Sue’s Recycling and Sanitation: Two Decades of Expanding Business and Reducing Waste

As Sue’s Recycling and Sanitation celebrates their 20th anniversary, the Smith family and their employees reflect on their two decades in the waste removal business.

When Jimmy and Sue Smith accepted their first customers for residential waste collection in the spring of 1993, they couldn’t have imagined the success Sue’s Recycling & Sanitation would experience. The notion for the Vian, OK-based business came one day while the Smiths were mowing a local park and noticed the amount of uncollected trash. The couple submitted a bid to the Army Corps of Engineers with the idea that waste collection would add a year-round element to their lawn care business. Much to their surprise, the bid was accepted.

Soon after, they discovered a profit could be made recycling discarded cans, bottles and scrap material. The business received its moniker when word spread about the local company that would pick up garbage and recyclables, greatly reducing the waste headed for nearby landfills. “It’s been 20 years of blood, sweat, and tears—sometimes in that order,” jokes Sue Smith, co-owner and namesake of the business. “But I’m very proud of what we’ve done.”

The Sue’s Recycling ‘fleet’ began as one used truck, purchased shortly after the park bid was accepted, with Jimmy and Sue personally servicing Vian. Today, with a team of 20 trucks and 30 employees, including son Taylor, the Sue’s Recycling family provides sanitation in 16 Oklahoma counties with two transfer stations and a wide variety of options for commercial, industrial and residential services. The company also works directly with many of their commercial and industrial clients to remove recyclables from their waste streams.

Technology Overcoming Rural Challenges

Managing waste and recyclables in rural environments has always been a challenge and it’s no different for Sue’s Recycling. The company services an area spanning 16 counties from just two locations, and some of the routes travel long distances from the nearest locale every day. Runbacks to customer locations are costly and time consuming, so the staff makes every effort to ensure that each stop is handled with care and every service is completed correctly on the first visit.

Trucks are dispatched electronically using handheld devices, providing drivers access to the most up-to-date route information. Any route changes are transmitted to the drivers in real time so schedule adjustments can be made on the fly. Drivers record details about the service performed at each customer location and that information is immediately available to customer service personnel to answer any customer inquiries. The handhelds also allow drivers to capture photos of extra garbage, providing proof of service at the time of billing. These photos can be emailed to customers or included on invoices in case of billing disputes. “Since we began tracking and verifying our services electronically in 2007, we have substantially cut down on the number of runbacks to customer sites. Customers know that we have a time stamp for all completed services and GPS tracking information for all of our vehicles,” notes Controller Taylor Smith. “If a customer calls our office to report a missed pickup, our staff can tell instantly what time we were at their home or business and why the pickup wasn’t completed.  This saves a return trip to the customer’s location and a lot of time and money.”

Compacting Costs

Sue’s Recycling hasn’t been isolated from the effects of the unstable economy, but they have implemented new policies focused on cost savings and efficiency to maintain profitability and longevity. “We’ve achieved a large amount of cost savings by bringing most vehicle maintenance in-house,” says Taylor Smith. “Our mechanic manages the service schedule for our fleet to ensure scheduled maintenance items are completed on time and addresses preventative maintenance issues to keep the fleet on the road.  Our staff also performs as much of our tire service as possible in our own facilities.  These may seem like small changes, but they have made a big difference in our bottom line.”

“It’s just so much more convenient for us to do our own maintenance,” says mechanic Larry Daniels. “The closest repair shop for most of the trucks in our fleet is over 50 miles from our yard, and general maintenance and many repairs can easily be done right here in our own facility.  It really helps keep our overhead costs down while minimizing truck down time.”

Another way Smith feels that Sue’s Recycling cuts costs and maintains their high standards of customer service is taking steps to retain employees. “We are extremely proud of our team of employees. Many have been with us for longer than 10 years, and we know that is part of our success,” says Taylor Smith. “We are pleased to be able to offer our team members competitive wages and a strong package of benefits, and we believe the expense of these items is more than offset by the quality of workmanship we receive from our team and the savings incurred from the low rate of employee turnover.”

“A long term employee understands the business and knows how it operates,” says driver and 16-year employee Randy Scott. “Many of us have worked together at Sue’s for many years, and I think that bond makes us work better as a team.”

Community Involvement

Sue’s Recycling and their employees partner with a variety of local entities to help make the communities they serve in eastern Oklahoma better places to live by promoting or supporting worthy causes. One such cause is working with local fire departments and other civic organizations to help raise funds. In one instance, the company matches proceeds dollar for dollar on deposits from any cans recycled on behalf of a local association that is responsible for organizing community events.  Local fire departments are also offered special pricing on their recyclable materials. Another example of Sue’s Recycling’s generosity is their contribution of both funds and services to the Happy Paws Animal Shelter in Checotah, OK over the past several years.

The company has also partnered with municipal and government officials to publicize and encourage participation during local cleanup days in different communities. Sue’s Recycling has been recognized by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation for their efforts eight years running. Maybe their most visible support of charitable causes is Sue’s new recycling truck, which is painted in the shade of pink associated with breast cancer awareness and sports the ‘Fight like a girl’ slogan. A portion of all revenue generated from the truck is donated to breast cancer research.

Maintaing a strong focus on safety has been another key to the success at Sue’s Recycling.  Formal meetings are a necessary part of any training or safety program, but the team receives frequent reinforcement through informal toolbox meetings and the posting of safety related articles and news stories.  “Our team sees our commitment to safety every day.  And even though we have formal safety meetings every month, I feel like our drivers receive just as much benefit from a casual discussion about a news article around the time clock,” says Jimmy Smith.

Looking Ahead

Sue’s Recycling and Sanitation’s commitment to technology, efficiency, and accuracy has helped their business flourish in a challenging rural environment where other haulers have struggled.  As part of their ongoing effort to improve processes and reduce costs, Sue’s Recycling is currently working to optimize their routes to reduce daily mileage and increase route density.

The company will also continue working with local residents and businesses to provide options for the responsible disposal of waste and recyclable materials. They currently operate two drop-off facilities for recyclable materials with a few areas receiving pickup service, however they would like to add a more convenient way for all of their customers to recycle. “Convenience is the key to widespread adoption of recycling programs,” says Sue Smith. “There are some recyclers willing to deliver their recyclables to a dropoff station, but participation would be much higher if we were able to offer curbside recycling options. We recognize that focusing on waste diversion and sustainability is critical to the future of our environment. Recycling is nothing new to our company’s culture, but adoption and participation in recycling programs in this part of the country is behind some regions. We hope to continue establishing partnerships with communities and municipalities in our area to offer affordable curbside recycling programs in the rural regions we serve.”

“We’ve really started to see a change in people’s mindset about recycling in the last couple of years,” adds Jimmy Smith. “People are calling our office asking how they can participate and what materials can be recycled. Even though our recycling pickup service is limited to a small area at this time, customers are willing to drop off their materials at our sites. It’s exciting to see people taking that initiative, and we are excited to expand our curbside recycling options.”

For more information, contactTaylor Smith, Controller, at [email protected]. 

While Sue’s Recycling started with just one used truck, today their fleet is made up of 20 vehicles, including one that helps raise funds for breast cancer research.

Experienced employees like driver Randy Scott (16 years with the company) help make Sue’s Recycling a strong, seasoned team.

As Sue’s Recycling celebrates their 20th anniversary, owners Jimmy and Sue Smith reflect on how their operation has grown from servicing a single community to 16 Oklahoma counties.

Photos courtesy of Sue’s Recycling and Sanitation.