Advanced Disposal Buys Waste Roll-Off Firm CF Burdick

Advanced Disposal has purchased assets of the Smethport, Pa.-based waste company CF Burdick Trucking for its third acquisition this month.

The Ponte Vedra, Fla.-based Advanced Disposal acquired commercial roll-off customers in Smethport and Bradford with the deal, for an undisclosed amount, according to a news release.

“This addition expands our roll-off commercial services to businesses in Warren and McKean counties,” said Dave Lavender, Advanced Disposal region vice president. The deal represents the seventh acquisition for Advanced Disposal in 2015, and the third in June. Earlier this month Advanced bought Decatur, Ill.-based Ross Disposal Services and Disposal Management Systems Inc., based in Schaumburg, Ill., in separate deals.

The company in May purchased Sturgeon Bay, Wis.-based waste hauler Little Hoppers. The previous month it bought the Beloit, Wis.-based waste and recycling hauler Rock Disposal Inc. In January Advanced Disposal bought two haulers in separate deals. It acquired Henderson, Ky.-based waste hauler Pea Ridge Waste Management LLC, and it also purchased Hornback Recycling & Disposal Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich.

At WasteExpo in Las Vegas earlier this month Advanced Disposal CEO Richard Burke took part in a Heavy Hitters discussion with three other CEOs at some of the largest waste industry companies. Burke agreed that economics are better these days in the garbage business and talked about how housing construction for the waste industry provides “four pops.” The first pop is special waste; then waste generated in the construction process; new goods bought and old ones phased out by homebuyers; and finally volumes generated by the new businesses that open to serve the growing communities.

Burke also indicated that one reason that volumes haven’t yet returned to pre-recession levels is because of a secular shift in consumer behavior. “The recession made us all better consumers,” he said. “I’m not sure people are spending the same way they did in the past. … Consumers are not taking the same debt.” With less consumption and less eating out at restaurants, commercial waste volumes are constrained.