New Voices: Elizabeth Ghiorso

Elizabeth Ghiorso

Solid waste manager, city of New Braunfels, Texas

Elizabeth Ghiorso’s family has been in the solid waste industry since 1906, when her great-grandfather emigrated from northern Italy at age 17 to start a garbage collection business in San Francisco.

The business he started with a team of horses and a wagon eventually evolved into the Sunset Scavenger Co., which formed the building blocks of what would become Recology. Years later, Ghiorso’s grandfather and father started their own garbage company, Burney Disposal Inc., serving residential and commercial customers in northern California.

When Ghiorso headed off to California State University, Chico, she studied public relations because she didn’t think she wanted to work in the industry—but fate had other plans. In 2011, right out of college, she started full-time with Burney Disposal. In 2019, she founded a sister company, Summit Disposal Inc., in Mount Shasta, California. After selling both companies to Houston-based WM in 2021, Ghiorso shifted gears and began a new career in the public sector as the solid waste manager for the city of New Braunfels, Texas, one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

In her role, Ghiorso oversees a staff of 55 running a municipal solid waste and recycling division that includes commercial services. She’s working to expand recycling and to bring in waste industry-specific technology, such as implementing a fleet tracking management system from Portland, Oregon-based Routeware.

In the following interview with Waste Today, Ghiorso discusses growing up in the waste industry and her move from the corporate world to the public sector.

Waste Today (WT): Can you tell us about your family’s history in the waste industry and what it was like growing up in that world?

Elizabeth Ghiorso (EG): It was an incredible family history growing up. People ask me how long I’ve been in the industry, and I say, “Well, if you count the time in utero, 37 years.” So, I’ve always had a seat at the table.

When we sold the companies, it was like letting go of a beloved uncle—a member of the family for sure. It was mixed emotions.

When I moved to Texas and found this position, it was really serendipitous. I’m just grateful to still get to be in this industry. It’s so dynamic and there’s always something new going on. No two days are the same. My passion [for] it bubbles very close to the surface, so I’m just grateful to still be here even after the family business sold and to be able to transition to something new like the public sector.

WT: What have you found to be the biggest differences between working in the corporate world versus working in government?

EG: The big joke about government is the pace, right? The pace is a lot slower. Having said that, it has been great to slow down ... and to be able to understand why that is the case. Because on this side, [in government], we’re dealing with taxpayers’ money. We work for them; it’s not about the bottom line anymore.

We don’t want to have a high fund balance. That was a change. I mean, you’re talking about maximizing profits as much as you possibly can on one side to [instead] making sure that services are available and affordable and accessible being the goal on this side.

That was a nice shift for me to be able to take my foot off the gas in terms of looking at my programs for profitability.