Community Waste Disposal

8/3/2019 Community Waste Disposal

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In The Spotlight

Community Waste Disposal:Providing Safe and Reliable Service to Its Customers

Community Waste Disposal (CWD), baseD

in Dallas, TX, began operations in 1984 with

two trucks, a handul o dumpsters and two

employees. Starting out with our independent

owners, over the past 25 years, the company’s

current sole owner, Greg Roemer, bought out

the other three involved and now runs the

largest privately-owned waste management

company strictly serving the Dallas/Fort Worth

(DFW) metroplex with about 120 vehicles

and 220 employees. CWD services traditional

municipal solid waste in both the residential

and commercial recycling markets. They operate

equipment rom hand collection rear load to

commercial ront load and roll-o services, and

everything in between. In addition to the DFW

metroplex, CWD also has ranchise agreements

with the surrounding independent communities

to serve those areas as well (Allen, Azle, Balch

Springs, Burleson, Euless, Farmersville, Forney,

Frisco, Keller, Little Elm, Ovilla, Pantego,Watauga and Wylie).

Company PhilosophiesOver the past ew years, CWD has constantly

battled a yo-yoing economy with good business

sense and expense management. According to

B cg db w cd c, CommunityWaste Disposal has risento the top of a Competitivemarket.

16 WasteAdvantage Magazine April 2011

Quality, safe and reliable trucksmake sense no matter the economic climate.

BELOW: A municipal startup is allabout preparation. The 95 gallontrash carts are being assembled for delivery.

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Roemer, the economy dramatically aected their

business since CWD processes a lot o recyclables.

When the revenue or those recyclables declined,

the costs to process them did not. This not only

resulted in a decline in revenue, but it also wentstraight to the bottom line and the company’s

proftability. “Dealing with that commodity roller

coaster has been very difcult,” says Roemer. “Fuel

has also certainly been a actor. We have some

variable uel adjustment ees, but not across the

board. We have many contracts that don’t allow

it and the customers are in a position to say no or

deny any new and additional charges that are uel-

related. So, when uel goes up like it is now, we

don’t have extra charges on many o the contracts

and so that’s been a hard expense to deal with

because there have been radical changes in uel

prices.”

To deal with these constant changes, especially

when commodity values were down, CWD simply

accepted lower margins and made less money since

there was little that could be done. Says Roemer,

“In terms o other cost increases, we went through

a period o two or three years where employeesdid not get raises and we asked them to increase

production without increasing overtime. They

really responded positively because they could

see on TV and read in the newspapers every day

that unemployment and costs were going up. Our

employees really believed that everyone needed to

work harder and carry more to get the company

through those hard economic times. It’s all about

communicating with your employees which wedo through a variety o methods,” says Roemer.

“For example, every employee at CWD is on a

proft-sharing program. Every 90 days we hold

a company cookout or every employee and we

hand out the proft-sharing checks. We’ve been

doing that or many years. With that comes a lot

o good communication and comraderie amongst

management and the drivers, etc.”

In addition to hard working employees, CWD

is committed to better managing their money and

expenses. Although many things were cut, like gol

tournaments and some community events, it did

not aect the way the company’s ability to provide

reliable, sae service—the two most important

actors in running a successul business. Stresses

Roemer, “I there were expenses that didn’t enhance

saety or reliability, it was subject to be cut. We

guard those two actors closely. We buy nothing

but the best, highest quality, longest lastingequipment. Our acility is all metal buildings, the

fnish on it is all very budget minded. You don’t

need an expensive building to provide sae, reliable

service.” CWD ocuses on these two actors because


Awards andRecognition

2010: Keep America Beautiul AwardCertifcate o Merit

2010: Keep Texas Beautiul EbbyHalliday & Maurice Acers Business/ Industry Awards

2010: Keep America Beautiul WasteReduction/Recycling

2010: State o Texas Alliance orRecycling Outstanding RecyclingPartnership (Partnership between theCity o Allen, Keep Allen Beautiul andCWD)

2010: Greater DFW Recycling AllianceOutstanding Recycling Partnership(Partnership between the City o Allen,Keep Allen Beautiul and CWD)

2009: Keep Texas Beautiul EbbyHalliday & Maurice Acres Business/

Industry Award2008: Little Elm Chamber o CommerceBusiness o the Year Award

2006: Recycling Alliance o TexasEnvironmental Leadership Award orEnvironmental Public Education andOutreach Program

2006: North Texas Corporate Recycling Association Environmental Vision Awardor Community Volunteerism

2006: Ebby Halliday & Maurice Acers

Annual Keep Texas Beautiul AwardHonorable Mention or Participation inDallas’ EarthFest.

2006: Frisco Chamber o CommerceCorporate Business o the Year or 2005

CWD prides itself on clean,current equipment and cans.



they are dedicated to providing their customers with quality service at thelowest possible price. “It’s important that every day CWD and its employees

work to drive our costs down. We need to make an acceptable margin in

proft and charge our customers the lowest possible price; this will give you

stability in your marketplace and with your customers. The lower the charges,the less desire they have to change to a dierent company,” says Roemer.

Today’s ChallengesWhen it comes to challenges that CWD aces every day, Roemer’s philosophy

is to ace them one step at a time. Although many waste disposal companies

have come and gone over the years, CWD has stayed strong in their market.

“Since 1980 there have been more than 30 companies that have come and gone

in this marketplace—that’s just about one per year,” explains Roemer. “In 1980

when I was in this business working or BFI, my very frst sale was in Dallas

selling an 8-yard dumpster that picked up once a week or $75 per month.

Thirty-one years later, our charges are just slightly higher. We can deal with

this by being much more efcient today than we were many years ago. We’re

really not making more or less money and our costs are substantially higher,

so we’ve had to make up or that through efcient operations. The DFW

metroplex is one o the most cost-aggressive markets in the U.S.

“The second biggest dierence is that in 1980 when I sold that frst 8-yard

dumpster, almost all o the commercial customers in the metroplex did not

have contracts. Most o the services were handshakes and verbal arrangements;

nothing was signed. The customer wanted a dumpster, they got one; theyreceived a bill and as long as they paid it everyone was happy. Today, everybody

is on a written contract that ranges rom three to 10 years. This means that a

new company coming into town has to battle contracts and charges and it’s

very hard since we’ve so fnely tuned our cost so that we can make a proft on

those low rates.”

Roemer believes that the largest challenge going orward is increasing

costs such as disposal and uel. Containing costs while providing sae, reliable

services is the most regular, alarming thing that CWD deals with every day

because these actors can catch you o guard. “There’s no real big bump in

the road; it’s a lot o little bumps that add up and so cost increases are at

the oreront and providing sae, reliable operations. Ours is a capital-intensive

business. You have to be around a lot o years to make a reasonable proft at

today’s prices. That’s very true in our business.”

CWD has driven some costs down by being in business or more than 25

years. During the frst 15 years the company was in business, everything was

C W D: prvdg sf d R srvc i Cr


Greg Roemer adds his signature to show CWD’s dedication to Keeping Dallas Beautiful. A commitment to “Green” earns CWD a nod from the EPA with a 2010 EarthFest Award. Fromleft to right: Al Armendariz (Regional Director, EPA), Greg Roemer (President, CWD), Linda Koop(Dallas City Council, District 11) and Mayor Tom Leppert (City of Dallas).


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fnanced through Tier 2 fnancial institutions. Today, all o their fnancing is

provided through banks which allows the company to obtain lending rates

that are ar preerable over what was available the frst 15 years. “You get thisby having a stronger balance sheet and by being in business a longer period

o time because banks are much more conservative than the Tier 2 lending

institutions.” In addition, CWD has a vehicle replacement schedule so they

are on track every year to replace worn out vehicles. Since the average lie

expectancy o CWD’s vehicles is eight years, dates have been marked on the

calendar as to when a current vehicle will be replaced with a new one. This

type o efcient recordkeeping system helps to keep CWD on top o their

vehicle replacement schedule.

Recognition and aSense of Community

Roemer is especially proud o CWD’s accomplishments and what they

have been able to achieve in a highly competitive market. CWD has earned

various accolades rom Keep America Beautiul to local recycling groups

who have recognized them or participation in community events, as well as

communications and waste diversion, and continues to work hard every day to

earn more (see Awards and Recognition sidebar, page 16). Roemer points

out, “We are a privately owned company. I come to work every day to the

same acility, the same 220 people and there’s a sense o community that has

developed that is much harder to get at a publicly-traded company where they

have multiple sites. We’ve got a group o people that take on a greater levelo responsibility and become a community, right down to the route driver, so

that when you ask them to get something done in 50 hours per week instead

o 55 hours per week, they would willing to do it or you because they eel a

sense o ownership, rather than knowing it is just management trying to make

a bigger bonus. I’m most proud o going rom two trucks to 120 and and

seeing how our employees treat things as i they own it. I’m also proud that

we provide a very high quality service at a very competitively priced rate and

still make a proft.” | WA

For more information about Community Waste Disposal, contact Greg Roemer at (972) 392-9300, ext. 208, e-mail [email protected] or visit

www.communitywastedisposal.com.

As Seen In

©2011 Waste Advantage Magazine, All Rights Reserved.Reprinted from Waste Advantage Magazine.

Contents cannot be reprinted without permission from the publisher.

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Community Waste Disposal

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