it all."
Foster saw profits in his first year, he said, but he was crippled by debt and his company's growing pains. He was paying himself $250 a week and clocking in hours at Lifestyle Family Fitness.
Last September, the Pinellas County Commission threw Foster a curve ball.
The commission decided to make curbside recycling mandatory in 2010, meaning it would be near impossible for private recyclers like Foster's to compete with the free services of a county contractor.
"I felt really screwed, really afraid," he said. "I had nights where I stayed up and tried to think what I was going to do."
As luck would have it, Longwood-based Waste Pro was eyeing Pinellas County and its more than 185,000 households. Waste Pro representatives contacted Foster, and in mid May the acquisition was finalized.
"I think it was beneficial to do this acquisition to get people used to seeing us in the county," said Keith Banasiak, Waste Pro regional vice president.
Banasiak said that Foster did not have the capital or the experience to be able to bid for a county contract, but he said, Foster had developed a respected business.
With the purchase, Foster was able to pay off his debts and is now working for Waste Pro as a business development manager.
"Basically, I was in a spot that I started a good thing here and I figured if the city wasn't going to do anything that I would be in business for a few years. ... Due to the situation, I had to adjust my plan," Foster said.
Foster said that the service has seen growth, but there have been people who stopped because of the impending county transition.
The implementation was pushed back from its January deadline to later next year, said Andy Fairbanks, county recycling coordinator.
The county will be divided into three areas with 40,000 customers minimum each, he said.
"Even for one service area, it's going to be a relatively large area," Fairbanks said. "To expect people to go from doing a small amount of households to several thousand homes may be a bit unreasonable."
The invitation for bids won't be publicized until the fall.
Waste Pro is considering starting a satellite operation in St. Petersburg, Banasiak said. Since the sale, it has been sending a collection truck from Bradenton.
"Since the transition, when I pull up to people's houses in the truck people smile," Foster said. "They are happy that it was a success."
Credit: Times Staff Writer
Curbside recycling has always been a contentious issue in St. Petersburg.
For more than a decade, neighborhood activists and city leaders have clashed over its merits. City councils have overwhelmingly squashed proposals; opposition candidates have run campaigns based on the issue. While most Tampa Bay municipalities have embraced curbside recycling, St. Pete city leaders have consistently argued it is inefficient and too costly. The environmental damage caused by large diesel trucks criss-crossing the city far outweighs the benefits of recycling, they say.
"The mayor feels we have a very viable system now," says Bill Sundstrom, the city's sanitation coordinator. "The city of St. Petersburg has always had a successful drop-off program. A curbside program does not automatically mean higher recycling rates."
But local environmentalists have publicly wondered how St. Pete could call itself a "green city" when it was the largest Florida city without a curbside recycling program.
"The Green Cities [Initiative] was -- among many things -- also intended to raise the bar of expectations and create leverage to push for curbside recycling," says Darden Rice, a former Sierra Club director who helped push for St. Pete's Green City designation. "It was never meant to give a pass to the city or to provide cover for their embarrassing lack of policy and leadership on this issue."
But one young entrepreneur could become St. Pete's environmental peacemaker. Greg Foster, a University of South Florida alum and Shore Acres resident, sees the city's lack of curbside recycling as an excellent "green" opportunity -- as in greenbacks.
"I talk to people that have moved here, and all of them are shocked we don't recycle," says Foster, 22. "I thought someone should do it, and that somebody should be me."
Enter St. Pete Recycling Solutions, a subscriber-based recycling program that Foster rolls out on Jan. 1. Under his plan, each participating household receives two 18-gallon bins for newspaper, glass, plastic and aluminum waste. Once a week, Foster or one of his four employees collects the recyclables and transports them to a Clearwater recycling center. Foster is paid $15 a month; you get a clear conscience.
"At some point our landfill is going to fill up," Foster says. "It doesn't make sense -- we're screwing up the planet. So is $15 enough to make a true difference?"
Because Foster only works with those serious about recycling, he says St. Pete Recycling Solutions doesn't fall into the same traps as a city-subsidized program.
"That's why a private business makes sense," he says. "It alleviates the burden on the city. This solves the issue and brings people together."
Foster may be right. At first glance, both sides of the debate seem keen on the idea. Foster met with city officials -- including Sundstrom and Mayor Baker -- earlier this year, and after obtaining the necessary permits and insurance, they gave him the go-ahead. He also met with Rice, and although she would still like to see curbside recycling citywide, she says Foster's business could finally budge the city into action.
"Theoretically, you could get the city to privatize recycling," she says. "I'm not a big fan of privatization, but I think looking at the budget this year, we have to get a little creative."
That's exactly what Foster is hoping for.
"Let's start small and see how far it will go," he says, adding over 60 residents have signed up from the city's northeast and southeast neighborhoods. [as of 2/09 Foster has over 750 residential customers all over St. Petersburg]
"The long-term game plan is to be able to do this so efficiently that this could be the business for the entire city," he says. "At the end of the day, if I'm the guy that lights the match to get the city into recycling ... that's all I want to be known for."
For more information on St. Pete Recycling Solutions, contact Greg Foster at 727-452-5278 or oursprs.com.
Bay News 9PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- A recent college graduate has started a recycling business in a city that, while known for "being green", hasn't jumped on the recycling bandwagon.
Recycling has been an issue in St. Petersburg over the years, according to St. Petersburg City Council Chairman Jamie Bennett, who is frustrated with the lack of interest by city residents.
"We've had polls of the citizens," Bennett said. "And we found out that everybody wants it but very few people want to pay for it."
So, Greg Foster took a gamble with his life savings and started his own recycling company: St. Pete Recycling Solutions.
"I sat down for a couple months and tried to calculate what I planned to be spending on gas," he said. "What I planned to be spending on labor, all the insurance costs."
Almost six months later Foster's subscriber-based business is gaining steam.
"Tuesdays and Wednesdays are our busiest days at this point," Foster said. "Where we have 150 to 160 people on Tuesdays and then about 270 people on Wednesdays." [as of 2/09 Foster has over 750 residential customers all over St. Petersburg]
The service is currently only available throughout St. Petersburg.
A trash hauler fills a niche and a mission aimed at making the city greener.
By NICOLE HUTCHESON, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer
Published December 23, 2007
Last spring, after graduating with a finance degree from the University of South Florida, Foster started a curbside recycling business.
St. Pete Recycling Solutions now has 100 customers, he said. [over 750 residential customers as of 2/09]
"Trash collection in our area hasn't been addressed properly," said Foster, 22. "Our city needs to be officially green with Charlie Crist and all the other topics going on about St. Pete being a green city."
The city of St. Petersburg offers drop-off recycle sites but has yet to provide a pickup service.
"It comes down to the amount of resources that it takes to do it," said Tom Lehmann, the city's assistant director of sanitation. "The fuel alone is such a killer that what you pick up doesn't match what you spend in resources."
A few years ago the city put an open call out to recycling companies in an attempt to contract the service.
"We got nobody," Lehmann said.
When Foster approached the city about providing his service he was met with enthusiasm.
"I think it's great," Lehmann said. "This fellow here has the support to make it work."
Foster has found many residents who are willing to pay, mostly in neighborhoods like Northeast, Maximo and Pinellas Point, he said. He has one trailer and picks up on Wednesdays.
Beyond getting rid of waste, residents feel good knowing their trash will be used the right way, he said.
"I wanted to get away from the big business vibe that's created in Florida with waste management," said Foster, who was raised in the city's Northeast neighborhood. "Half the time people don't even know what the recycled product is going toward or if the product will be put in a landfill. ... I'm trying to find these companies to work for who want to recycle products correctly."
Foster hopes to begin providing plastic to the outdoor clothing company, Patagonia, which uses recycled materials in its outerwear. He's also considering providing recycled materials to a wholesale carpet company and local artist.
To get the business off the ground, Foster used his graduation money and a small loan. In all it cost about $25,000 to get going, he said. So far, the earnings have been slow and steady. But starting the business has never been all about the money, Foster said.
He's hoping his efforts inspire others to care a little more about the Earth.
"I hope to reach those good people that make St. Pete run," he said. "Good moral people and those kind of people who hold morals and ethics close to them. ... those are the folks who recycle."
Nicole Hutcheson can be reached at nhutcheson@sptimes.com or 727 893-8828.
Last Edited: Thursday, 19 Jun 2008, 7:57 AM EDT
Created On: Thursday, 19 Jun 2008, 7:57 AM EDT
"I have three small kids and a very chaotic schedule and we recycled when we thought about it, when it was convenient for us," said resident Whitney Cohen.
Now, instead of hauling her stuff to a recycling site, recycling comes to her:
"We are amazed at the amount, the poundage of trash that we collect now on a weekly basis," she says.
*****
Some of the Cohne's trash is now collected by St. Pete Recycling Solutions, a local company started by a local guy, Greg Foster.
"We recycle paper. Plastic. Glass and aluminum," Foster said. "We do office paper, magazines, junk mail, phone books, and newspaper."
Foster says he saw a niche and decided to fill it.
"I think someone should do this. I think our city is green enough to do this. And why shouldn't that someone be me. For $15 dollars a month, I don't think it can possibly be beat," he says.
*****
Customer John Burket agrees. He says he wasn't recycling before he became a customer.
Now the trash goes in Foster's truck, to eventually become something entirely new.
"I've been the only one that had the little green boxes out in their yard, and yesterday when I came home, three of my neighbors had the bins in, so I think it's catching on," Burket said..
*****
That kind of word of mouth is what Foster says he is counting on.
He says he can do something the city can't: target the people and neighborhoods that really want curbside recycling, and are willing to pay for it:
"That way it greatly cuts down on fuel costs. It makes the most time sense. It makes economical sense and environmental sense," said Foster.