Waste not, want not

Executives and supervisors at Waste Pro often walk around facilities with wads of hundred-dollar bills in their pockets.

The money is for Franklin Awards: They will randomly walk up to employees, in any department, and pass out $100 bills for good work and good deeds on the job. It could come from a letter written by a customer. Or something the supervisor notices from behind the scenes.

Waste Pro will need a lot of Franklins for its latest project, a $14.2 million expansion of its Manatee County facility. Scheduled for completion by July, the expansion is partially to meet the needs of an extension in its contract with Manatee County. The contract, for most of the west side of the county, is to pick up single-stream recycling, where residents will have one 64-gallon cart. Under the old system, residents received one cart for paper and another for other recyclables.