Bringing Class to Trash

It is always a first for everything, such as making trash sexy. Such an image made the business attractive and profitable.

Sidney Torres, a former rock'n'roll producer and a successful real estate developer, jumped in to clean the city of New Orleans when he found out it is a profitable business to be in after Katrina. Residents didn't realize the company SDT, founded in 2005, was anything more than a socially responsible cause until they found out some "bizaare" things about it.

SDT, by no means, is a garbage company in any traditional sense. Torres commands his 75 truckers through two 57-inch flat screen TVs at home and locates any trucker anytime given by GPS. And according to NPR news, Torres dresses nothing like a garbage man. His usual working outfit is Bolle sunglasses, tight black T-shirt and vintage jeans.

Torres' truckers are required to dress in black and white, a hip outfit supplied by the company. The trucks, carrying a bear logo, are always shiny as new. A self-developed scented spray is spread to the streets everyday to make the city smell like lemon. A side benefit: people who came home from a party with a bad smell could ask for a LemonFresh spray shower, in the street, for free.

Soon enough, this self-funded garbage collecting start-up won the $9 million contract to clean up multiple areas in the city. And before Torres knew it, he has become the most eligible bachelor in town. People ask for his autographs and take pictures with him in the street.

Fame allured more businesses. New Orleans CityBusiness story reported:

"In late 2005, Torres won the parish's residential garbage contract, which pays $20 per house a month for nearly 14,000 houses."

"In 2006, Torres won the contract that launched him into stardom in New Orleans. Today, SDT has about 150 full- and part-time employees."

As the business booming, Torres said during an interview with the CityBusiness:"I had no idea I was going to be in the garbage business. Had no idea I was going to be cleaning New Orleans." But this man obviously had sound ideas of how to run a business if he knows how to make trash sexy.