№ 01Since 2008
DP
Dale Petrovich
Founder · Yard lead
Started with a pickle-brine favor and never stopped. Runs the buy-back desk. Sleeps about six hours.
Quirk: Owns 40+ vintage industrial stamps. Puts one on every bill of lading.
02.4About · Crew
Five humans · one yard
The whole company
fits in a break room.
We're small by design. It's how the ledger stays accurate and how every email still gets a human reply. Here's who answers when you write in.
Form · Quick Quote
Skip the phone tag. Leave a note — we'll reply by email.
№ 02Since 2012
MO
Marguerite Okafor
Reconditioning foreman
Former water-systems engineer at a local brewery. Runs the triple-rinse line and set up our UN31A hydrostatic rig.
Quirk: Makes hot sauce from peppers grown in a decommissioned Grade C tote.
№ 03Since 2016
EY
Ezra Yoon
Freight + logistics
Two box trucks, one 26-foot straight, and the patience to plan a 200-mile multi-stop in under 30 minutes.
Quirk: Has an I-79 playlist that is exactly three hours long.
№ 04Since 2019
SV
Sunny Valdez
Customer correspondence
The reason we don't need a phone line. Every email gets a real reply inside one business day.
Quirk: Maintains the tank ledger. Has opinions about serif fonts.
№ 05Since 2021
WC
Wren Carmichael
Materials reclamation
Runs the granulator and handles pellet sales to regional re-bottlers. Writes most of our articles.
Quirk: Keeps a running tally of rescued totes in chalk on the break-room wall.
Who to email, for what.
Every message lands in a shared inbox first, but routing is faster if you include a hint in the subject line. Here's the cheat sheet.
| Subject prefix | Routed to | Typical reply window |
|---|---|---|
| QUOTE — | Sunny Valdez | Same business day (before 15:00 ET) |
| BUYBACK — | Dale Petrovich | Next business day with pickup window |
| FOOD-GRADE — | Marguerite Okafor | Within 24h, includes UN31A paperwork |
| FREIGHT — | Ezra Yoon | Same day for PA/OH/WV lanes |
| PELLETS / RECLAIM — | Wren Carmichael | Within 48h for volumes ≥ 1,000 lb |
| PRESS / STUDENT — | Dale Petrovich | Inside the week — no promises on Fridays |
| AUDIT / COMPLIANCE — | Sunny Valdez + Dale | Two business days for document pulls |
A small company, on purpose.
We've run at five people for six years. In that window we've been offered capital, partnerships, and two acquisition conversations. We declined all of them, and we'd decline them again tomorrow. Five is the headcount that lets every person know every account, every tank in inventory, and every message in the inbox.
When we hire — which we do once every eighteen months on average — we look for two things in roughly equal weight: willingness to work the wash bay on the bad days, and the habit of writing things down. The second one is harder to teach.
Everyone on this crew earns a flat salary, health coverage through an Allegheny County collective plan, and a profit-share pool that vests quarterly. Nobody earns commission, nobody is a contractor, and nobody is scored on sales volume.
- 5
- Full-time staff
- 11 yrs
- Average tenure
- None
- Commissions paid, ever
- 1
- Open seat in the last 18 months
- 71%
- Customers who repeat within a year
- 4 of 5
- Crew who live in the 15136
A day on the yard, hour by hour.
Most days in McKees Rocks look roughly like this. Different tank streams, same shape.
06:40
Dale opens the gate, walks the pad, checks overnight weather damage. Coffee.
07:15
Marguerite fires the wash-bay boiler and runs water temps up to 180 °F.
07:30
Crew huddle by the ledger board. Two inbound, three outbound, one audit walk-through.
08:00
Ezra pulls the first route sheet. Today: five stops from Ambridge to Monaca, 68 total miles.
09:45
Wren starts granulator on the Monday retirement batch — 22 tanks, ~860 lb of pellets.
11:20
Sunny clears the overnight email queue. Seven quotes out, two buybacks scheduled.
13:00
Lunch in the break room. Someone has brought pierogies.
14:30
Afternoon intake — eight tanks from a Washington County soap maker, all labeled.
16:00
Ledger entries closed for the day. Sunny cross-checks outbound BOLs against ledger IDs.
17:15
Gate closes. Wash-bay boiler vented. Forklift parked inside. Lights off by 17:45.
We post openings on the contact page when a role comes open. If you'd like to introduce yourself before then, email us a short note with “CREW” in the subject and we'll keep it on file. No cover letters required.