Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth nobody in the industry wants to say out loud:
most small waste operators in the U.S. are sitting on a mountain of money and don’t even realize it.

And I’m not talking about a metaphorical mountain.
I’m talking about real tonnage — somewhere between 90 and 115 million tons of material every single year in the hands of companies under $10 million in revenue.
That’s not a market segment.
That’s a hidden kingdom.

Yet most of these companies behave like they’re just “haulers.”
They collect trash, dump it, send the invoice, and pray the client pays on time.

Congratulations — that’s the most expensive way to run a waste business.

See, the real game isn’t in hauling waste.
It’s in owning waste streams, and transforming them into secondary raw materials before someone bigger, smarter, and definitely wealthier eats your lunch.

And trust me… there are many hungry giants out there.

So today, I want to show you why the small operator — yes, the operator moving 2 or 3 trucks a day — is sitting on the greatest business opportunity in the American waste industry…
if they stop thinking like “haulers,” and start thinking like secondary materials brokers and micro-processors.

Because once you shift that mindset, the entire market opens in front of you like a vault.

Chapter 1 — The Market Has Already Chosen Its Winners. Now Choose Your Stream.

Let’s be clear:
Waste Management, Republic, Waste Connections, GFL…
They already won the game of volume.

They own the metro markets.
They own the big contracts.
They own the landfills.

If you’re a small operator trying to “compete” with them on general waste collection, you might as well try punching a freight train.
It won’t even slow down to laugh at you.

But here’s where the fun starts:
those same giants cannot dominate every specific waste stream.

They’re too big.
Too slow.
Too corporate.
Too tangled in their own procurement bureaucracy to chase small, strategic materials that move fast and command high resale value.

This is exactly where the small operator wins.

Because while the giants are crushing the “general waste” game, they’re leaving entire rivers of value untouched:

• Electronics

• Fluorescents

• Power cables

• Batteries

• HVAC scrap

• Small metals

• Plastics by polymer

• Construction fractions

• Retail overstock

• Food byproducts

• High-value commercial cardboard

• Textiles

• Wood

• Pallets

• EPS

• PVC

And the list goes on.

A small operator who owns even one of these streams — truly owns it, processes it, and places it on the secondary market — will make more money than 10 “traditional” haulers combined.

Why?

Because waste disposal is a cost business.
But secondary raw materials are a value business.

Shift streams → shift margins.
Shift margins → shift destiny.

Chapter 2 — The Money Is Not in the Tonnage. It’s in the Composition.

Most small companies obsess over how many tons they collect.

“Tons per day.”
“Tons per truck.”
“Tons per month.”

Listen…
If tonnage alone made people rich, every landfill in America would be run by billionaires.

But billionaires aren’t running landfills.
Private equity and investment funds are.

Why?

Because they understand the one principle small operators miss:

Value per ton beats tons per day. Every. Single. Time.

If you collect 10 tons of mixed MSW, congratulations — you just collected 10 tons of low-margin headache.

But if you collect 2 tons of insulated copper wire, WEEE scraps, specific plastics, catalytic pre-materials, or even properly sorted cardboard…

Those 2 tons may earn you more than hauling 50 tons of mixed trash.

Let that sink in.

You don’t need volume.
You need composition.

This is what I teach the companies that call me:
stop dreaming about “growing to 50 trucks” and start dreaming about “owning the most profitable waste streams in your county.”

Because it’s not the truck fleet that builds your empire.
It’s the material selection.

Waste becomes wealth only when it’s filtered, isolated, and re-introduced into the economy as raw material.

And small operators are perfectly positioned to do that — because they can specialize. They can move fast. They can adapt.

Giants can’t.

Chapter 3 — The Secret Play: Become the Local Hub for One Material

What happens when you dominate one waste stream in your region?

Simple.

Everybody — businesses, contractors, even other haulers — starts bringing that material to you.

It goes from:

“I’m a hauler competing on price,”
to
“I’m the only guy who pays top dollar for XYZ material.”

And let me tell you what I’ve seen in the field:

When a small company becomes the go-to buyer of even one stream — cables, electronics, cardboard, metals, plastics, you name it — they unlock:

• New routes

• New clients

• New partnerships

• Subcontracted material flow

• Drop-off agreements

• Brokerage roles

• Transfer-station synergy

• And better margins than they’ve ever experienced

Why?

Because you become a market maker, not a “trash guy.”

In this industry, perception = profit.

If the market sees you as the “specialist” for a given material, you own:

• The inbound stream

• The outbound prices

• The negotiations

• The middle margin

• The role of aggregator

• The relationships

In other words:
you become the local secondary raw materials authority.

And that’s when your revenue stops being capped by collection routes and starts scaling with market demand.

Chapter 4 — The Long Tail of 110 Million Tons: A Goldmine for the Smart

Let’s connect the dots.

We know small operators control 90–115 million tons of MSW flow in the U.S. every year.
Let’s be brutally honest: most of that gets dumped without a second thought.

But even if you extract 1% of that flow as targeted raw material…

Just 1%…

You unlock more revenue than most small operators see in five years.

Let’s do a simple example:

Take a tiny slice — just 1% of 100 million tons = 1 million tons.

Now imagine only 0.1% of that is tied to high-value materials like:

• cables

• mixed metals

• aluminum

• electronics

• sorted plastics

At an average blended resale value of $1,000–$2,500/ton, you’re looking at:

$100M to $250M of value
quietly flowing under the feet of small operators
every single year.

And almost nobody is touching it.

Why?
Because they’re too busy fighting over underpriced garbage contracts instead of focusing on strategic materials.

This is why I say:
small operators are one smart decision away from becoming power players in the secondary raw materials market.

Chapter 5 — The Strategy That Wins: Focus → Mastery → Market Control

If you’re a small waste operator, here’s the real roadmap:

Step 1 — Pick one profitable waste stream.

Not five.
Not “everything.”
One.

Step 2 — Dominate it operationally.

Be the fastest, the cleanest, the most reliable receiver of that stream.

Step 3 — Become the local buyer.

Pay fairly.
Treat suppliers like partners.
Create gravity — pull materials toward you.

Step 4 — Build your outbound channels.

Sell nationally.
Sell internationally.
Sell to processors, traders, refiners.

Step 5 — Turn it into your signature business model.

Once you’re known for one stream, expanding to the second becomes easy.

This is how you transition from:

“Another hauler in the county”
→ to
“The local authority in secondary raw materials.”

And yes, the big players will notice you.
But by the time they do, you’ll have built the relationships, the access, and the flow.

They won’t be able to catch you.

Final Thoughts — The Empire Is in the Waste Stream You Haven’t Claimed Yet

If you’re a small operator, you’re standing at the entrance of a vault.

Inside the vault is the real money of the waste business:
the secondary raw materials market.

But the vault only opens if you choose your stream,
study it,
master it,
and build your business model around it.

You already handle the material.
You already have the trucks.
You already have the routes.
You already move tons every day.

You're just not monetizing it properly.

It’s time to fix that.

If you want help choosing your profitable waste stream, mapping the margins, and building the model that transforms your operation into a high-value secondary raw materials hub…

To Your Success

Sam Barrili
The Waste Management Alchemist