WastePro ranks high on Central Florida companies list

Longwood, Florida-based Waste Pro USA Inc. has placed third on a list of Central Florida’s largest privately-owned companies compiled by the Orlando Business Journal. This is the 10th consecutive year WastePro has placed in the top five of the publication’s annual “Golden 100” list, according to the firm.

Waste Pro says it currently has more than 4,000 employees and more than 3,000 collection trucks in its fleet and operates in nearly all Florida counties.

The company has garnered several honors in 2020, including in May being named one of the top employers in Seminole County, Florida, also by the Orlando Business Journal in May. In August, Waste Today magazine ranked Waste Pro 12th among North America’s Top 50 Haulers.

Waste Pro was founded by its current executive board chair John Jennings in 2001. This year, Florida Trend magazine named him one of the state’s most influential business leaders in its annual “Florida 500” issue, marking the third consecutive year Jennings was on that list. Also this year, Jennings received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who’s Who and the Legacy Award from MSW Management magazine.

Jennings, who describes himself as “a second-generation garbage man,” has built Waste Pro into one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. His son, Sean Jennings, was named CEO earlier this year.

Waste Pro has been growing its geographic footprint in the Southeast, including by expansion into southeastern Missouri. The firm’s revenue increased from $681 million in 2018 to $727 million in 2019. Waste Pro now operates in 10 Southeastern states, serving more than 2 million residential and 40,000 commercial customers from more than 75 operating locations. Waste Pro says it maintains approximately 300 exclusive municipal contracts and franchises.