Zach Rumohr is the founder of Z. R. Waste Removal and the winner of the 2025 South Dundas Business of the Year Award. He credits his wife Taylor, along with their children, family, friends, and his long list of satisfied customers with helping him to achieve his goals and prove the nay sayers of the world wrong. Tinkess Photo

BRINSTON — If you don’t want it, we will take it. It is a simple phrase but one that has paved the way to success for Zach Rumohr since he started his business, Z. R. Waste Removal in 2021.

Rumohr was solving a simple problem: people in rural Dundas County needed someone reliable to come pick up the junk they didn’t want to mess with. Four years later his one-truck start-up has been named as South Dundas 2025 Business of the Year, a recognition that highlights steady growth, community contribution and a practical approach to circular waste management, as well as validation that hard work can produce positive results, nay sayers be damned.

Rumohr’s business model has always leaned into convenience for his customers. Z.R. Waste Removal brings the service to them, from yard cleanups and household cleanouts to small demolitions and local moves. “If it has to do with waste, I’ve basically got my toe in it,” Rumohr told The Record when we spoke with him in 2023, describing the hands-on, all-seasons nature of the work.

That practical, customer-first mentality helped the company move quickly from side-hustle to an established local service. The Better Business Bureau records list the business as starting in September 2021, operated as a sole proprietorship with Rumohr as owner-operator, a formal step that gave the small operation credibility as it picked up contracts and referrals across South Dundas and nearby communities.

What sets Z.R. apart isn’t flashy advertising; it’s a combination of flexibility and community thinking. Rumohr has regularly partnered with recyclers to divert metal and salvageable materials from landfill, and he runs occasional community-style sales (“Crap Sales”) where household items recovered in cleanouts are offered cheaply to neighbours rather than simply being tossed. Those activities, he says, are part efficiency and part community service, a way to keep useful goods circulating and reduce disposal costs for customers. One person’s trash truly can be another person’s treasure.

That local focus has also extended beyond commerce. Historical and volunteer groups in the area have routinely acknowledged Rumohr’s practical help: the Historical Society of South Dundas thanked Z.R. Waste Removal for donating trailers, dump fees and time to assist with cleanup and renovation projects. Those kinds of in-kind contributions reinforced the company’s visibility and community ties, factors that likely weighed into the municipality’s award deliberations.

When the municipality of South Dundas announced its Awards of Excellence winners for 2025 with Z.R. Waste Removal taking the Business of the Year crown, it was part of a broader gala program that celebrates businesses and volunteers who help make South Dundas an amazing place to be.

Local customers and social media posts reflect why the award resonated. Facebook and Chamber of Commerce listings show repeated positive mentions of timely service, competitive rates and a willingness to take on awkward or unusual jobs, from barn cleanouts to delivering rescued furniture to new owners. That everyday reliability, combined with civic contributions, is the sort of local business success South Dundas’s awards are meant to honour.

Looking forward, Rumohr’s path offers a straightforward playbook for rural entrepreneurs: identify an under-served, practical need; keep overhead lean; build trusted partnerships (recyclers, community groups, local buyers); and reinvest reputational goodwill back into the community. For customers, the result is a neighbourly service that does more than haul waste, it helps keep usable goods in circulation and supports local projects that might otherwise struggle for manpower or budget.

For a business that started with a trailer and a promise to show up, the Business of the Year award is both validation and a new platform. The municipality celebrated the winners at its October gala, and for Z.R. Waste Removal, the prize is likely to bring more local work. It is also a broader recognition of a model that mixes entrepreneurship with neighbourliness, all with a large dose of hard work, the support of his wife Taylor, their children Marissa, Zoe, Octavia, and Lincoln, family, friends, and his many satisfied customers.

Z.R. Waste Removal can be contacted by email at zrwasteremoval@outlook.com or by phone at 613-803-1230 or through Facebook at Z.R. Waste Removal+.

If you would like to have a light shined on your business, please contact us at: editor@etceterapublications.ca or call us at 613-448-2321.