Norcal Waste Systems, Inc.

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 60 (1989) by Ed Dinger

Norcal Waste Systems, Inc.

160 Pacific Avenue, Suite 200 San Francisco, California 94111 U.S.A. Telephone: (415) 875-1000 Fax: (415) 875-1124 Web site: http://www.norcalwaste.com

Private Company Incorporated: 1983 as Norcal Solid Waste System Employees: 2,100 Sales: $351 million (2002) NAIC: 562111 Solid Waste Collection

Norcal Waste Systems, Inc. is an employee-owned company based in San Francisco that through some two dozen subsidiaries provides garbage collection to both residential and commercial customers, runs various recycling programs (including material recovery, composting of food and organic wastes, and construction and demolition debris recycling), and owns or manages numerous landfills. In addition to a monopoly on garbage collection in San Francisco, Norcal operates in more than 50 California communities, serving over 570,000 residential and 55,000 commercial accounts.

Company Origins Trace back to 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Before the concept of waste management came into being, and even before the advent of organized municipal trash collection, the practice of scavenging provided a livelihood for many immigrants in America. According to a 1985 Forbe's article, "The Garbage Game," "As the various waves of immigration broke over the U.S., the newcomers invariably moved into the least desirable jobs, and garbage pickup was a natural point of entry. In the New York area, garbage collection came to be dominated by people of Italian descent—Calabrians and Sicilians in New York and Long Island, immigrants from a town near Naples in much of New Jersey. But the business is by no means an Italian specialty. Elsewhere other ethnic groups have predominated—Armenians in Southern California, Dutch in Chicago, Scandinavians in Minnesota." In many cases immigrants did not provide trash pickup but simply resorted to scavenging, looking for anything of value in the garbage of the well-off—in essence, an early form of recycling. In San Francisco, it was Italians from Genoa that dominated the scavenging trade. Many of them arrived shortly before the devastating 1906 earthquake that leveled the city. The damage caused by the quake and resulting fires provided a great deal of opportunity for scavengers. However, an endeavor that was disorganized to start with became even more so following the earthquake. After the cleanup was complete, many scavengers remained in the business, but there was much less need for their services. Ten years after the earthquake, there were more than 150 trash collectors in the city. According to Stewart Perry in his book San Francisco Scavengers , competition was fierce: "Several wagons and their owners might be picking up refuse from the same city block, each coveting the other's customers on that block—or any other block."

To get a grip on the scavenging business, which was threatening to spiral out of control, San Francisco City officials in 1921 set rates for garbage collection, established collection districts, and ultimately required permits. Because of these new regulations, individual collectors began to merge their efforts and eventually formed two cooperative companies: Scavenger's Protective Association and Sunset Scavenger Company. Every employee of these companies was a shareholder, with retired members selling their shares to newcomers. The price of shares rose steadily over the years. The two groups, both of which were comprised of Italians from Genoa, divided up the city's business. Scavenger's Protective Association took care of the city's financial district and surrounding neighborhoods, and Sunset Scavenger Company handled the outlying residential areas. Because of this division, Scavenger's Protective Association came to concentrate on commercial trash pickup as well as servicing densely populated neighborhoods. Sunset Scavenger Company, on the other hand, became more of a residential trash collector. Despite their delineated roles, however, the two companies often worked in concert. In 1935, for instance, they established Sanitary Fill Company, a landfill venture and the first of a number of subsidiaries the two companies would create together.

Golden Gate Disposal Company Formed in 1965

Both of San Francisco's waste companies expanded over the years in keeping with the city's own growth. In 1965, Scavenger's Protective Association changed its name to Golden Gate Disposal Company. Sunset Scavenger Company changed its name in 1973 to Envirocal Inc., reflecting the company's diversification into a number of waste management areas and the growing importance of caring for the environment. Furthermore, the population of San Francisco was declining, leading to a reduced need for collection services. Over the next decade, both Golden Gate Disposal Company and Envirocal borrowed money and bought up garbage companies throughout northern California. Envirocal moved into such communities as Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Portola, and Woodside. For its part, Golden Gate acquired collection companies serving Auburn, Eureka, Garberville, Oroville, Vacaville, and Vallejo. In 1983, Golden Gate was reorganized to accommodate its slate of subsidiaries, becoming Norcal Solid Waste Systems.