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> S.C.A. Services, Inc. A Boston-based firm, S.C.A. has acquired 27 companies this year. Founded in 1969, S.C.A. operates 51 refuse firms in 20 states. So far this year, S.C.A. has collected $65 million in revenues, of which $35 million came from garbage and the rest from building maintenance and other services.
The new garbage men face more good years ahead, as a result of the 7% annual increase in the volume of U.S. solid waste (which now totals 360 million tons a year), as well as the expected increase in liquid waste from industrial expansion. But while entrepreneurs are finding gold in garbage, building owners often find the wages of waste disposal high. Louis Sudler Jr., who manages Chicago's 100-story John Hancock Building and other skyscrapers, stopped all incineration last year because "it was bad for the environment." Since then, his disposal costs have increased eightfold.