Rite Environmental

Brian Hoyer, president of Rite Environmental in Waterloo, Iowa, likes to joke with his clients. When they walk in the front door looking for the manager, he walks into his office and back out, then introduces himself as the manager to their surprise. 

His business has attained rapid success in less than a decade.

Rite Environmental offers services in residential and commercial roll-off, residential and commercial garbage and recycling, and portable sanitation through Port ‘O’ Jonny, offering both roll-offs and portable sanitation for construction sites. 

Hoyer started Rite Environmental as a University of Northern Iowa student after noting that the city of Cedar Falls, Iowa had recycling redemption sites but didn’t provide curbside recycling despite residents’ requests. 

says Hoyer. “I went out and bought 15 50-gallon garbage cans.”

In 2011, Hoyer started Recycle Rite from his parents’ garage with a pickup truck, soliciting friends’ help in sorting the collected materials. A local newspaper story on Hoyer’s business led to a broadcast story following the Super Bowl and an uptick in business. 

By February 2016, Hoyer had developed a significant customer base. Acquisitions enabled him to expand his service area, customer base and re-focus on residential and commercial construction roll-off hauling. 

By year’s end, the roll-off business grew by more than 50 percent as margins increased for residential waste removal and recycling services as well as front/rear load commercial services. The service area increased to a 40-mile radius of Waterloo.

In October 2017, Rite Environmental expanded again through another acquisition.

Hoyer strives for diversification. Noting recycling market changes, he transitioned to general waste management.

“We actually have more recycling now than we ever did when I was just doing recycling,” he notes. “We used to make a decent amount of money every month selling the recycling we collected, making $10,000 a month in recycling. Now it’s costing $2,500 a month. We’ve offset that cost with price increases. The commodity income was never our main bread and butter.

“When we did one acquisition, 75 percent of the revenue was in roll off. If we had a downturn in the economy, construction could fall off.  We've been diversifying into other, more consistent and non-cyclical streams like commercial waste and municipal contracting.”

Rite Environmental currently has 20 employees and a fleet of 30 trucks. 

Hoyer never did finish college, figuring he was already putting corporate skills into real-life practice. He attributes his success to surrounding himself with skilled people whom he trusts to make good decisions and offer valued input.

Rite Environmental runs one front loader, two rear loader, one automated side loader and eight roll-off routes daily. The work is 60 percent roll-off, 30 percent commercial and 10 percent residential. 

Hoyer runs three Curbtender PowerPak automated side loaders and one Curbtender Phoenix rear loader. He knew the Watje family (Kevin Watje is Curbtender’s CEO) since he was in college.

“They’re great people,” he says. “With them being in the industry and in town, they've been a huge help and a sounding board for me when I’ve told them my ideas. They have expertise in the industry and employ great people."  

“It seems like the right fit to do as much business with them as possible and support them like they support me. Their equipment does a great job. If I need a truck because one of our trucks is down, they've been there to help." 

Hoyer spends his days communicating with managers in operations and maintenance to get a handle on the workload, equipment status and personnel issues. He checks emails. Weekly safety meetings feature new information and ensure everyone is following existing safety protocol.

In-house maintenance minimizes down time. Acknowledging it’s hard to come by drivers, Hoyer shows his employees he values them through good pay, free uniforms and a uniform cleaning service and treats like donuts, pizza and BBQ.

Trucks are equipped with tablet technology providing route information and eliminating paperwork. 

Hoyer says he chose this line of work because he’s hands-on and enjoys the feeling of jumping on the back of a truck and picking up a can. He also enjoys meeting city council representatives, business owners and others in the community.

"Having a reputation of providing good service and taking care of the people in your community is really important, impactful," he says.