From opening a new state-of-the-art recycling center, and growing exponentially due to forward-thinking actions, to the owner becoming a Pennsylvania State Senator to address changing regulations, Penn Waste works hard to promote innovative, sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices.
South Central Pennsylvania鈥檚 premiere choice for waste and recycling services, Penn Waste (York, PA) was founded by President and Owner, Scott Wagner. Wagner has more than 30 years鈥� experience in residential and commercial-based business. He started his first waste company in 1985 and later sold it in 1997. In March of 2000, Wagner founded Penn Waste. The company has grown to employ more than 360 people with a fleet of more than 100 trucks over the last 16 years. The locally-owned and operated company currently serves South Central Pennsylvania including York, Lancaster, Dauphin, Cumberland, Adams and Perry counties.
In February 2015, Penn Waste opened a new state-of-the-art recycling center which replaced two older facilities. The new 96,000-square-foot single-stream recycling facility is one of the nation鈥檚 largest. It features progressive sorting technology including optical sorters, which use near-infrared technology to separate plastics. The facility handles single-stream recycling collected by Penn Waste from more than 175,000 residential homes and 3,500 commercial customers in 66 municipalities in the region. The recycle center also receives material from multiple other counties and haulers. The following items are accepted in the single-stream recycling program: plastics (numbers 1 through 7), cardboard/paper/paperboard, metals such as aluminum and steel, food and beverage cartons and glass.
Preservation and the Challenge of Recycling
According to Wagner, Penn Waste understands that preserving our world begins at the local level, which is why the company is a leader in the waste and recycling industry, promoting innovative, sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices. 鈥淓veryone on the Penn Waste team is committed to offering first-class customer service to each and every customer we serve.鈥�
Penn Waste is aware of the state of the recycling industry at the moment and knows that it is heavily influenced by the markets. If oil prices are down, recycling prices are down. 鈥淚t is something we鈥檝e encountered and overcome before, specifically during the recession in 2008. We don鈥檛 anticipate the markets getting that bad, but we are taking steps now to ensure we are prepared if they do,鈥� says Wagner.
He goes on to explain that glass continues to be an obstacle for the industry as a whole because it costs more money to recycle than it is worth. Glass is hard to process; it gets mixed with garbage easily, which makes it harder to clean, and it is extremely hard on equipment. 鈥淩ecycling needs to be economically sustainable鈥攆or some time now it has not been economically sustainable to recycle glass which is why many companies and larger municipalities are cutting it from their recycling programs.鈥� Despite its challenges, Penn Waste does continue to collect, process and recycle glass.
Electronic waste is another current challenge for the waste industry. Some local solid waste authorities in Penn Waste鈥檚 region have recently suspended their e-cycling programs due to issues with the Pennsylvania Covered Devices Recycling Act of 2010, which prohibits residents and businesses from placing their electronic waste at the curb or in their trash. The solid waste聽 authorities, and many companies such as Best Buy, are having difficulty securing responsive electronics recycling vendors due to lack of support for e-cycling in Pennsylvania.
Exponential Growth
Penn Waste has had a lot of significant achievements, especially in the fact that they have grown exponentially over the last 16 years thanks to the leadership and forward thinking of Wagner. A visionary of the company, he trusts and empowers his team to take Penn Waste where they need to go. 鈥淚 feel strongly that the future of the waste management industry is not in landfills, but in recycling, which is why we made such a significant investment in our new recycling facility.鈥�
Wagner was born and raised in York County where Penn Waste is located and he is committed to giving back to the communities they service. In 2015, Penn Waste donated time, financial resources and service to more than 110 non-profit organizations in their service region including Junior Achievement, YMCA, YWCA, Cultural Alliance, York County Food Bank and Leg Up Farm, just to name a few.
In 2013, Penn Waste partnered with Central York School District to implement recycling education throughout the school district. A team of students was tasked with developing a recycling education program that could be taught at the elementary school, middle school and high school levels. The CYHS Recycling Education Program was such a success that Penn Waste partnered with Junior Achievement to include it in their STEM Summits which are carried out in more than 75 schools throughout their region. There is also a room in JA鈥檚 Biztown that teaches kids what is recyclable and how the recycling process works.
In addition to being active in the community, Wagner feels strongly that small business leaders should be active in politics as well. He was the first person in Pennsylvania history to be elected to serve in the Pennsylvania State Senate by write-in. Wagner was elected on March 18, 2014 to fill the remainder of the term left vacant by his predecessor. On November 4, 2014 he was elected to serve a full four-year term in the Pennsylvania State Senate.
Wagner鈥檚 decision to run for the PA State Senate had to do with his 30 years of business experience. He believes that regulations have grown dramatically and are choking businesses. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to sit on the sidelines anymore鈥擨鈥檝e seen how bad public policy can hurt small businesses and our economy, so I chose to run for public office.鈥�
A self-proclaimed 鈥渟afety-maniac鈥�, Wagner discloses that Penn Waste鈥檚 number one priority continues to be safety. Waste industry jobs consistently rate among the most dangerous in the U.S., which is why Penn Waste is committed to providing a safe work environment for their employees by administering proper training and continually updating equipment. For example, when their new recycling center was built, a smoke curtain and pop-out panels were added to the facility in case there was ever a fire. If there were a fire in the main part of the facility, the smoke curtain would ensure smoke is contained and removed, allowing safe evacuation and firefighting, while minimizing damage. The pop-out panels around the top of the recycle center look like skylights but pop out to release smoke in case of a fire. They also elected to separate the tipping floor from the rest of the facility to ensure a safer work environment for employees.
Looking Ahead
Although Penn Waste has invested heavily in educating their communities on what is and is not recyclable, their long-term goal is to continue to find innovative ways to waste less and recycle more by diverting materials from the waste stream. Says Wagner, 鈥淲e are getting ready to launch our largest marketing campaign yet. We鈥檙e excited about this campaign and feel it will have a huge impact on the community we service by shifting behavior and getting people to recycle more.鈥�
The marketing campaign will feature disruptive characters that will grab people鈥檚 attention while delivering important recycling messages. Amanda Davidson, Director of Communications, adds, 鈥淲e think people are just so used to seeing the same old recycling messages that they don鈥檛 pay attention to them anymore. We decided to put a fresh take on it. Humor is an effective way to grab people鈥檚 attention so we鈥檙e going in a new direction and make recycling fun.鈥澛� | WA
For more information about Penn Waste, contact Amanda Davidson at [email protected] or visit .
