From West Point to Waste Removal: How Zack Willey Built a Company for Vets

By Siam Sukkhee Trading Co., Ltd — 2026-09-03 — Waste360 (recycling/scrap)

I stumbled across Zack Willey's story because it doesn't fit the usual narrative. Here's a man who spent a decade in the Army, taught at West Point, and then—during a move—decided to haul his own garbage to the landfill.

That's where it started.

Most people don't wake up one morning thinking waste removal sounds like a career. But Willey noticed something during COVID when his city cut trash services near his home. He took a load to the landfill himself, watched the sunrise over the dump, and something clicked. Not the money. The simplicity of the work itself. The physical clarity of it.

So he started Veterans Easy Trash Service—VETS, as it's known now.

What makes this interesting isn't just that he built a junk removal business. Plenty of people do that. The angle here is deliberate. Willey designed the entire operation around hiring other veterans. Not as charity. As employment. The franchise model he built lets veteran operators run their own territories, manage crews, build equity. You can lead people in the field just like you did in uniform.

The company has grown from a single truck in Mecklenburg County to a multi-state franchise operating across ten states. That's not a small thing, actually—that's the difference between a side hustle and a genuine enterprise. The model works because it actually addresses what veterans often struggle with after discharge: transitioning from structured military life to the chaos of civilian business, finding peers who understand the background, building something tangible.

Willey talks about simplicity constantly. This is where the West Point background shows. He learned leadership through deployment, through teaching, through running large operations. The waste business, he found, demands exactly that: clear systems, reliable execution, transparent processes. No nonsense. You show up, you haul, you charge fairly, you repeat. That's the model.

The company does residential pickups and commercial hauling. Dumpster rentals. Estate cleanouts. Construction debris. But underneath, the real product is stability. For a veteran stepping back into civilian life, that matters more than most business plans acknowledge.

I should note—actually, that's not quite right. This isn't some grand social mission wrapped in patriotic language. Willey built a for-profit business that happens to employ veterans. It's profitable because the operations are sound, not because anyone's being charitable. The veterans work there because there's actual work, actual income, and leadership paths they recognise.

That distinction matters.

The franchise has picked up recognition in the waste industry—Willey was named to Waste360's 40 Under 40 class this year. But the real metric isn't awards. It's that his company keeps expanding. Ten states. Hundreds of employees, many of them veterans. That suggests the model isn't a gimmick.

One more thing worth saying: most veteran business stories come with inspirational music in the background. This one doesn't. A man noticed a gap. He filled it. He hired people who could do the work. The business grew because the work was real and the pay was legitimate.

Source: "Veteran-owned VETS Junk Removal & Dumpsters founder Zack Willey, a West Point graduate and U.S. Army Reserves Major, named to Waste360's 2026 40 Under 40 class." — MarketersMedia / Waste360

Tags: metal scrap recycling industry