Career Hauling: How Waste Leaders Navigate Industry Challenges - Larry Henk

In the 1992 hit song, "Get a Haircut," George Thorogood crows over classic rock chords to "get a real job."

That song could very well have been written about Larry Henk. At the age of 24, the current VP of Rio Grande Waste Services heard about an open position in the waste industry while at a barber shop. 

"The woman asked what am I doing or looking for, a job? I said no. I have one," Henk recounted. "She goes, 'well, my husband's looking for some help.' I got to talk to him and said okay. And that was Tom Van Weelden."

Van Weelden was, at the time, CEO and president of Allied Waste Services. Henk quickly rose up the ranks, earning the title of chief operating officer at 38 and then president just three short years later. 

In his tenure at the Allied Waste, the company completed 300 acquisitions until it was purchased by Republic Services. Fast forward to the last 17 years where Henk has been a catalyst for the waste industry Arizona.

Industry veterans Larry Henk, Vice President, Rio Grande Waste Services; Willie Goode,CEO, The Goode Companies Inc. and Michael O' Connor, Managing Consultant, PWS Consulting Group, recently chatted with Waste360 about how, while their individual journeys in the industry were distinct, their successes were realized with a shared drive and passion inherent in entrepreneurs throughout the United States.

Henk recently spoke with Waste360 about why working capital is so crucial to maintaining business growth.

Waste360: What was the biggest obstacle you faced and how did you overcome it?

Henk: When you span as many years as I have, there's not one obstacle that I can speak to for the whole span. There's not enough time in the day. Period. You'll never get everything done. You can work more than you want. It's just you take two things off and you add four.

Where I started in Tom Van Weelden's yard,  we had really old trucks and we had a Dolly Parton's coat of many colors. We had a fleet of many colors. If there was a brand made, we had one of them. And they were all 15 years old or so. Breakdowns were a major problem.
Tom, left town, moved up to Chicago. He let me run this initial company and he called me one day and said, 'hey, how's it going, buddy?' And our shop, our little office had a glass panel where I could look into the shop.

I looked out the window and every truck we had was in the shop. Everything broke down. We didn't have one truck on the route and this was in the middle of the day. And I told Tom, 'hey, everything is perfect.' We got them running. We got everything picked up, and then after we started getting our stuff together. It became inserted the growth cycle. [The obstacle] was, for a long time, access to capital. It was really difficult. We had to work really hard to get capital to fund growth, and it wasn't always easy.

Waste360: What challenges do you currently see in the waste and recycling industry?

Henk: The current problem I obviously see is the supply chain, but the biggest one is employees. The number of employees seems to be shrinking. I know everybody's trying to implement training programs, but you also have a lot of people that have dreams and it's not to drive a garbage truck.

If you think back in history, originally it was always second generation or third generation because they grew up in the business and they knew they loved it. But, a guy doesn't go to college saying I can't wait to graduate and drive a garbage truck. Now, what's happening is all the garbage companies are harvesting each others employees. We're cherry picking back and forth giving raises and sign-on bonuses. So, I would say the current challenge right now is staffing.

Waste360: What advice do you have for people looking to get into the industry?

Henk:  I think people grossly misunder misunderestimate the cost or the capital needs. I mean, if you get a truck worth running, it's going to be $250,000 to 300,000 each. They need to run their numbers, know how many containers it takes for one route. And the same thing for roll-off boxes. Know how many roll-off boxes does it take, and when you start doing your numbers, it's capital intense. I think they grossly underestimate that now that you need working capital because most  start-up companies are not going to make money. Do you have to have capital infusion to support your company to start making money? 

The seond one is there need to be needs to be a reason to start a company. Every market that I've entered with Michael O'Connor - there was always a catalyst. There were either a bunch of acquisitions that merged and/or people didn't like who they were with, and it turned the market over. So we that's where we started, and that was Premier Waste Services. There has to be a reason. you just don't go to a town because you like it and start a company because there's nothing to to motivate people to come to you.

If there's been a bunch of consolidation going on and mergers of that sort, this is something that makes the market different and opportunistic. The other market entry would be through acquisition. In my opinion, I've done 300 some acquisitions and the biggest problem is a lot of people don't understand that not everybody is honest. If they know they're going to sell, they start running bald tires, they quit doing services. They patchwork repairs because they're not gonna put money in [the company] because they're gonna flip it. So, when you're buying, you have to beware because you're gonna be buying trucks that need a lot of maintenance, a lot of repairs and a lot of costs.

Editor's Note: This article has been edited for length and clarity. This is part three in a three-part series exploring the paths industry veterans have taken to succeed in the industry. Part One features Willie Goode, CEO, The Goode Companies. Part Two will feature insight from Michael O' Connor, Managing Consultant, PWS Consulting Group. Part Three will profile Larry Henk, Vice President, Rio Grande Waste Services.

Goode, Henk and O'Connor will be sharing their stories at WasteExpo, May 9-12, 2022 in Las Vegas during the session "NothingWasted! Unique Beginnings."