A Hundred at Harvey's

Dumps usually don’t get to celebrate anything, even 100^th birthdays. But every dump is not . The venerable Westborough institution on Hopkinton Road is marking its centennial this week. To celebrate the occasion, Harvey’s held a reception for its commercial customers on Wednesday. If you thought a birthday party for a dump wouldn’t attract many admirers, you may have been in for quite a surprise. As it turns out, Westborough is home to perhaps the most beloved waste management company in the country.    

While today Harvey’s is among the biggest family-owned businesses in New England, it began as a small dairy farm in 1911. Eventually the town of Westborough asked the family if they could burn the town’s trash for a week, and a small burning dump operation began.

Then fate intervened in a major way, as current CEO Jim Harvey explained. He was a young boy when, he said, “One day as we were milking the cows, a gentleman came in and his name was Mr. Smith and he was very upset. He told us his horse died last night and he asked us to take over his A&P and First National contracts,” for waste disposal.

These were the major grocery store chains at the time, and “he didn’t want to default on those contracts. So we took them over and that was the start of our business. And we’ve always kiddingly said, 'Thank God that horse died.'”

Waste disposal grew into the major part of the business. Finally, in 1971, Harvey’s sold their last cows, bought their first ‘roll-off’ truck and went full bore into waste management.

Today, Harvey’s has about 100 trucks and 250 employees, and it is held in very high esteem in industry circles around the country.  

To illustrate that point, Bruce Parker, president and CEO of the National Solid Wastes Management Association, made the trip from Washington, DC. He spoke glowingly of Harvey’s in no uncertain terms. “They are known nationally for the quality of their operations, the way they run their business, how they recycle paper, they recycle metals, they recycle plastic, and now they have a brand new C&D facility, for construction and demolition waste, that’s state of the art.”

A tour of the facility confirmed this point. It’s a larger property than it looks from the street, and its many warehouse-sized buildings house equipment that appears more technologically advanced than one may suspect a waste and recycling company would require.

For those who wish to join the company in celebrating one hundred years of business, E.L. Harvey's is hosting a party. The event takes place at Harvey’s on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and everyone in Westborough and Hopkinton is invited. There will be food, beverages, music, raffles and giveaways, and many dignitaries are expected to be in attendance at 11:30 a.m., including Rep. George Peterson, R-Grafton, and US Rep. James McGovern, D-MA.

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