New Voices

Ashleigh Garnes

General manager of the Blue Ridge, Virginia, market for Meridian Waste

With a background in sales, Ashleigh Garnes, a five-year employee with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Meridian Waste, taps into her people skills to manage her region and establish a customer service culture across Meridian’s Blue Ridge, Virginia, operations.

Garnes says she manages 28 employees, which enables her to learn as much about every aspect of the business as possible. Having come to Meridian from a marketing and sales position at Virginia Tech, she says she wants to learn, understand and experience all aspects of the business she manages.

As someone entering the industry at a managerial level, she says she has tried almost every job that everyone on her team has done to better understand the various duties her employees take on every day. A better understanding of all those duties helps her offer better solutions to their problems, which sometimes can benefit from a fresh perspective.

Garnes says confidence comes naturally to her and that attribute has helped her to adapt easily to the waste and recycling industry. Garnes adds that she is always forthright with her colleagues when she doesn’t understand a task or industry-related term.

She shares more about her work at Meridian Waste in the following interview.

"I think to be the best leader, you need to go out with every person that’s on your team and understand what their day looks like and what they’re bringing home because if they go home at night and are excited about their day, typically, that’s what they’re going to talk about.”

WASTE TODAY (WT): Were you always interested in the waste business, or was this something that later piqued your interest?

Ashleigh Garnes (AG): It definitely came to me, which is really exciting.

When I went to college, I quickly realized that I certainly needed to be around people and had a drive for marketing and sales and economics and business. And that was definitely something that I loved.

WT: Given all the different hats that you need to wear and all the different responsibilities that you have, what have been some of your favorite lessons that you've learned in the industry?

AG: I think to be the best leader, you need to go out with every person that’s on your team and understand what their day looks like and what they’re bringing home because if they go home at night and are excited about their day, typically, that’s what they’re going to talk about. With the family, with their friends, work’s going to come up at some point. So, I want that to be an enjoyable experience.

WT: Are there any additional challenges that come with being a female general manager in the waste and recycling industry?

AG: I am very, very confident. I’m not afraid to let people know when I don’t understand something. The shop and maintenance and truck parts [are] not really my thing. So, I’ve really worked hard to learn all I can, but I’m also not afraid to say, “Hey, can you just help me understand exactly what you’re talking about, so that I can really get a picture of what we need to do [or] how we need to orchestrate this and execute it.” We’re teammates, and we’ve got to get through this together.

And it’s so neat to see them in their element, whether it’s a driver, mechanic or up in the [material recovery facility]. I’ve learned so much about just how Virginia handles their waste. … So, it’s really been a wonderful experience.