One year after ABC Waste was founded Ellen gave birth to their first child, Carolyn Stewart. She grew up playing at the landfill, working on trucks, doing door-to-door collections, and answering the phones. Ellen worked closely with Carolyn teaching her how to build the business. As an adult, she went on to earn her degree in special education and pursued her passion as a leader and teacher. After an impressive 10 year career helping children, she realized her true calling was at ABC with her family and she left her job as a local beloved school teacher to help grow the company into the waste management giant that it is today. Following the passing of her father, James Hodges, in 1996 she took on the company and has remained president and CEO since 1997.
She has been widely admired in the community and by her team because she was never shy about doing the dirty work. She was out everyday substituting where needed, walking behind the truck, delivering residential cans, delivering commercial dumpsters, dumping trash and riding on back of the truck as a toter. In fact, Carolyn was featured in the Savannah morning news as Savannah’s only woman waste hauler. However, make no mistake – it was not an easy ride. What started out as residential trash removal, has turned into a staple for waste management within Savannah. Today, the company currently offers Residential, commercial, construction and industrial waste and recycling services.
She worked tirelessly over the years to build the brand and expand the company’s service offerings. During that time she had a lot of support from the people and businesses in Savannah. Three of her biggest supporters were her husband, and their children. Her son, Charles and daughter, Linda have worked in the family business since childhood riding along in the truck and helping where they could. To this day you will still see Linda and Charles around the office.