For just over two decades, Knight waste services served as the only business owned by the minorities responsible for getting trash across the fort Worth.
This changed last May, when members of the City Council voted to eliminate a request for waste management to hire women’s minority and women’s businesses as part of his $ 479 million trash contract. The result: Black ownership knight waste is no longer in function. In early December, waste management had taken over all the roads of the company.
Founded by the businessman and former manager of Dallas City Richard Knight Jr., Knight Waste continued to operate under his sons Marcus Knight and the late Richard L. Knight after their father’s death. Marcus Knight did not accept an interview request, but said his family is grateful to have been a contractor and congratulates “Fort Worth”.
The controversial Council decision followed problems with months with lost fertilizers and residents’ complaints. Proponents of the removal, including the City Council member Charlie Laursdorf, said he would reduce residents’ complaints and conduct waste management operations.
Voting sent a message in particular to residents, Laursdorf told the report in February.
“The city will ensure that its contractors and subcontractors are performing the services they are required, at the level they are expected. Our taxpayers deserve it and we must ask for it,” Laursdorf said.
Ten months after the voting was taken, reported that lost fertilizer collections have increased on average, according to data obtained from the Fort Worth report.
At a city council meeting last year, the Director of the Cody Whittenburg Environmental Services Department reported that the city reported on average about 1,600 large collections of waste lost each month from October 2023 to March 2024. To meet industry standards, contractors should not exceed 1,100 collections lost per month.
The data obtained from the report through a request for open registrations show that the lost trucks increased after the contract was changed. The city reported an average of 2,400 monthly waste collections of waste between June 2024 by January 2025, data said. Wholesale waste collections include waste, recycling and yard waste.
The lost missions of large waste reported in the city reached their peak in August 2024, hitting 3,291 before falling at 2,283 next month. The number fell before returning to 2,368 in December, when waste management took full responsibility for the collections.
In January, the number of lost collections of waste was reported in 1,998. Waste management and its contractors make about 1.1 million service efforts each month.
Among the fluctuating numbers, Laursdorf told about service improvements. Unlike Knight’s waste, waste management staff ensures that the trash bins are completely replaced on the ground after an intake, and make sure that waste “actually” makes it in the trash, Laursdorf said. When there is a loss, they immediately care without including the intervention of city leaders, he added.
The latest growth in lost fertilizer collections can be due to waste management by taking a complete transition of all roads, Laursdorf said.
Waste management spokesman Lisa Doughty said the percentage of successful collections of the company remains statistically high.
“Despite the initial challenges, including the weather delays, the service has been continuously improved,” Doughty said. “Comparison of numbers from December 2024 to January 2025, there is a clear positive trend in the right direction. The WM remains committed to providing reliable, high quality service to residents.”
Worth fertilizer collection service requires to grow.
When the contract with Knight Waste Services began, the city collected trash from about 142,000 houses. Due to the growth of the city, that number has now exceeded 256,000, said Steve Keller, public waste management manager, said last year.
Knight’s performance disputes, retail requests remain
Business executives remain critical of how the city approached the abolition of business claims owned by minorities.
For Alex Jiemenez, a former chairman of the Hyspanic Chamber of Commerce of Fort Worth, Elimination not only damages local companies, but is poorly reflecting in the city.
“Ten years on the road, see what the consequences are. They did nothing to help the city move forward, ”Jiemenez said.
Charlie Laursdorf County County Council member in the center, hears a speaker in a meeting May 21, 2024.
“Residents don’t care who collects their trash, they don’t care what kind of company it is or is not. What they care about is that a service they pay is completed when it is supposed to be, and how it is supposed to be,” Laursdorf said.
Council members Jared Williams and Chris Nettles opposed the decision at the time, citing concerns about the precedent of the voting assigned to other minority businesses contracted with the city. Not even the requests returned to comment on this story.
“This is an important vote, but that’s bigger than just this vote,” Williams said in May. “About for the place where we want to invest our money, and I want to invest in small businesses and in the strong Worth businesses.”
Others said change was needed. Council member Gyna Bivets previously said Knight waste services were the only waste collection company owned by minorities in the state. Because the company was unable to terminate 25% of the waste management contract, there are no other local contractors available, she said.
“That’s not good, but I know her reality is that looking 25% in this area and in this country, you won’t find it,” Bivets said in May.
If the Knight Waste staff had performed as poorly as reported, they would have been released from their contract earlier, said Randle Howard, president and CEO of RD Howard Construction. The company performed to the “standards” for several years, he added.
“Knight was an extraordinary asset to this community and for the minority business community that supported many very positive things here for a long time,” said Randle, who won a Rotary Club of Fort Worth business prize – a program previously overseen by Richard L. Knight, who died last spring. “They will be missing a lot.”
Howard believes the city could have followed other opportunities when it comes to addressing the issue of lost garbage collections. These possibilities include subcontracting additional businesses or re -setting knight staff in other tasks such as maintenance and cleaning, contracting managers and supply of waste management with materials.
“I understand … It can be hard to find someone else who did exactly what Knight did and had the expertise to bring to the table,” Howard said. “But there are many other needs that other minority businesses could have been easily filled.”
Michelle Green-Ford, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Black Chamber of Fort Worth, accompanied the city’s leaders last year to strengthen Fort Worth relations with businesses owned by minorities after protesting the Knight Waste decision.
Green-Ford said she regrets the city’s decision to remove the minority business demand, but continues to work with Fort Worth leaders. She has already met with the Department of Environmental Services and Waste Management to find solutions to encourage small and minority business participation.
These discussions and meetings have a “positive economic impact” on Fort Worth, Green-Ford said.
What is another for waste management, trash contract
Waste management has been working “diligently” to fix operations to improve road coverage and wagon consistency, said Lola McCartney, spokesman for the city’s environmental services department.
“Residents can expect to see continuous service level improvements while the WM works to accommodate the city’s needs,” McCartney said. “The city staff will continue to monitor the main service measurements as the WM stabilizes service levels.”
It may take “several months” for the trash collection data to be stabilized and for the city staff to determine the “full” transition impacts more accurately, McCartney added.
Both McCartney and Laursdorf confirmed that there have been no changes to the city’s business regulation or policies regarding employment of businesses owned by minorities.
“The city remains committed to supporting local businesses and advancing opportunities for business capital firms,” McCartney said, using city terminology for minority and women’s businesses.
Waste management took over the remaining 22 roads of 30 roads previously served by Knight Waste, according to Doughty. Knight Waste staff offered opportunities to join waste management while roads were being transferred.
“A service change of this scale is obliged to request some adjustments along the way, but we are committed to providing a world -class service experience to our customers,” Doughty said. “While welcoming Knight’s dedicated employees in the WM family, we are happy with progress and anticipate more improvements in the coming months.”
In the eyes of Laursdorf, residents see only one trash bin with “Fort Worth” on it – not the name of a contractor. Residents expect their waste collected regardless of the company.
“As a small business owner of veterans with disabilities by service, I would be terrified and ashamed if the city let me leave Subpar Service only because of my business,” Laursdorf added.
Jiemenez suggests that the city reviews the business request owned by minorities in its fertilizer contract, which has been extended by 12 years in 2021 without a competitive bid process, to ensure that waste management is held responsible for its obligations. The elimination of the request gave waste management “a passage” not to honor the contract clauses, he said.
“I think, at least, the city should rebid it immediately and let anyone come in. Even minorities,” Jiemenez said. “If you help these companies succeed, it will remove all ships, especially if they are from (Fort Worth).”
Nicole Lopez is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth report. Contact it at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
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it ITEM first appeared in Fort Worth Report And it is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license.