Family owned: JJ Peters buys L.W. Peters Disposal, keeping business locally managed

BOB ROLLEY/THE EXPRESS
Kyle, Bruce and John Peters proudly stand between a white JJ Peters garbage truck and a red L.W. Peters truck as they mark the purchase of L.W. Peters’ business and assets, keeping the company locally owned.

BOB ROLLEY/THE EXPRESS
Kyle, Bruce and John Peters are pictured between a white JJ Peters garbage truck and a red L.W. Peters truck.

A family that works together grows together.

That’s no more evident than with the families that own JJ Peters Disposal Inc. as they announce the purchase of L.W. Peters Disposal, serving a large number of residential, commercial and institutional customers in Clinton County.

Bruce Peters, his wife, Susie; their son, Kyle, and his wife, Kaylin, and Bruce’s cousin, John Peters and his wife, Dawn, all own the company and collectively decided to buy L.W. Peters, which had been run by Ron Peters before his passing in 2023.

The Peters said there are a few reasons why they wanted to buy the business, starting with their desire to keep it local.

They also wanted to retain and create jobs.

And they are making pledges to all their existing and now new customers:

They have no intention of manipulating or changing pricing.

They will work to provide the “same services already provided.”

They “intend to hold all employees to the same high expectations.”

But, they said, there are changes that are underway and will come over time that include:

Combining routes, making select changes in routes and pickup days to help the business become more efficient. “Our customers will be made aware of any changes before any changes are made,” Kyle pledged.

In time, all payments will be able to be made on-line, besides by a check through the mail.

All payments, in time, must be made to J.J. Peters as that company has bought L.W. Peters’ business and assets.

The merging of routes requires a lot of coordination, so the Peters ask for customers’ patience, Bruce said,

The two businesses share a similar history, John said.

L.W. Peters was founded in 1956; J.J. Peters was founded in 1957.

Ron Peters followed in the footsteps of his father in running the L.W. Peters business.

Bruce and John said their family business was founded by their grandfather, John Jack Peters, with his wife, Hazel, thus the name JJ.

Kyle, in fact, is a fourth-generation co-owner of the business.

The JJ and L.W. families are not related, but it certainly helps that they share the same last name.

The new JJ Peters now has 19 employees; they retained all of L.W. Peters’ employees.

“We retained 11 employees, and we hired two people,” Kyle said.

They run eight garbage or “packer” trucks, three roll-offs and two hook trucks.

The Peters make no bones about it: Garbage collection and disposal is a competitive business.

They worried that a larger, out-of-area company would buy L.W. Peters and shed local jobs.

“We work together every day. We do our best to take care of our customers. Ron Peters cared about his customers and employees and so do we – every one of them,” Kyle said.

Jay Alexander, general manager of the Wayne Township Landfill, said WTL “was happy to hear the news that JJ Peters had purchased the assets and business of L.W. Peters.”

“When two locally owned businesses can find a way to come together, it creates a lot of opportunities based on the economies of scale alone,” Alexander said. “Keeping the employees locally employed, keeping the services provided by L.W. Peters local, is a win for the region as well.”

Alexander is very familiar with the Peters. In fact, Bruce serves on the Clinton County Solid Waste Authority board in support of the industry.

“This new company is embedded in our community and their decisions are made right here,” Alexander said. “When these bigger hauling businesses get purchased by outside the area companies, their interests become solely a return to shareholders and not necessarily what is best for our region. We look forward to working with this new, bigger and better company. Congratulations to the JJ Peters family on this big expansion.”

JJ Peters will maintain its shop at 212 James St. in Flemington, where the business was founded.

L.W. Peters had bought the old Agway store at 76 Pennsylvania Ave. in Mill Hall.

They intend to continue to use both locations to run JJ Peters — accepting drop off payments at both — but said the Mill Hall site will house the trucks and be the “main base of operations.”

Both phone numbers — 570-748-4831 and 570-748-7967 — will remain in operation.

Staff at Mill Hall — Steph, Wendy and Donna — are available to help customers.

Another aspect of owning a business is giving back to the community, something the Peters take pride in.

The firm has provided free disposal services to the Regatta and other events. They will expand that benevolence by following Ron Peters’ footsteps of providing free disposal to selective events.

“We try to give back as much as we can,” Kyle said, mentioning their support of the upcoming Truckers 4 Hope event, supporting the Clinton County Economic Partnership and Clinton County 4H, among others.

“We’re a working family and we value the community,” is how Bruce described the group.