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Tue, 11/01/2005 - 12:00am Problem/Solution
Outsourcing Cleans Up
Problem: Trash is big business--billion dollar in fact. And schools
generate tons of it. So, when co
By: Karen Pasacreta
District Administration, Nov 2005
Problem: It may be dirty, dingy and dusty, ragged, rotten
and rusty, but trash is big business--billion dollar in fact.
And schools generate tons of it. So, when costs began
piling up for the Roseville (Calif.) Joint Union High
School District the district decided it needed to clean up.
With compactors frequently breaking down, Roseville
looked into a lease-maintenance service program and
what it found out about its own budget wasn't pretty: the
8,000-student district was knee-deep in operating
expenses. The franchise waste hauling company
Roseville had used was picking up the compactors
regardless of their full capacity to the tune of $300 a
"visit." The district was paying thousands of unnecessary
dollars. In stepped Dave Hawkyard, owner of Compact-
It, Inc., a privately held waste removal and recycling
equipment company. He said he could save the district
up to 40 percent. And he wasn't just talking trash.
Solution: The Roseville Joint Union High School district had four, large 30-yard
compactors that were more than 10 years old and in constant need of repair. Brian
Gruchow, director of maintenance and operations for the district, looked for a way to
solve this problem and stumbled on Compact-It. Founded in 2001, this Roseville-based
company sells, rents and leases waste removal and recycling equipment as well as
maintaining that equipment. After a free assessment, Roseville found not only was the
district overpaying on waste haulers but it also didn't need to own the compactors. They
could be leased.
"Due to the very expensive cost of new
compactors," says Gruchow, "their high
maintenance and repair cost, and their
somewhat short useful life of eight to 10 years,
it wasn't feasible to purchase and own these
expensive compactors." With rentals of
$2,100 per month for each compactor,
Roseville ended up saving 20 percent to 30
percent, on average.
The savings don't end there
Hawkyard, who had been employed by a large
franchise, knew a lot about trash and how to
tailor systems to suit his customer's needs. He
designed a three-fold system for Roseville.
First, Compact-It installed brand-new trash
compactors on the four high school campuses.
"A new compactor usually reduces the bill by
around half," said Hawkyard. They compress
better allowing more trash to fill the baler.
Second, trash compactor fullness monitors
were installed, indicating when the devices
were ready to be emptied. "This device sends
our office a fax telling us the compactor are
full," said Gruchow. "We then call the waste

2. company to have them pick up only full
compactors, not half-full." Immediately the
district's waste hauling was reduced to two to
three pick-ups a month, cutting the monthly
bill from $4,500 to $3,000. Roseville also had
cart tippers installed so the custodians didn't
have to hand unload their trash carts.
But that still wasn't it. Using Hawkyard's recommendations, the district figured out a
way to make money while saving at the same time. Since approximately 30 percent to
40 percent of its waste was actually cardboard, the district began removing the
cardboard from the garbage thrown into its own baler, thus further reducing the
amount of trash hauled to the landfill. Then the district called on GreenFiber, a
recycling company that buys and recycles the cardboard for a cash return. Trash
became a business for Roseville too, bringing in about $350 a month.
According to Gruchow, most schools have not fully realized the savings potential in
waste. "In education our goal is to put as much money as we can into the classroom," he
says. "You do everything you can to reduce your costs so you fully increase the quality of
service to your customers, which are your kids."
Hawkyard couldn't agree more. He says he believes education budgets get unnecessarily
slashed for more high-profile projects. "I am for the underdog. These poor schools don't
have that much money anymore. The [large] garbage companies say, 'Well this is what
you're going to pay,' and I say, 'Here's another solution.' "
Karen Pasacreta is a freelance writer based in Milford, Conn.
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