Browning-Ferris Industries - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Browning-Ferris Industries was a North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n waste management

Waste management

Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal,managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics...

company that was disbanded in 1999. Its name is a licensed trademark of Allied Waste Industries

Allied Waste Industries

Allied Waste Industries was a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. A vertically integrated company that owned and operated solid waste collection businesses, recycling facilities, and landfills, it was a leader in the solid waste industry in the United States...

. Its headquarters were located in the Eldridge Place 1 and 2 complex in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

BFI was founded in Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

by a 28-year-old accountant named Tom Fatjo. The company was initially known as American Refuse Systems, and it opened its first landfill in 1968. The company soon became the first waste hauler on the New York Stock Exchange, after purchasing the Browning-Ferris Machinery Company, and changing their name to Browning-Ferris Industries. BFI was an early competitor to Waste Management, Inc. BFI and Waste Management both began to buy the locally owned companies and create a national brand. Eventually, BFI collapsed under the weight of running local businesses from a national platform. The company was sold to Allied Industries, together with private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

firms The Blackstone Group and Apollo Management

Apollo Management

Apollo Global Management, LLC is a private equity investment firm, founded in 1990 by former Drexel Burnham Lambert banker Leon Black. The firm specializes in leveraged buyout transactions and purchases of distressed securities involving corporate restructuring, special situations and industry...

, in 1999.

Some local units of Allied Waste are still known as BFI in the markets they serve. Earlier, in 1997, some local units of BFI had been sold to Superior Services, Waste Management, Inc., and Waste Connections, Inc.

Waste Connections, Inc.

Waste Connections Inc. is an integrated solid waste services company that provides solid waste collection, transfer, disposal and recycling services in mostly secondary markets in the Western and Southern U.S. The Company serves more than two million residential, commercial and industrial...

In 2009, Allied Waste was acquired by Republic Services Group based in Florida.

The BFI branding is no longer seen today. The company leases two types of dumpster

Dumpster

A dumpster is a large steel waste receptacle designed to be emptied into garbage trucks. The word is a genericized trademark of Dumpster, a American brand name for a type of mobile garbage bin...

s to individuals and organizations: a standard, ubiquitous blue dumpster for general waste, and a green dumpster for paper recycling

Paper recycling

Paper recycling is the process of recovering waste paper and remaking it into new paper products. There are three categories of paper that can be used as feedstocks for making recycled paper: mill broke, pre-consumer waste, and post-consumer waste. Mill broke is paper trimmings and other paper...

only. It now operates under the Allied Waste Services. Waste Connections uses the BFI blue colors, and a BFI-esque logo. In 2000, Allied Waste sold BFI's Canadian assets to a group of investors, including the BFI trademark. The new company took the name BFI Canada

BFI Canada

Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. is the third largest non-hazardous solid waste solutions provider in North America in North America. In Canada, the company acquired its original assets in 2000 and today, BFI Canada serves five provinces. In the US, the company acquired IESI Corp. in 2005 and...

Corporate headquarters

BFI had its headquarters in the Eldridge Place 1 and 2 buildings in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, Texas

Texas

. The 12 story Eldridge Place One has 240000 square foot of space, while the 14 story Eldridge Place Two has 280000 square foot of space. Both buildings are located on Eldridge Parkway and Memorial Drive

Memorial Drive

Memorial Drive may refer to:Streets* Memorial Drive , Georgia* Memorial Drive , Alberta* Memorial Drive , Massachusetts* Memorial Drive * Memorial Drive...

. In 2000, after BFI was dissolved, Allied Waste Industries

Allied Waste Industries

sold the buildings to REIT bought the buildings for a sum reported by the Houston Business Journal as $50 million. In addition, the firm Global Marine leased 140000 square foot of BFI's former space to use as its world headquarters.

External links

Browning-Ferris Industries (Archive)
The BusinessMakers Interview with Tom Fatjo Jr.
Browning-Ferris Industries, article in The Handbook of Texas Online

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