The owner of The Trash Man doesn’t care much for titles, but he cares about his business.

“It’s a legacy built by what my father and uncle did,” he said.

In September, Kehoe purchased American Sanitation, a company which went into competition with the Trash Man about five years ago.

“There have been six or seven attempts to compete,” said Kehoe,. “People think anybody can do it.”

—Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Kolleen Taylor
Chris Kehoe is the owner of The Trash Man, which was started by his father, Steve Kehoe and his uncle, Randy Youngdale

But there is a lot more to it than they realize.

“Iowa has a comprehensive plan that states the trash must stay in the county where it is created,” he explained.

Today that means trash must go to the transfer station located northwest of Kamrar, but when the business first started, it was a landfill. Trash must go to the designated area, making it hard for this business to expand into different counties.

Kehoe joined the family business 31 years ago, after serving on the Webster City Police force for six years. He and his family moved to Clarion in 1995 on the premise of starting a recycling program in a different market.

When the recycling became mandated, it became an important part of their business, and they have worked hard to make it easier for everyone. But for them it was a lot of work to setting up a system, finding a market, sorting materials by hand, and educating the public.

—Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Kolleen Taylor
Kendall Keenan, one of the four employees who have worked for the Trash Man for over 20 years, works in the recycling center, and assists those who bring recycling directly to the center.

It was in 1987 that Steve Kehoe, Chris’ father, and his uncle Randy Youngdale worked together to start “The Trash Man.” They had started working together in the roofing business Randy Youngdale had bought from his father, Ken Youngdale. At that time, they could not have realized their start-up business would eventually be involved in a citywide, then countywide trash and recycling program. When Neil Wright joined the firm later, the curbside pickup of recyclable material were just beginning. But there was still a lot of kinks and details to work out.

With all three founders now deceased, the business is still locally owned and operated, with 23 employees, four who have been employed over 20 years.

The business has evolved over time. What first began as a trash company, expanded into a curbside recycling program. Bags were used at first for garbage, bins for recycling. The thought behind the bags was for customers who had a lot of waste would be paying more, those using little paid less. And the more people recycled, the fewer bags were used.

“In the late 1980s and early 1990s the State of Iowa had to have a percentage of recyclable material taken out of the landfill, a 25% reduction,” said Kehoe. “The county and city had to have a recycling program in place to offset the penalty if non-compliant.”

“We started with a drop-off location for recycling in the old skating rink for people to bring recycling in,” he said. “Then we put in a large recycling location at the end of Ohio Street.”

The curbside recycling program began in the early 1990s. Initially, they picked up garbage in a truck, and pulled a trailer behind for the recycling.

Things have changed through the years, but they have always recycled product.

“Initially we just took newspaper, two types of plastic, clear glass and tin.” Residents needed to sort it, and rinse it, with paper labels and lids removed.

“We had a farmer who used the newspaper for years for bedding,” said Kehoe. The plastic they would grind and pack into pallets, and hold it until they had enough to ship to Shockapee, Minnesota.

Over the years, their trucks have gotten larger, both their garbage trucks and recycling trucks look the same. They can co-mingle the recycling today, because they send all the recycling to a sort line in LeMars to a recycling company called Vans Sanitation.

The bag program has quietly disappeared and been replaced with the new carts.

According to Kehoe, different markets have now opened up for plastics, even junk mail, something that used to go in the trash. Recyclables don’t have to be sorted and boxes don’t have to be broken down. Instead of tubs, the recyclables go into a blue cart, trash goes into green carts.

“We saw a 20-25% increase in recycling when we switched to carts,” said Kehoe. But, of course, he pointed out the bins held 15 gallons, the carts hold 96 gallons.

The Trash Man owns nine trucks today. Each truck would cost $400,000 new; each cart costs about $70, with dumpsters more than 10 times more. He estimated they have $3.5 million to $4 million in capital expended.

Each truck has been retrofitted with a hook to allow the trash pick up to be speedier. The carts are to be out by 7 a.m. in the morning, and now with automation, the trucks are moving faster through neighborhoods.

“We are much more efficient,” he said. “It takes 30 seconds to stop and pick up the cart and put it back; before, it took two to three minutes per stop. If your previous pickup was at 9 a.m., today it might be 8 a.m.”

Kehoe no longer lives in Clarion. He moved back to Webster City in 2000. He has five children; Addison, who lives here in Webster City, Corbin in Urbandale, Kaitlyn in Alberta, Canada, Asher who is now 5 years old, and Handley is 2 years old.

“People need to know what a great opportunity we have here.” said Kehoe, “We help support the community with property taxes, chamber sponsorships, school programs and more. We try to be a good community partner.”

And they always have.