Dive Brief:
- Ecowaste Solutions has acquired some of Mark Dunning Industries’ solid waste collection and disposal operations across parts of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. The companies announced the changeover in an April 1 letter to customers.
- The carve-out acquisition includes several of MDI’s commercial, residential and industrial waste operations. MDI will separately continue to operate its services for U.S. military bases and other government contracts, the companies said.
- The deal includes the Rosehill Transfer Station and a C&D landfill, both in Midland City, Alabama. It also includes about 82 vehicles and 35,000 containers, such as residential carts and commercial dumpsters, across the carve-out region.
Dive Insight:
Ecowaste, the recently created waste and recycling platform backed by private equity fund Kinderhook Industries, continues to focus its growth across the Southeast as it fills in its operations from Texas to Florida. The company formed in early 2026 as a combination of portfolio companies Live Oak Environmental and Cards Recycling.
Ecowaste serves more than 500,000 customers weekly through more than 120 municipal contracts, with plans to grow rapidly over the next few years.The deal comes just after it announced it acquired Fannin County Disposal in North Texas and Hometown Disposal in Kansas.
MDI was founded in 1980 by Mark Dunning. The company originally focused on waste services for the U.S. government, but expanded its offerings over the years to also include municipal contracts and commercial services. Today, the company still provides waste collection services for the U.S. military, military family housing and Department of Homeland Security.
The MDI deal helps Ecowaste expand into new regions, including Dothan and Brundidge, Alabama, as well as Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and Gulfport, Mississippi.
The acquisition “is a pivotal step in our growth trajectory,” said CEO Dustin Reynolds in a statement. “It establishes our East Region, extends our Gulf Coast footprint into a contiguous corridor from Mississippi to Florida, and brings vertically integrated disposal assets with long-dated airspace into the Ecowaste platform.”
The newly acquired Rosehill facility includes a transfer station that processes about 49,000 tons annually. Its C&D landfill has about 30 years of remaining permitted airspace, the company says.
Ecowaste now has four landfill disposal sites and two transfer stations across the Gulf Coast, counting its existing landfills in Mobile, Alabama, and Northwest Florida. The expanded disposal capacity helps improve its pricing leverage and waste flow flexibility in the region, the company said.
Ecowaste has also acquired some of MDI’s commercial, roll-off, residential and disposal customers. In Alabama, that includes the municipalities of Dothan, Headland and Geneva. The Dothan assets give the company “a scaled beachhead from which to grow organically and through bolt-on acquisitions across the Gulf Coast,” Reynolds said.
Ecowaste will take over MDI’s contract with Troy University, where the company has had contracts off and on since 1999, including hauling services for football games. It will also take over work MDI does in Alabama, including for the Dale County Commission, Houston County MSW and the construction company D.R. Horton, Ecowaste said.
Ecowaste will also take over the municipal contract for Pensacola, Florida, which the city awarded MDI in 2024. “The Pensacola operation will integrate directly into our existing yard, delivering immediate route density,” Reynolds said.
Overall, the acquired carve-out operations run about 41 routes per day across six markets. Its fleet includes about 82 vehicles including front-load, rear-load, roll-off and automated side-load trucks.
The deal also adds 51 of MDI’s drivers, seven mechanics and seven back-office team members. Those employees will transition immediately to working under Ecowaste. The local teams will stay in place because they “know these markets and customers better than anyone,” Reynolds said.
