Methvin Sanitation

Mark Methvin was a student at the University of Arkansas earning a degree in poultry science when he met someone who ran a solid waste operation and was intrigued.

“My father says he firmly believes that God put that guy in his path to guide him towards this,” says Justin Methvin, Mark’s son. “If he hadn’t met that guy, he probably wouldn’t have considered being a garbage man.”

After graduation, Mark Methvin worked a few odd jobs until he had heard that the man who had the solid waste business wanted to sell it. 

Mark Methvin originally intended on being in chicken farming. But the idea of running a solid waste collection company had appeal. He bought the business – located in Harrison, Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains – in 1987, which came with one truck and a customer list of 60 and named it Methvin Sanitation.

“Every summer, my younger sister Carla and I were with either Dad or Mom in a truck,” Justin Methvin, now CFO, recalls. 

“For a long time, it was Dad driving a trash truck and Mom had a pick-up truck for her to pick up trash. My summer job for most of my teenage years meant I got to ride around on the back of a trash truck.”

Today, the company has 29 trucks that run primarily residential curbside collection routes four days a week for more than 10,000 families in Boone and Baxter counties and surrounding areas to pick up co-mingled solid waste. Some commercial routes run five days a week. Routes run from one to three employees per truck.

Methvin Sanitation also operates two transfer stations in Gassville and Harmon, with plans to close the Harmon location after completing a new transfer station in Harrison.

The company has offices at both transfer stations at which the trucks are parked in the yards. Employees meet with route managers in the morning, do their walk-arounds, start their trucks and start their day.

Methvin Sanitation also provides medical waste collection through a company that picks up sharps containers and red bag waste from medical practices in Arkansas, Missouri, and parts of Tennessee. 

Part of the company’s contract with the municipality of Mountain Home is curbside co-mingled recycling collection, which is put into a split body waste truck with yard waste placed on one side and recyclables on the other.

The yard waste is taken to a composting facility and the mixed recycling is taken to Baxter Day Service Center, which provides vocational training for developmentally disabled adults.

Most of Methvin Sanitation’s trucks are run on diesel and are fueled at the company’s yard at day’s end. Minor maintenance is done in-house with more complicated work outsourced.

The company doesn’t have automated front loaders, as the layout of the routes wouldn’t make it feasible, notes Justin Methvin, adding most of the trucks have cart tippers and the company seeks to hire route workers who will “do a good job, hustle and put people’s cans back up.” 

There are 20 employees in the waste collection end of business between the two locations with 25 others doing office and transfer station work.

“We try to go above and beyond to take care of our employees,” notes Justin Methvin. “We have a company picnic every year. We cook for the employees and have games for the kids.”

Justin Methvin says the “biggest challenge and the greatest benefit is hiring and keeping good people. If you want to have good, hard-working, honest good people to be around, you have to pay them well.”

The company has a good retention rate, with six employees having been there for more than 10 years and another five who are in close range of that mark.

“We don’t have much turnover,” Justin Methvin points out. “The reason for that is that we try to take care of our employees. We’re trying to do a better job of hiring so we can hire the kind of people who are going to stay and be the kind of people we want to talk to and be around every day – good, hardworking people we can trust.”

Justin Methvin has found one of the most effective ways of trying to attract employees is through Facebook and Google ads.

“They get shared a whole bunch,” says Justin Methvin of the social media hiring efforts, adding a recent ad for a job opening attracted about 30 interested parties, more than ever before.

The company also seeks to give bonuses to employees who refer someone who makes it through the 90-day probation period.

Methvin Sanitation also likes to treat its customers well. To help them more easily transport the trash to the curb, the company offers its customers 90-gallon blue poly carts. 

“It costs a little more,” notes Justin Methvin. “We have one new contract where poly carts are required. All of our other ones are optional. Anyone who wants pays us a deposit and then they’ll pay a little bit more a month to have a poly cart.”

Most collection contracts are charged on the water bill. “The thinking is if you have to pay for it, you’re going to use it,” notes Justin Methvin. 

The company also offers pink carts to benefit the Susan G. Komen Center for breast cancer awareness. Customers put a $25 deposit down for the carts, which is donated to the non-profit organization.

“I like doing things like that,” says Justin Methvin. “We’ve been greatly blessed and when you’re blessed, you’re expected to do some blessing as well. We’ve been given much and much is expected from us.”

The company also is involved in the community through underwriting advertising efforts for local non-profits to help them raise awareness for their particular missions, such as shelters for victims of domestic abuse and a Christian adoption agency.

The company also sponsors a coat drive for children in need.

Indeed, one of the driving factors of Methvin Sanitation’s business approach is the family’s Christian faith. “Our faith means a lot to us,” points out Justin Methvin.

Do the right thing.

“I’d like to have everyone in our organization be friendly and treat people the right way,”  Justin Methvin adds. “If someone still has an issue, we try to resolve it in a manner where we’re happy and they’re happy.”

Justin Methvin notes that in addition to finding good employees, another challenge is looking for ways to grow the business through other municipal contracts.

“Everyone needs garbage collection, so I don’t have to do a lot of convincing, but the downside is if ours is the only company in the area, there’s not a lot of opportunity because everyone who wants trash service already has it,” he points out.

To grow means entering an area where there is more competition. Justin Methvin says he and his father don’t want to be the cheapest to get the bid.

“The race to be the cheapest is not necessarily the wisest decision, but it’s providing value – whether it’s with carts or recycling or taking an old lady’s cans back up the house,” he says.

To ensure client satisfaction, the company endeavors to deal with problems immediately and thoroughly.

Justin Methvin also sends out surveys to customers on the anniversary of their sign-up date to ask how the company is doing and what could be done different. The responses help the company consider different lines, such as recycling.

Going forward, “I have faith that whatever God wants to happen for us will happen,” says Justin Methvin. “If that’s growth or if that’s staying the same size for 20 years, praise the Lord…whatever He wills.”