Industry News

Mergers & Acquisitions

Ecowaste caps busy month with three acquisitions

Ecowaste Solutions Inc. has had a busy start to 2026.

Logo courtesy of Ecowaste Solutions Inc.

The Dallas-based firm has made three acquisitions to open the year. First, Ecowaste added both Baker Trash Services and Gardner Disposal Jan. 20. Ecowaste says the deals will strengthen its residential and commercial service capabilities in the southern U.S. markets.

Then the company acquired Howie’s Enterprises, a waste services provider in Manhattan, Kansas. The acquisition, which closed Jan. 30, brings more than 30 employees and approximately 15,000 customers to Ecowaste.

“We’re building the infrastructure and scale to compete with national providers while maintaining the local relationships and service quality that matter most to customers and communities,” Ecowaste CEO Dustin Reynolds says.

The acquisitions come on the heels of Ecowaste’s inception. On Jan. 16, Kinderhook Industries LLC, the company’s New York-based private equity owner, merged Cards Recycling, based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Live Oak Environmental, based in Bossier City, Louisiana, to form Ecowaste Solutions.

The new company has operations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Kinderhook says Ecowaste is well-positioned to execute its value-creation playbook through organic growth initiatives, operational efficiencies and strategic acquisitions.

Ecowaste represents Kinderhook’s ninth platform investment within the solid waste management vertical. 

“As a combined company, Ecowaste has meaningful scale, proven integration capabilities and a deep pipeline of acquisition opportunities across its core markets,” Cor Carruthers, managing director at Kinderhook, says.

According to Ecowaste, the combined operations of Baker Trash and Gardner Disposal consist of more than 30 employees and add approximately 17,500 customers to the company’s platform.

Baker Trash Service is based in Inola, Oklahoma, and serves residential and commercial customers throughout the eastern Tulsa area.

Gardner Disposal extends Ecowaste’s presence in the Kansas City metro area, with Ecowaste saying the firm will serve as a new flagship operation. Together, the two companies serve nearly 20 routes daily across residential, commercial and roll-off services.

The Tulsa and Kansas City metro areas represent high-growth markets with underserved customer segments where Ecowaste says it can leverage its operational platform to deliver superior service reliability.

Howard and Joann Wilson founded Howie’s Enterprises in 1984, operating nearly 20 routes daily across Riley, Geary, Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee counties in Kansas. The company serves the Manhattan-Wamego-Junction City corridor in northeast Kansas with residential and commercial waste collection, roll-off services and recycling.

Organics

OC Waste & Recycling partners with Agromin for compost program

OC Waste & Recycling (OCWR) has partnered with Agromin Corp., California’s largest organics recycler and a manufacturer of soil products. The partnership aims to expand the distribution of compost and mulch in Orange County to bulk customers—including farms, landscapers, jurisdictions and other large-scale users.

“Agromin is proud to partner with the county of Orange to bring nutrient-rich compost and mulch to farms and landscapes across the region,” Agromin CEO Bill Camarillo says. “This partnership is a natural fit—Agromin is a recognized name in the agriculture and organics industries, and we bring the knowledge, experience and resources needed to help OC Waste & Recycling reach a larger market. Together, we’re supporting healthy soil, sustainable farming and a cleaner environment.”

Santa Ana, California-based OCWR’s compost is OMRI Listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute of Eugene, Oregon, confirming it is allowed for use in compliance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program. Additionally, OCWR’s compost products are licensed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Manufactured at OCWR’s composting facilities in Brea, Irvine and San Juan Capistrano, the OMRI Listing certifies that the compost can be used in certified organic farming.

The compost also is Seal of Testing Assurance Certified by the Raleigh, North Carolina-based U.S. Composting Council, verifying that it is regularly tested, improves customer confidence in compost selection/utilization and supports healthy soil, OCWR says.

Agromin, based in Oxnard, California, will identify and connect customers with the material.

OCWR says the initiative aligns with California’s statewide organic waste reduction goals set by Senate Bill 1383.

“Residents who participate in organics recycling are supporting the state’s goal of diverting organic waste from landfills under S.B. 1383 but more than that, they are facilitating a change in the waste and recycling industry,” OCWR Director Tom Koutroulis says.

“Our partnership with Agromin is a perfect example of how local government and private industry can work together to expand our organics recycling program and product distribution. Organic material that would have previously been buried at our landfills is now being transformed to become part of residential and public landscaping projects.”

Landfills

Waga Energy to produce renewable natural gas at Florida landfill

Officials in Hillsborough County, Florida, chose Waga Energy to build, own, operate and maintain a renewable natural gas (RNG) production unit at the Southeast County Landfill in Lithia, Florida. 

Waga Energy, a French company with U.S. operations based in Philadelphia, will upgrade the landfill gas into pipeline-quality RNG using the company’s patented WagaBox technology.

Waga Energy expects the plant to process up to 3,000 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill gas and produce over 610,000 million British thermal units, or 160 gigawatt-hours, of RNG per year, delivering gas to the local pipeline for at least 20 years. 

The project also is expected to reduce up to 47,500 tons of CO₂ equivalent emissions annually due to the displacement of fossil fuels, equivalent to avoiding the CO₂ emissions from 4.2 million gallons of diesel consumed. By producing pipeline-quality RNG, Waga Energy says the project supports the circular economy and reduces reliance on fossil fuels with a local, reliable and renewable source of energy provided to the community. 

The Southeast County Landfill is owned by Hillsborough County and operated by Houston-based WM. The landfill accepts more than 400,000 tons of waste annually. 

As a result of 15 years of development, Waga Energy says its WagaBox technology revolutionizes landfill gas upgrading by combining membrane filtration with cryogenic distillation.

It maximizes the renewable energy production of landfills by ensuring the production of pipeline-quality RNG, regardless of landfill gas variations in factors like flow rate and composition. 

“We are proud to be partnering with Hillsborough County on this major project and deploying our first WagaBox unit in Florida near our U.S. commercial headquarters,” Waga Energy co-founder and CEO Guénaël Prince says. “Together, we are turning landfill gas into RNG, a clean, local, renewable energy, and taking concrete action toward energy resilience and the decarbonization of the gas infrastructure for Florida’s communities.”