Texas Disposal founder wins ethics award

Bob Gregory of Texas Disposal Systems (TDS) has been awarded the 2024 Ethics in Business Lifetime Achievement Award by Austin, Texas-based not-for-profit organization RecognizeGood.

Gregory established TDS, based in Creedmoor, Texas, in 1977. The company now is one of the largest independently-owned solid waste collection, recycling, composting and disposal companies in the United States.

TDS employs more than 1,100 people and operates on a 2,300-acre site in southeast Travis County, Texas, the county that includes Austin. The company says its business model prioritizes service to others and environmental stewardship, hosting over 2,700 events for nonprofits and raising more than $27 million for charitable causes.

“Some of us can give money to a special worthy cause to accomplish specific goals [and] some of us can use our voice to encourage others, like we’ve seen today,” Gregory said at RecognizeGood’s Ethics in Business Awards luncheon, held this month in Austin.

“Some of us can open our home or use some portion of our business to help encourage others, but none of us should let ourselves be robbed of the joy of being personally involved in helping others by whatever means we have."

RecognizeGood's Ethics in Business Awards program celebrates leaders who exemplify "respect, fairness, honesty, justice and sustainability" in Central Texas.

Each award nominee was evaluated by student examiners from Concordia University Texas in Austin. The students were asked to assess candidates based on interviews and research, followed by additional review of each finalist, according to RecognizeGood.

In 2013, TDS as a company received the Ethics in Business Award in the Large Business category.

TDS operates a 160,000-square-foot single-stream material recovery facility in Creedmoor as well as a concrete and aggregates recycling plant and a wood and green waste grinding and composting operation. The firm also sells a reclaimed or recycled-content line of compost, mulch and soil and operates a landfill and transfer stations.