Kissimmee company hosts waste collection summit

Underground Refuse Systems began in 2017 as a locally-owned way to eliminate some of the problems of collecting and hauling trash in urban areas.

The City of Kissimmee signed on as its first client that year, and this year the cities of Clearwater, Fla., and Ennis, Texas, have become identical public-private partners.

Jay Wheeler, the former Osceola School Board member who is the company president, hopes it will expand its unique waste container system to other cities and counties soon. As a host of the Solid Waste Association of North America’s WASTECON industry event Monday, he gave a presentation to nearly 200 SWANA attendees, made up of solid waste and public works officials from across the country.

“And we’re meeting with the New York Housing Authority, who’s looking to do something different, to do recycling and rat abatement,” Wheeler said before that presentation. “We know we can help cities w ith a system that’s resistant to climate change.”

If you’ve been around downtown Kissimmee, you’ve seen their eceptacles, which are not dumpsters — “1930s technology” as Wheeler calls them — so they don’t require ordinance-mandated enclosures and thus can be located right on the street. That allows for added parking in lots where dumpsters would go.

The trash goes from the receptacles into 60-gallon sized underground storage bins, that specially-fit trucks pull out of the ground with a crane. The bins are emptied into the back of the truck, then replaced by the driver with a laser-guided system. The bins have spring-loaded doors to prevent rodents — or people — from getting in, and since they’re anchored underground they would blow or float away in a hurricane or flood.

URS demonstrated its system to the SWANA attendees at its bins behind Kissimmee City Hall.

The company touts added safety, productivity, optimization, maintenance, and odor control in trash collection.

The underground containers and concrete vaults are currently manufactured in Gainesville.

“It’s 25-year-old technology in Europe, but it’s cutting edge in North America,” Wheeler said. “We’re poised for growth and looking forward to taking the next step, in manufacturing metal fabrication in this country.”

“We’re part of a big Imaging Clearwater project in their downtown, donating product to them and high schools there and in Kissimmee (Osceola High). We endeavor to be a partner, not a vendor.”

“I’m a proud Kissimmee-based company. The city is a wonderful partner, we’ve extended our agreement through 2025.”