Transforming Trash

Turning waste woes into a Red Box success

By Victoria Petersen

uauhtemoc “Rod” Rodriguez’s leap from military service to the waste management industry began with a simple frustration—a lack of reliable dumpsters for his projects.

Originally from San Diego, California, Rodriguez came to Alaska by way of the US Air Force. He was a contract specialist in the military for about six years before transitioning into a job as a general contractor. He says an opportunity arose where he could become a project manager.

“I moved on from that company to the next company and the next company, and finally I realized that maybe I should just open up my own business,” he says. “And so that’s what I did.”

It was through Rodriguez’s first business—Coldfoot Environmental, a statewide demolition, remediation, and hazardous materials removal service for government, commercial, and residential properties alike—where he came up with the idea for Red Box Refuse.

Red Box Refuse fills a gap that Rodriguez experienced during his time as a general contractor. He says customers wanted everything done in the summertime, as most Alaskans do. But he struggled to find a company that could provide dumpsters or roll-off containers to all the job sites in a timely manner that were clean, serviceable, safe, and could be removed when the job was done.

“So where does the asbestos go?” he says. “Where does the trash go? We just struggled every single year. So one day we decided to convert a roll-off truck, and we had a local manufacturer build dumpsters for us, and we just turned those dumpsters constantly.”

A friend of Rodriguez’s reached out, needing a dumpster at his house. After granting that favor, his friends’ neighbors were calling, asking to use his dumpsters.

“That’s when I realized, ‘Okay, we just need to separate the whole waste-hauling side of Coldfoot Environmental,” he says.

“That’s when we formed Red Box Refuse in 2010. We’re ten years old now, and it’s still going,” he says. The company doesn’t do any major advertising and has been reliant on repeat customers and referrals from the start. “There’s a need, and those contractors are calling every single day, reminding me of my days when we were searching for somebody to service our site, but we had no success.”

Rodriguez says he takes pride in the dumpsters he uses. Using a recognizable vibrant red paint and emphasizing maintenance so the boxes aren’t rusty or leaking or dirty, Rodriguez’s dumpsters are a step up from those of other local waste removal services.

“People think a dumpster is just a box,” he says. “We just throw out a bunch of garbage, and it’s okay to have it rusted and beat up and all that. I tend to think differently. I think that a dumpster is a piece of equipment. If we maintain it, and keep it nice, and keep it painted and decaled properly so people can identify our company, I think it’s a better product.”

Rodriguez says Red Box Refuse recently began fabricating its own custom boxes, with specialized doors and lids for specific jobs. Rodriguez says the company built a custom box for a client who works with tires, for example. The box includes a special lid that accommodates a vacuum system so when the client is done grinding tires, the vacuum sucks out all of the rubber, and it can be piped straight into the lid.

“Customers come with a need, whether it’s ‘Hey, we’ve got a big dusty area,’ or, ‘Hey, we can’t control all this debris flying everywhere,’” he says. “We’ve been able to kind of fix that problem for them, and that’s exciting.”

Red Box Refuse can fabricate customized lids and dumpsters to fit the needs of various customers.

One of Red Box Refuse’s biggest customers, Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc., says Red Box is a standout partner when it comes to waste disposal.

“Their exceptional reliability, efficiency, and professionalism have been instrumental in maintaining the smooth operation of our projects,” says Sean Hickel, president of Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc. “Red Box Refuse consistently delivers on their promises, providing timely and effective waste removal solutions that help us stay on schedule and meet project deadlines.”

One of Red Box Refuse’s challenges is logistics: whether ordering or fabricating new dumpsters, they have to be shipped north in large quantities and ordered far enough in advance to arrive in the spring.

Another challenge the waste removal company has faced over the last decade is finding personnel. Rodriguez says Alaska simply needs more truck drivers.

“We can’t just put any person into the truck,” he says. “Everyone has to have a commercial driver’s license. And I see that pool not growing. I see it across the board, not just in the waste haul side but in the entire transportation as well as the construction industry.”

Challenges exist; so do opportunities, and Rodriguez is positioning his company to make the most of them.

Starting with just 4 dumpsters and juggling more than 250 now, the company has expanded its use of technology. Rodriguez says Red Box has been able to service its customers in a better, more efficient way with a new dispatch system. Drivers have also ditched using pen and paper to track their work, instead using a tablet synced to the company’s system.

Looking ahead, Rodriguez says new ideas, such as a front-load service for commercial customers, are also in the works. Rodriguez says they try to buy the “latest and greatest” equipment and incentivize employees to take care of the company’s dumpsters and vehicles.

“The technology side of it has changed quite a bit as well, and it’s all to serve our customer better, to streamline the whole process,” he says. “Just because it’s trash, it doesn’t have to be trashy, right?”