12/15/2008 3:26:00 PM Talking trash, the family way
Vintage Waste Services
Phone: 952-472-0401
Web site: www.vintagewaste.com
By Amy Lyon
"We all do the same thing, which is pick up your garbage," said Vintage Waste Systems owner Corey Metcalf.
But to compete in the western suburbs where there are several other refuse haulers, the new family-owned business needed an edge.
In addition to bringing organic waste recycling to the west end of the lake, Vintage Waste also turned back the clock.
"While all of our competitors are moving toward automated collection, we are trending back to the service of the old days," said Corey Metcalf. "Personal service, carts returned neat, someone who has the time to say hello."
And for Corey Metcalf and his father, co-owner Bill Metcalf, that means collecting garbage by hand, picking up a bag that has fallen on the ground and offering drive-up collection at garages for no extra charge.
Organics
Vintage Waste is run by a trio of Metcalfs out of Mound where Corey Metcalf and his wife, Emilee, live.
Emilee Metcalf is in charge of the organics division, and Vintage is currently the only hauler providing organics recycling to the west end of the lake.
The organics recycling is picked up on the same day as regular trash, and subscribers to the organics' service use a separate 35-gallon cart for kitchen waste like food scraps and food-soiled paper products.
"The coolest thing about the organics is how much it does cut down on trash, anywhere from 25-50 percent" said Emilee Metcalf.
Once picked up, the organics are taken by Vintage Waste to a Hennepin County transfer station then on to a processing facility. The items go through the decomposition process and become "a valuable resource in landscaping and road construction projects," according to Emilee Metcalf.
The cost for the organics service through Vintage is $5 per month.
Local competitor Randy's Sanitation offers organics recycling in Minnetonka, Orono and Wayzata for $4.50 per month, and Allied Waste Services and Waste Management do not offer organics recycling in the Lake Minnetonka area at this time.
Green machines
In addition to having trash containers made from recycled plastic and organic carts made from reconditioned 35-gallon containers saved from the landfill, Vintage Waste has what they believe are the smallest trucks in the industry.
Among the three Metcalfs, they operate five trucks with four of the vehicles running on pick-up truck chassis.
"By running smaller trucks we use less fuel," said Corey Metcalf, who estimated that his collection vehicles average two- to three-times more miles per gallon than the larger trucks.
While working at Allied Waste Services, Corey Metcalf managed the routes of the western suburbs, and Bill Metcalf had refuse routes in the area.
"We saw limited drive-up service, especially in the west metro, and our small equipment is a huge advantage," said Corey Metcalf, who noted that the drive-up service has been of particular interest to senior citizens, traveling business people and individuals who worry about the potential damage caused by heavy trucks on their driveways.
But the Metcalfs admit that the size and operation of their trucks does limit the capacity and speed at which they can do business.
"When a company is running a huge, automated truck, they can definitely do more houses per hour," said Corey Metcalf, "but we're not about quantity, we're service driven."
A safe bet
With 50 years of experience between them at Allied Waste Services, Corey and Bill Metcalf discussed for several years the prospect of starting their own operation before they finally made the leap in April of this year.
They knew there was job security in trash.
"The garbage business is a safe business because everyone produces waste and it will always be there," said Corey Metcalf.
They started out offering service in Mound because it is their hometown, Independence is where they grew up and Orono is where Corey and Emilee graduated. They also service the cities of Greenwood, Greenfield, Maple Plain and Golden Valley.
There are other prospects on the horizon, but they are keeping those cities secret for now as the trash business has proven to be a competitive one.
"We're probably the smallest refuse hauler in the state and we're going up against huge national companies and a large local company," said Corey Metcalf, who understands that at the end of the day price is the determining factor for many people.
Vintage Waste lists its prices on the homepage of its Web site, a feature not found on the Web sites of its competitors: Allied Waste, Randy's Sanitation and Waste Management.
For 35, 64 and 96 gallon carts, Vintage Waste charges $14.25, $16.62 and $19 per month respectively. To be different and to make it easy for customers to budget each month, Vintage chose not to charge fuel surcharge fees, which fluctuate depending on fuel costs and can add $5 or more to a monthly bill.
In a comparison, the three other haulers who service the west side of the lake offered price quotes over the phone ranging from $10.95-$14.50 for the smallest-size container, $12.95-$15 for the medium-size container and $14.95-$22.50 for the largest container.
The other haulers who service the western suburbs didn't pay much attention to Vintage Waste during the spring or even during the summer, said Corey Metcalf, but now that the company is establishing itself and winning over customers, the Allied's, Waste's and Randy's of the refuse world are taking notice.
"They have thousands of employees, sales departments and now that they see we're a threat, they're playing hardball," said Corey Metcalf, who has heard of competitors offering price matching programs "to stomp out the competition."
Competition is not a new concept in business, but it is a little more fierce than Corey Metcalf had anticipated.
"The big companies have all made it," he said. "We're the ones who really need the community's support."
In an age of faster is better, it's rare to find anyone who strives for the old way of doing business, but the Metcalfs are convinced that their old-fashioned, personable service will be the golden token that will set their business apart.
