`David' Compactor Has Squeeze Put On Him -- Small Eastside Hauler Fights `Goliath,' City Councils

REDMOND

You could call it a story about David and Goliath, or the elephant worrying about the ant. Either way, Tom Hutchinson knows his part.

For six years, Hutchinson has eked out a living in the trash business under the nose of his larger, more established competitors.

But one of the garbage industry's giants has taken notice and is putting on the squeeze.

Hutchinson has found a niche by offering an unusual service - a mobile trash compactor - to business parks and large apartment complexes that hope to spend less on garbage bills.

Using this contraption, Hutchinson squeezes the contents of several trash bins into a single container.

One client who manages a Redmond business park with more than a dozen buildings and trash containers expects to save $9,000 each year, trimming the garbage bill by 13 percent, using Hutchinson's service.

The big companies then haul the compacted garbage to the landfill, but they don't make as much because there's only one load. Garbage clients are charged on the basis of volume, not weight.

Waste Management Sno-King has an exclusive contract with the city of Bothell, which has forced out Hutchinson's company, TWH Industries. Now the city of Redmond, with nudging from Waste Management, appears prepared to push him out, as well.

"This is my livelihood. They want to totally destroy me - that's why I'm fighting it," Hutchinson said.

While TWH is admittedly an upstart with just seven clients, Waste Management is worried that other companies like it might further intrude on its domain.

"It's not about him. The problem is that he's opened the door," Jerry Hardebeck, president of Waste Management's Sno-King division, says of his company's request for exclusive rights to Redmond's garbage.

"He found a niche in the market and found a way to provide something at less cost.

"I'd hate to call it a David-and-Goliath thing. I've read the story many times, and I think I know who loses in that story."

The way Hutchinson sees it, this is a case of big business having its way with a little guy.

"Waste Management is chasing me wherever I am," said Hutchinson, a Carnation resident and soft-spoken man of 60.

Prompted by Waste Management's concern over TWH, the Redmond City Council, with a 4-3 vote, directed city staff to draft an ordinance that would grant Waste Management an exclusive right to the garbage. It will vote on the proposal Aug. 19.

If approved, the ordinance would prohibit Hutchinson from transporting trash on public roads in Redmond. Such a rule would essentially shut him down, he says, because he must use a city street that runs through the property of his biggest client.

The city appears to have the authority to prevent Hutchinson from operating because the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, which regulates the garbage industry, says it has no jurisdiction in cities that collect their own garbage or hire a private company.

"We're not doing this to quash free enterprise," said Kathy Robson, a city of Redmond policy analyst, who says she sympathizes with Hutchinson. But giving the trash business to a single company is a benefit, she explains, because "you really don't want five different companies going in and out of your streets."

"It's not about Mr. Hutchinson or his company," agrees Councilwoman Nancy McCormick. "It's about a host of other issues out there."

Among those issues are garbage trucks thundering and screeching through neighborhoods at all times of the week. Or unpredictable service. Or higher fees - or no service - for homes and businesses that are difficult to get to.

To secure a contract with Redmond, Waste Management agreed to contribute $300,000 to a recycling program, collect for the city a 6.4 percent tax and haul away trash from City Hall and other city facilities free of charge.

TWH can do none of that.

So far, the specter of those issues hasn't been raised in Bellevue, where Hutchinson has three clients but where the primary waste hauler is Eastside Disposal, a division of Rabanco, the Puget Sound region's biggest trash collector. Chris Ballestrino of Eastside Disposal doesn't see TWH as a threat to its business.

Waste Management's Hardebeck says he understands Hutchinson's plight. Waste Management, too, began small more than two decades ago. It's grown to a global concern with a fleet of 28,000 trucks and revenues exceeding $9 billion last year.

Hutchinson even considers Waste Management a model.

Six years ago, he set out on his own from his former job as vice president of marketing and sales at the company that manufactured the trash compactor he now wheels around. He has a staff of two part-timers and drums up business through word of mouth or by going around personally.

"It's a living," he said.