History

Ed and Lori Stewart

It all began back in 1991:

Lori was a single gal living in a small basement apartment while working 2 jobs (Federated and Cashwise) and Ed was a single, self-employed guy living at the Lazy-U Trailer Park. Ed rented the property which is now owned by Camping World and owned and operated a small auto body shop called "The Bodyworks" in 1987. Eventually, they became engaged and bought a small home in Owatonna. During this time, Lori decided to leave Federated and start an at-home daycare.

Ed and his brother David

Ed's brother David and Sister-in-law Susie owns (and still owns) a garbage company in the cities and would often bring garbage trucks down to paint. They would usually start Friday after work and work straight through until Sunday night. During those times, David would suggest Owatonna would be a nice place to start a garbage route. One of those times, Ed finally said "when you have a truck to send my way, maybe I will try it", which David and Susie eventually did.

Ed and Lori's daughter, Danielle

Ed and Lori married in May of 1994, which was the same month Stewart Sanitation had started. Shortly after Ed and Lori had their two daughters, Paige and Danielle. Eventually, Ed had to give up the Body shop with the continued growth of the garbage business. In time they outgrew that location and ended up at their current location on State Avenue. At this time, Lori had given up her daycare and started to work with Ed. Their biggest office was turned into a playroom for their girls to hang out after school and during the Summer.

Trucks next to the old shop

It will be 27 years we have been in business this coming May. Looking back at where we started, two children, and three grandchildren later, we have had many challenges and have seen many haulers come and go. We are thankful for our awesome staff and are grateful to you, our customers. Some of you have been with us longer than we have had our children. We still service the very first customer that signed up with us when we first started. This is truly humbling, and we appreciate and do not take the loyalty of our customers for granted. We look forward to many more years to come, for those of you that have never tried us, please do. We will earn your loyalty with fair rates, honesty, hard work, and good customer service!