“Barbato Disposal is a local, family-owned business serving Columbia County, New York; Berkshire County, Massachusetts; Greene County, New York; and Litchfield County, Connecticut for over 60 years, serving residential, commercial, and We offer industrial trash and recycling pickup, roll-off and dumpster rentals on a weekly basis.In addition, Barbato Excavation provides residential and commercial customers with road, driveway, tennis court, basketball court, foundation, demolition, cleaning, and cleanup services. We offer services such as construction systems, backhoes, bulldozer services, etc. We also offer stone, gravel, cleanfill, topsoil, compost, bark mulch, wood chips, and blacktop products.” — Barbato Disposal & Excavation Website
Carmen Barbato was neither your average 12-year-old nor your average 86-year-old. By his senior year of high school, he had amassed a work history that amazed college admissions committees and corporate boards alike. He had also cultivated the character traits these beings longed for: a sense of adventure to start a new life in a new country, the ingenuity to turn an old car into a dump truck, and the determination and grit to be self-sufficient. He lost three jobs and paid for his own room and board while attending school.
Today, Carmen Barbato is at the helm of the company she founded at the time, with her wife helping out in the office and their two sons working in the disposal and excavation departments of the business. He still runs the route on Thursdays with his son Mark, loading trash and recycling onto his truck. He expanded his customer base from his 20 to thousands during his lifetime.
A 12 year old boy with guts
“Carmen was born in Italy, the son of an American mother and an Italian father, so she is also an American citizen,” begins his wife Elaine. After the war (1948), his parents sent him and his younger sister (ages 11 and 15, respectively) to the United States to live with an uncle and aunt in Boston to give him more opportunities. Relatives soon decided they could no longer care for the teens. So Carmen and his sister moved to Albany, where she met and married her husband. The family then moved to Hillsdale, New York, where Carmen earned money by doing odd jobs before and after school and on weekends, such as delivering newspapers and working at the Pine Lane Poultry Farm.
When her sister and her husband returned to Albany, Carmen decided to remain in Hillsdale. He lived with the Gellert family (a prominent family that took in immigrants to help with their egg farm), converted an old station wagon into a pickup truck (something like that), and lived with 20 families (mostly happy elderly people). ) began transporting garbage for the You have to pay 50 cents a week so you don't have to do the dump run yourself. When his sister's brother-in-law (Pierre Van Hoesen) decides he no longer wants to collect trash, Carmen buys the car and runs her own business, paying for room and board during her senior year of high school. I worked on weekends to earn money for my room. board.
“By saving money, he was eventually able to purchase a smaller, older dump truck to make his route more efficient,” Elaine continues. As word spread that a “garbage truck” would be useful, more and more people asked for it to be added to the route. In time, Carmen Barbato became a famous businesswoman.
Many of the nearby farms had gravel pits and needed someone to load gravel and fertilizer and haul other things out. So he decided to stop working at the chicken farm on Saturdays and instead expand his gravel business, visiting gravel pits in Copake and Craryville and delivering to more customers. “He was always good at saving money,” says his son Mark. “I soon had enough money to buy my own tractor with a front loader.” After buying a small trailer and backhoe, he was able to expand his business to Ancram and Ancramdale. It's done. “Everything he bought was old,” Mark explains. “But with each addition to his ‘fleet’ his business gradually improved and he was able to expand into a driveway construction business using sand, gravel and stone.”
Grow your business with the help of your sons
Carmen Jr. (Carmen's eldest son) returns from Las Vegas and takes charge of the trash/recycling business. Mark had just earned a degree in psychology from Arizona State University, where he was managing an excavation operation. Their father continued as chief consultant, drawing on his extensive experience to set prices and advise on major decisions.
More trash and recyclers came to town and offered low prices at first, but as business grew they raised their prices and quickly sold out. “I’ve seen more than five companies do just that,” Mark recalls. However, people began to wisely understand this trend and most kept their accounts with his Barbato.
“The 2008 recession was a time of massive growth, with everyone working crazy hours. People flocked to the Berkshires when housing prices were low, so we sold our land and our homes. “We were busy clearing land and digging foundations,” Mark recalls. With no website or advertising, his business quickly filled up and served Columbia County, the Berkshires and Connecticut. “Time is money” and business eventually slowed down, but the housing business remained strong.
COVID-19 Madness and Post-COVID-19 Costs
“COVID-19 was a crazy period that lasted a few years,” Mark says. “My parents were in their 80s, so my parents were at home, and the workers in their 70s were at home. We lost eight drivers (for various reasons), and my brother Carmen and I were left with two, as usual. We were traveling the route by ourselves instead of having people driving us.”
Mark continues: “Many second home owners initially thought it was okay to dump trash at their local gas station during coronavirus, even if it was theft of services,” he shares. “But with surveillance cameras, all it takes is a phone call from the owner saying, 'Stop!'” And they soon see the light. ”
Due to the impact of the new coronavirus infection, the cost of dumping waste at landfill sites has also skyrocketed. “During that period, interest rates rose four times a year, whereas in the 10 years before that they only rose once,” Mark explains.
The company recently began bringing employees back full-time, but it did so with a significant increase in pay. “If they don't, they'll be taken over by larger companies,” he says. But they also gained many new business customers (customers he considered Barbato reliable even during the crisis), which helped overall.
“The new trend is that big companies are buying landfills and using their own labor and trucks, so they're basically moving money within the company and paying for the trash themselves. “There are,” Mark points out. “That means we have to raise the fees for disposing of it to the landfill.” But that doesn't mean they'll stop serving the community any time soon. With five trucks equipped with mechanical arms, it can handle 1,000 customers daily.
In addition, Barbato's owns a transfer station (2790 State Route 23) where they recycle everything they can and send leftover trash to Seneca Falls (currently the closest landfill, 5 hours away). I'll carry it. This transfer station is open to the public and accepts large volumes of construction debris, demolition, large items, household declutter, and residential trash over certified scale, providing the cheapest way to dispose of unwanted items.
What is the biggest challenge since the new coronavirus infection? “I can't find help,” Mark says without hesitation. “People don’t come like they used to, even if they did,” he added. For example, on the day we met (Eclipse Monday) he had five workers out. Mark added that the last time he took a vacation was in 2012.
Barbato's currently operates in three states (Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut) with 32 employees, 30 roll-off dumpsters, and 35 trucks. Like their father, Mark and Carmen Jr. will continue to move forward, despite receiving “big offers from big companies” looking to buy the business. When we discussed adding a Thursday route to Lenox this year, Mark conceded as long as he didn't have to do it alone. His father immediately agreed to become a rider and got off at every stop, which was unusual for an 86-year-old man. But then again, Carmen Barbato was by no means a typical figure.
“When people ask about our business, we say we're lucky,” smiles Elaine. “I think our sons enjoy working with their fathers and collaborating with each other.” In this time and place, I have to agree. I'm really lucky.
Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day. Here are additional resources to celebrate this day in 2024:
For information on various ways to dispose of waste, see “Waste Disposal Methods.''
For strategies to better manage your waste, see The Importance of the 5 Rs of Waste Management.
Check out The Nature Conservancy for eight choices you can make to help the planet.
To achieve zero waste by 2030, see Keeping Massachusetts Beautiful.
