National trash giant plans to buy Green Valley and Guadalupe
Waste Management Inc. will buy out local owners
JPA must approve deal
By Jeff Kearns
Green Valley Disposal, which began in 1918 when pig farmer Joseph Zanardi started hauling away trash from Los Gatos restaurants in exchange for leftover food for his animals, is being sold to the biggest garbage company in the country.
The owners plan to sell their business to USA Waste of California, a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. which operates in 49 states. They're also selling their landfill, Guadalupe Rubbish Disposal Company, which was founded in 1927. The deal is expected to be complete by July 1.
Green Valley has an exclusive garbage collection contract with Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga and Campbell, and also collects garbage from unincorporated areas of west San Jose and Santa Clara County. The four cities created a Joint Powers Authority about two years ago.
Green Valley general manager Phil Couchee, who will keep his job running the company, says customers won't notice the change at all. Green Valley president Gerard Wen, however, will be leaving the company.
The company will keep its present staff of 120 employees, and the company's trucks will keep their original logos and paint schemes. Guadalupe will also keep its staff of 45. "The residents and businesses are going to be unaffected by the sale," Couchee said. "It was a little bit of a shock to me at first, but this is the nature of the industry now. There are a lot of mergers and acquisitions, just like any other industry."
Rates won't change either, thanks to a two-year-old contract with the JPA that doesn't expire until 2007. The cities' contract with Green Valley locks collection rates to the Consumer Price Index. Monte Sereno residents, however, will see a slight increase in rates, but that's because the Monte Sereno City Council recently voted to start collecting the franchise fee it charges Green Valley to collect recyclable waste.
The only difference is that the two companies will no longer be locally owned by Joe Zanardi, Jim Zanardi, Dave Cecich and Dennis Varni. Joe and Jim Zanardi are grandsons of founder Joseph Zanardi.
Waste Management did not disclose what it paid for the companies.
Representatives from USA Waste will be meeting with the JPA over the next few weeks to answer questions about the takeover.
Andrea Stephenson, director of municipal development for USA Waste, says the companies will still be locally managed as much as possible. "We try not to change things that are already working well," she said. "We have a really decentralized management philosophy, so the local decision making remains local. That's what's kept [Green Valley] successful through the years--the local managers who have been there all those years. They're able to respond to things more quickly."
Stephenson says USA Waste will be evaluating the fleet of trucks and facilities at the Santa Clara operations center. Some trucks or equipment may be upgraded, but no plans have been made so far.
Los Gatos councilmember Linda Lubeck, the town's representative on the JPA board, says the contract lets Green Valley assign the contract to another company, as long as the handover is approved by the JPA board.
The board is expected to pass a resolution authorizing the transfer at its next meeting on June 17. In the meantime, representatives from USA Waste will be meeting with town and city officials to answer questions about the takeover.
Green Valley headquarters are on University Avenue in Los Gatos, but its base of operations is in Santa Clara. About 85 trucks per day are run out of that facility, Couchee said. Green Valley waste is taken to Guadalupe's landfill in San Jose on the eastern edge of Los Gatos, along with yard waste, which is processed there and transferred to a compost facility in southern Santa Clara County. Recycled waste is taken to various processing vendors.
Houston-based USA Waste Services, the largest solid-waste company in the country, bought the third largest company, Oakbrook, Ill.-based Waste Management Inc. in July 1998. Corporate headquarters is in Houston, but Waste Management's regional office in Mill Valley will oversee Green Valley and Guadalupe.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
