Photo by Howard Owens.
Bruce Scofield says he has been waiting more than a decade for the right time to enter the residential garbage business.
He thinks now, after residents in Batavia have been left with only two trash collection options and two large corporations, the time is right.
He's launching a residential refuse business in Batavia at the beginning of 2025.
"So, let me tell you, this is how it happened. When my son graduated from high school in 2011 he says, 'Dad, he says, Let's start a garbage out business go house to house,'" Scofield recalled. "I say, 'No, time's not right. It's not right.' And I told him, 'Be patient.'"
In 2013, after Tyler Scofield graduated from college, he proposes going into the residential garbage business again.
Bruce, again, didn't think the time was right.
A couple of years later, Tyler brought the issue up again.
"He says, 'Dad,' he says, 'I want to start a side little business.' He says, 'We got this business.' He says, 'I'll before work. I'll go out and run around, and I'll do it after.' He says, 'I want to get into the garbage business.' And again, I told him, 'Son, the timing isn't right. Be patient.'"
They watched four or five small, locally owned or start-up businesses jump into the new market for garbage collection in the city of Batavia after the city canceled a long-time contract with Genesee ARC for exclusive garbage collection.
Bruce Scofield didn't want to compete in that market. Too many of the new businesses were run by people with little business experience. They're not educated enough, he said, to know what a profit margin is.
"I don't want to compete against somebody who's not in it to make money or it doesn't know how to make money," Scofield said. "Big corporations know how to make money. I can compete against people who know how to make money. Now, when the price is up there, we can come in and give great service, and we're not selling on price. We're going to have an attractive price, but you're going to know the owners."
A few months ago, Bruce and Tyler traveled to Florida to buy a one-year-old garbage truck for $256,000.
On the drive home, while Bruce is thinking about how to increase revenue to help cover the cost, Tyler raises the issue of residential service again.
"He says, 'I get a lot of calls' -- because my son answers 90% of the calls -- 'I get a lot of calls from people looking for residential service.' He says, 'They're about begging,' and me being the businessman, you know, I want to justify buying the truck. I said, 'You know what?' I said, 'The time's right.' I say, 'Now we'll get into it because there are only big corporations. There are no locally owned businesses, and the price is high. We can make money.'"
To start, Scofield is only offering residential service on the north side of Route 5, from Clinton Street Road in the town of Batavia on the east to Park Road on the west. Residents in those neighborhoods will receive mailers advertising the service. They can also call 585-343-3400 to sign up.
The cost, with taxes and fees, $33.37 per month.
The garbage business is tough, Scofield said, because paying customers don't feel like they’re getting something for their money. They're paying money to get rid of something. It's not like going to dinner and getting that sense of satisfaction when you pay the bill, or buying a new car or going on a vacation. It's garbage. The stuff you no longer want."
"They'll camp out in front of a store to get a new Apple iPhone and spend $1,500 but at the end of the week, there's no gratification in paying a garbage bill," Scofield said. "But garbage is expensive to get rid of. Garbage trucks are the most expensive. Everything's expensive, but when you take $33.37 divided by four, it's $8.34 to have somebody come to your house and pick up garbage."
That's about the price of a latte, he noted.
"They'll spend that every day, but they're very critical of how much their garbage bill is," he said. "That's the one problem with the garbage business. But for $8.34 you can get somebody to come to your house and haul your garbage away."
Garbage collection for all city residents -- even when service opens on the southside within the following month or two -- will be on Thursdays, so expect on the week of Thanksgiving, there will be no changing of collection days for holidays.
Stafford, Scofield's home base, will also get service starting in the new year, and eventually, more towns in Genesee County will be added.
"Then we're going to designate other towns on other days of the week," Scofield said. "We'll never be a Monday pickup service. We're going to always try to be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Friday is a floating day, and Monday is our other businesses."
Scofield's total investment in the new line of business so far exceeds $500,000. He also bought a brand new, smaller truck for $250,000 that can be operated by a driver only because the tote pick-up is automated.
He's also bought bright yellow totes for every customer. The yellow totes will save his drivers time carrying a list of customers or memorizing addresses.
They simply pick up every yellow tote along their routes.
What they won't be picking up is recycling totes.
Scofield is offering a recycling program for customers, one he said will ensure customers who care about recycling will actually have confidence that they're recycling won't go to a landfill.
A big issue with recycling, Scofield explained, is that many customers may not realize that they think they're recycling but they're not, and as a result, their neighbors who put only approved material into recycling bins are also not recycling.
Most people, he said, don't really understand what can go into the recycling tote. The customers who do get cheated out of recycling by those who don't, with some companies.
"One customer might say, 'Well, I'm going to go through the motions of recycling,' but they don't do it right," Scofield said. "They might put a pizza box in there. They put a coffee cup in there. If you put a container with food left in it, so if it was a peanut butter jar, it wasn't washed out, that becomes contaminated recyclables.'
Just like one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, one unwashed peanut butter jar can legally enable a hauler to send the whole load from a collection route to the landfill.
"That's like hitting the jackpot for a garbage company because they say, 'Well, it was contaminated. We can't control what the customer does,' so they're going to go through all the motions and say, 'Yes, we offer recyclables, ' and at the end of the day, they can landfill it."
For customers who are serious about recyclables, he will offer gift certificates to Tops, Dunkin' Donuts, or Tim Hortons if they bring their bags of recyclables to the Scofield transfer station in Stafford.
"Every time you bring it here, we're here to inspect it and to educate the people," Scofield said. "'This is how you do it.' I don't want my employees sorting out on the side of the road. So you get a punch card. Every five times you come out here, you get a $10 gift certificate to top Dunkin' Donuts or Tim Hortons."
The two big corporations that serve Batavia now are Casella Waste (which bought out all the small operators that set up shop when the city got out of the garbage business) and Waste Management. Casella claims on its website to operate a sorting facility and promises that all uncontaminated recyclables are recycled. Waste Management makes no such promise and indicates that contaminated loads are sent to landfills.
Waste Management states:
A container is considered contaminated when your recycling bin contains trash, the materials are soiled by food/liquids, or items are placed in plastic bags. For recyclable materials to have a second life, they must be clean and free from contaminants.
"I'm not going to go through the motions and tell everybody, 'Yeah, we're recycling, do it on the side of the roadside or send it to a landfill. I never want to be called out on that," Scofield said.
Any customers who have questions, Scofield said, are welcome to call him and he will explain the program further.
Scofield believes local ownership is a clear competitive advantage over big corporations.
He said he's passionate about his business. He takes care of his employees, keeps his trucks well-maintained and clean, and usually when customers call, it's him or his son answering the phone.
And if you call because you forgot to put your garbage out? If it's not a habitual problem, Scofield will send a truck back to pick it up. That's less likely to happen with the big haulers.
"You're never going to get an owner of Waste Management or Casella," Scofield said. "You're never going to get Casella or Waste Management to sponsor, like we do, the Genesee County Fair. We're big into the Genesee County Fair. When Le Roy needed an ambulance, we were right there to step up. That's the difference. We care about our community."
Photo by Howard Owens.
