WCA Waste Corp. has purchased Town and Country Disposal, a waste and recycling company in the Kansas City, Mo., area, for an undisclosed amount, expanding its presence in the region.

Town and Country, based in Harrisonville, Mo., operates more than 100 collection vehicles in the Kansas City market. Town and Country also owns and operates a solid waste transfer station and a materials recycling facility (Kansas City is a no-glass recycling market), according to a news release.

Houston-based WCA will continue to operate Town and Country from its Harrisonville facility. WCA also plans to relocate its regional Missouri headquarters to the Town and Country Harrisonville facility.

"WCA will maintain the locally-oriented customer service focus that has been instrumental to Town and Country becoming a market leader in the greater Kansas City area,” said Kevin O'Brien, WCA regional vice president. “We are confident WCA can build on Town and Country's success through our expanded disposal, capital and technology resources."

WCA has substantial waste collection and disposal operations in central Missouri but had not had a presence in the Kansas City market until January, when it purchased the Manchester Transfer Station. The acquisition of Town and Country establishes WCA as one of three fully-integrated waste companies serving the Kansas City market.

"For a number of years, WCA has been seeking opportunities to expand into the Kansas City market and made doing so an important part of our long-term growth strategy,” said WCA CEO William Caesar. “With the addition of Town and Country, WCA can now offer Kansas City residents and businesses a locally-focused premium level of service."

On Town and Country’s website the description of its coverage area includes Cass County and Southern Jackson County in Missouri, and parts of Johnson County, Kansas.

WCA Waste provides service to more than a half million residential and commercial/industrial customers in 10 states, with 1,200 employees and a fleet of more than 950 vehicles.

It is the first major strategic move for WCA since April, when it announced it acquired several other waste and recycling haulers in core markets, divested its waste-by-rail operations in Ohio and Massachusetts and expanded its investment in compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle operations. WCA said it purchased nine tuck-in hauling businesses in the previous 12 months. They include the collection operations of Royal Disposal and Caney Creek Disposal in Houston; Manchester Transfer, a construction and demolition (C&D) transfer station in east Kansas City; Lloyds Loads, Fort Scott Sanitation and Behnen Enterprises, all in Missouri; C&S Sanitation in Little Rock, Ark.; and collection and recycling routes from Buzzard Waste and Abitibi, respectively, in Oklahoma City.

The initiatives are the first major announced major moves by the Houston-based company since former Waste Management Inc. executive Bill Caesar took over as CEO of WCA last October.

Meanwhile, the hauler mix in region was shaken up in August, when Inland Waste Solutions LLC acquired certain assets from Waste Management Inc.’s Deffenbaugh Disposal Inc. subsidiary, in connection with the Justice Department’s ruling on the Waste Management buy of Kansas City, Kan.-based Deffenbaugh earlier this year.

Inland Waste, based in Austin, Texas, has purchased commercial assets from Deffenbaugh in the markets of Bethel Heights, Ark.; Fort Smith, Ark.; and Topeka, Kan.