In April 1990, Dave and Liz Dodd were watching an Earth Day special on TV that changed the family business forever.
Dodd’s Trash Hauling and Recycling celebrated its 25 year anniversary of recycling on April 20. As a business, the Dodds have been around for almost 50 years. Its mission to keep Iowa beautiful is done by hauling trash, curbside recycling, commercial recycling, roll off work and yard waste. Co-owners Dave and Liz Dodd are proud of how far they have come.
“I knew if the business was to go forward, we had to go to recycling. If we didn’t recycle, we wouldn’t have been in business. No way,” Dave Dodd said.
Recycling was almost unheard of back then, which is why the Dodds were divided about what to do with the business. Dave knew if they did not start recycling, some other business would. It was an uphill climb for the whole family.
Founder of Dodd’s Trash Hauling and Recycling, Lloyd Dodd, thought recycling was a fad; he thought there was no way the family would make a profit from it. Once Dave Dodd showed his father the totals being saved from the landfill, Lloyd trusted his son to continue with recycling. Because as soon as the landfill was full, the Dodds would have another expense to transport material to another town’s landfill.
However, the Dodds continue to preserve the landfill. Last year, the business recycled more than 1,500 tons, a total the Dodds look forward to every year.
“It’s unbelievable how many tons we take out of that landfill stream in a year’s time,” Dave Dodd said.
Over the 25 years, Dodd’s Trash Hauling and Recycling has reached several milestones. One achievement that sticks out to the Dodds was the transition to single stream recycling.
Before the Dodds adapted this idea, they had to manually separate different recycled items. Now, the Dodds are able to be more efficient and timely with their work since single stream recycling allows all recycled materials to be mixed together.
Accomplishments aside, the business would not be where it is today without its struggles.
There will probably always be people who will never recycle, but when the Dodds introduced the idea, many people thought it was suicide.
People refused to recycle, and several others had city council meetings discussing the issue. There was even an occurrence of human feces in recycling bins to show people’s disapproval.
As a service industry, the Dodds understand the challenges to make people happy. However, they highly value customer satisfaction — a service which Dean Ward, of Newton, has noticed.
“They do a marvelous job. They have been doing this a long time, and I think they do it really well. They even turn the recyclable bin upside down so it won’t blow away,” Ward said. “Liz has done extremely well in maintaining garbage pick-up in Newton. I have been extremely satisfied.
The Dodds have stuck through thick and thin because they know they are making a difference. As long as customers identify recyclables from trash, the Dodds do not care how many bins people put out — the ultimate goal for Dodd’s is to recycle and save the landfill.
“We appreciate the people who do think well of us and we appreciate our guys a lot. We couldn’t do any of this without our employees,” Liz Dodd said.