Organics Recycler Yard Works Buys Waltrip to Expand in Virginia

Recycling and organics firm Yard Works LLC has acquired a firm with similar operations, Waltrip Recycling Inc., to expand its operations in Virginia.

Richmond, Va.-based Yard Works expanded into the greater Williamsburg area with its sixth location, according to a news release. Yard Works bought Williamsburg-based Waltrip for an undisclosed amount.

Yard Works will begin serving Waltrip residential and commercial customers immediately by bringing its premium brands of mulch and other land improvement products and services to the market.

The transaction expands Yard Works into the Virginia regions of Willamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. "The acquisition of Waltrip Recycling allows us to serve thousands of new residential and commercial customers in the Historic Triangle and give them the opportunity to experience the Yard Works difference and get access to premium land improvement products and recycling services," said Robbie Urbine, Yard Works chief operating officer.

Waltrip executive Larry Waltrip plans to pursue a full retirement. “Yard Works is looking forward to continuing his vision of customer service and quality products that he started delivering in 1991," Urbine said.

Yard Works provides landscape products, recycling and land clearing services for central Virginia. The company opened a mulching and recycling facility in nearby West Point, near Williamsburg, in 2013. Yard Works serves Richmond and Charlottesville, and has retail operations in Powhatan, Goochland, Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover counties. To strengthen operations at the Williamsburg retail location, Yard Works will be adding new staff, services and products.

Recent recycling acquisitions include American Textile Recycling Service (ATRS) buying a clothing collection facility in Indianapolis for an undisclosed amount. The Houston-based ATRS purchased the 21,000-sq.-ft. clothing and shoe collection facility formerly owned by Retail Management Specialists of Eastern Missouri LLC, which operates Red Racks and Team Thrift stores in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Utah. The donation bin operation was based in Muncie, Ind.

In November Canadian paper firm Resolute Forest Products Inc. acquired Atlas Paper Holdings, a paper recycler and virgin goods maker, for $156 million. Montreal-based Resolute purchased Miami-based Atlas, which makes recycled and virgin paper tissue products for home and away. Atlas operates a paper recycling facility in Tampa, as well as other Florida paper operations in Miami and Sanford.

On the organics front, in January five laws took effect in California in 2016 to further organic waste management and recycling. Those laws involve mandatory commercial organics recycling, tax exemptions for recycling and composting equipment, detailing organics infrastructure, recycling and composting reporting requirements and composting promotion.

The push toward organics has presented new challenges for waste collection trucks to adapt to the unique needs of organics collection. Water and weight are two of those challenges.