Clean Harbors was founded 45 years ago on March 24, 1980. Executive Chairman Alan McKim founded the company with a single truck, four employees and a goal to provide the highest quality environmental services for customers to make the world a cleaner and more sustainable place for all. Despite tremendous growth and expansion over the past four and a half decades, that goal has never changed.
To mark the company’s first 45 years, co-CEOs Mike Battles and Eric Gerstenberg, the company’s Board of Directors and other executives traveled to New York City earlier this month, where Alan rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. It was an ideal ceremony to mark Clean Harbors’ many decades of success.
In 1980, the company’s first job was a $600 tank cleanout. In those early days, the company steadily built its reputation as the go-to emergency response provider in New England. That culminated in 1984 with the company’s first large-scale environmental response, removing approximately 130,000 gallons of fuel oil from the beached tanker Eldia, which had been forced ashore on Cape Cod due to a major storm. Since then, Clean Harbors has responded to numerous headline events and environmental disasters from the 9/11 terrorist attacks and anthrax scares in New York City to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the Deepwater Horizon and ruptured oil pipelines, to avian flu outbreaks and more recently, COVID decontamination efforts to help customers re-open during the pandemic.
Since its founding, Clean Harbors has rapidly grown in scope, scale and service offerings. What started as four employees and a truck is now 25,000 employees strong supported by the 14th largest private motor carrier fleet at more than 20,000 pieces of rolling stock. A single garage in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1980 has expanded to 875 service branch locations.
As the company celebrates 45 years, it would like to thank its employees for continuing to be the cornerstone of the company’s success. As a service business, the company’s reputation relies on the quality of its people and their ability to deliver service excellence. Based on an unwavering commitment to safety and a constant desire to improve and innovate, the company is positioned to set new records and continue its growth for another 45 years and beyond.