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Trash Tech, a waste management company based in Delaware City, has merged with RPJ Waste Service in Smyrna to form SEM. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS[/caption]
WILMINGTON – The residential and commercial waste management company Trash Tech has merged with commercial and industrial hauler RPJ Waste to create Sustainable Environmental Management (SEM).
The merger comes amid recent movements in the state’s waste hauling industry, as GFL Environmental plans to leave Delaware by selling its mid-Atlantic business to Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems.
The combination of Trash Tech, founded in 2016 and headquartered near Delaware City, and RPJ Waste Services, founded in 2004 and headquartered in Smyrna, will grow to one of the largest locally headquartered haulers in Delaware.
SEM will continue to serve New Castle and Kent counties, as well as Cecil County, Md., and Chester and Delaware counties in Pennsylvania, offering trash cans, commercial trash cans, roll off dumpster services, commercial trash services and residential trash services.
Trash Tech President and CEO Steve Berry and RPJ Waste Service’s general manager Bill Stoll will lead the merger to ensure a smooth transition and to help the newly combined business continue to grow.
Founded by E. Thomas Harvey III, the land developer who also co-founded Harvey Hanna & Associates, Trash Tech has thrived in serving the Middletown-Odessa-Townsend corridor in southern New Castle County, including holding the contract for the town of Middletown.
It has acquired several other smaller haulers over the years, including Bandurski in Wilmington, Penn Container in Landenberg, Pa., and Knight’s Hauling in Trainer, Pa., but the merger with RPJ will move its service network farther south.
It also gains a company that has a foothold in contracting with the Dover Air Force Base, as RPJ has landed numerous contracts worth millions at the base over the last decade for trash collection and portable toilet rentals, according to federal records. It was reportedly the only trash hauler with full security clearance of all drivers to enter the air base, and handled 98% of all construction projects on the base.
“SEM is excited for the opportunity to provide the same exceptional service that Trash Tech and RPJ Waste Services have provided to its loyal customer base,” the company said in a statement.
Trash Tech Chief Financial Officer Kevin Liebman told Delaware Business Times that with the state's small industry market the two companies knew each other, and identified the opportunity that could be gained by merging.
"It was a good time to put our resources together to help serve the community the best we can," he said.
When asked whether SEM would continue looking for bolt-on acquisitions to help grow its market, Liebman said, "We're always looking for the right opportunities to help build the business and build a stronger business."
