Montana recycler acquires Republic Services building, equipment

Earth First Aid, a recycling company based in Billings, Montana, has announced that it has acquired a former Republic Services building in that city, as well as the equipment located at the site.

Scott Berens, owner of Earth First Aid, says the building is much larger than its prior location at 458 Charles St. Earth First Aid offers source-separated curbside recycling service to residential and commercial customers in Billings.

“[Republic Services’] lease was up Nov. 30, and they approached me with a deal to take over the building and the equipment in Billings,” Berens says. “The teardown of the facility would have been expensive for them, and it was too good of a deal to say no to the opportunity on my end. It was a win-win situation.”

He adds that Republic Services plans to continue to haul materials to Earth First Aid’s facility for processing.

Berens says he sold Earth First Aid’s old facility to another local company.

With the slightly larger facility, Berens says he is able to reopen the facility’s recycling buyback program. His company also will start operating a paper shredding route that had been formerly operated by Republic Services using equipment it purchased in the deal.

“The shredding route isn’t very large right now, but I kept the two guys [from Republic Services] who were running that,” Berens says. “They stayed on board with me and are excited to expand the shred route. We’ll put an emphasis on that going forward.”