Business
Dean Buntrock, Co-Founder of Waste Management Who Turned Trash Into a Multibillion-Dollar Empire, Dies at 94
Dean Buntrock was happily selling life insurance in Boulder, Colo., in 1956 when the death of his father-in-law thrust him into a very different business: hauling garbage in Chicago.
Buntrock, who died April 17 at the age of 94, initially was inclined to sell the family trash business, known as Ace Scavenger Service, with its fleet of a dozen trucks, founded by Harm Huizenga, a Dutch immigrant, in 1893. After taking a closer look, Buntrock saw opportunity. He decided to keep the business and expand it by acquiring other mom-and-pop trash collectors. Soon he acquired a waste-handling business in Milwaukee.
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