Our Story
The Piccinonna Legacy: Third Generation
Carlo Piccinonna — Building, Rebuilding and the Birth of Great Waste
The third chapter in a four-part series tracing the Piccinonna family’s journey through four generations of hard work, hauling, entrepreneurship, and family.
By the time Carlo Piccinonna entered the waste industry, he was not stepping into unfamiliar territory.
He was stepping into a family tradition. His grandfather, Giulio, had begun with horses and wagons. His father, Joseph Frank Piccinonna, had carried the family deeper into hauling through Julios Carting.
Now it was Carlo’s turn to decide what he would do with the lessons that had been handed down to him. He chose to build.
Carlo’s Leap of Faith
In 1982, Carlo started Carlo’s Trash Hauling. There were no guarantees that it would work. There was no safety net waiting underneath him if it didn’t. There was simply a willingness to work and the belief that he could build something.
When a business begins that way, everything matters. Every customer matters. Every load matters. Every dollar matters. Every phone call matters. And your reputation matters.
It was during years like these that one of the philosophies most associated with our family became ingrained:
Failure is not an option.
That doesn’t mean things never fail. Businesses face difficult periods. Industries change. Companies are built, sold and sometimes rebuilt. Plans change. Circumstances change.
The Piccinonna philosophy has never been that you will avoid adversity. It is that adversity does not get to decide where your story ends.
Building and Starting Again
Carlo’s entrepreneurial journey continued through several companies and chapters, including Combined Waste Service and C&C Waste Removal. With every business came new experience. The companies became larger. The equipment became more sophisticated. The industry evolved.
But Carlo continued carrying the same principles that had existed since Giulio’s generation. Work hard. Take care of the customer. Know your business. Keep moving forward. And when necessary, start again.
That last lesson may be one of the most important in our family’s story. Building something once requires courage. Having the willingness to build again requires perseverance.
2011: Great Waste Is Born
In 2011, another chapter began. This time, the conversation started at home. The Piccinonna family gathered together and began discussing what a new waste company should look like. What should it be called? What should it represent? How should customers feel when they saw the name? What would make this company different? Those family conversations eventually created:
Great Waste & Recycling Services.
And along with the Great Waste name came a mascot that would become synonymous with the company: Paulie the Great White Shark.
Great Waste began modestly, with two trucks and a handful of containers. Then the building began again. Customer by customer. Container by container. Truck by truck. Carlo would go on to build Great Waste into a substantial South Florida waste operation. But perhaps the most significant part of this chapter was not simply the size of the company. It was that Carlo was no longer building alone.
His Daughters Were Watching
While Carlo was building businesses, his three daughters — Angela, Amanda and Amber — were working alongside him in the waste industry. The business was part of their childhood. The trucks were familiar. The employees were familiar. The conversations at home were about customers, routes, problems, equipment and business decisions. They saw the long days. They saw the risks. They saw the sacrifices. They also saw what happened when determination paid off.
Over time, each daughter would begin developing her own experience inside the company. And something remarkable was happening. The industry that had traveled from Giulio to Joseph and from Joseph’s generation to Carlo was preparing to move forward once again. The Piccinonna family was about to enter its fourth generation. And for the first time in the family’s story, that generation would be represented by three sisters.
NEXT IN THE PICCINONNA LEGACY
Part Four: The Fourth Generation — Angela, Amanda & Amber Piccinonna and the Garbage Girls