Republic Services is proud to partner with the communities we serve. Our business plan specifically calls for communicating with our partner communities. Simply stated, we believe that listening to community concerns and considering community recommendations makes good business sense. Further, we think that investing in the local community by directing business to local vendors, who can provide competitive quality and price, is a good practice. We also choose to give priority consideration to employing qualified people from the local community.

We are fully committed to building and operating our facilities and our vehicles in compliance with all applicable regulations to ensure protection of health and the environment. Mutually beneficial relationships with the communities we serve are a critical measure of success at Republic Services. We are very proud of the commitments that we have made and kept to be a good neighbor.

Community Involvement Is Important To Us

Garbage Gus

Through the Garbage Gus program we work with local elementary schools to creatively deliver a message of personal child safety. Allied Waste's animated truck, Garbage Gus” and his operator, Driver Mike, deliver this critical safety message in a fun, audience-appropriate manner.

The Garbage Gus safety program comes with its own video story, sing-along music video, poster and comic book called “The Adventures of Garbage Gus and Driver Mike.” Gus and Mike demonstrate how some typical child actions could be dangerous when the waste truck is in their neighborhood and that everyone should stay outside the Danger Zone–a fifteen-foot circle around the truck. The charismatic duo teaches that while today’s vehicles are equipped with high-tech safety devices, kids have the best safety device, their brains.

The education program is a fun, interactive learning activity that allows the children to explore their curiosity of the noisy piece of equipment in a safe environment, while teaching them to maintain a safe distance when they see a garbage truck servicing their neighborhoods. It is a safety lesson that can be easily extended to other vehicles that typically operate within a neighborhood.

Garbage Gus is offered at no cost to schools in our service area. For more information about Garbage Gus, or to have him come to your school, click here.

Community Projects

We are happy to participate in many community projects through out the year.  A few examples of these programs include Building a Greener Ozarks,  the St. Jude's house, Habitat for Humanity, along with participation in many city chamber of commerce chapters, just to mention a few.