A private equity group has bought Valet Waste, a Tampa, Fla.-based waste and recycling hauler for multifamily dwellings, for an undisclosed amount.

Funds managed by the private equity group of Ares Management L.P. and Harvest Partners LP acquired Valet from investment funds affiliated with New Mountain Capital LLC, according to a news release.

Valet Waste provides doorstep waste and recycling collection five nights per week for more than 400 management companies and owner groups serving more than 665,000 units across 34 states. The company also provides complementary maintenance service to multifamily units such as nightly maintenance, apartment cleaning, apartment turns and porter services through its Maintenance Plus program, launched in 2014.

“Valet Waste is a leader in its industry, with a longstanding track record of delivering high-quality service to its customers and providing a top-rated amenity to residents. We are excited to partner with the Valet Waste management team and look forward to supporting the company in its next phase of growth,” said Matt Cwiertnia, partner in the Private Equity Group of Ares Management.

Added Michael DeFlorio, senior managing director of Harvest Partners, “We are excited to invest alongside this first class team to build upon Valet Waste’s leadership position in the market and expand services more broadly across the multifamily housing industry.”

Multifamily dwellings represent a unique challenge for recycling and waste collection. At WasteExpo this June Ron Falcon of Integrity Waste talked about those challenges, and how diversion in multifamily units is quite low because it is more difficult than curbside collection for single-family homes.

In a column for Waste360 earlier this year, Bob Gedert, director of the Austin (Texas) Resource Recovery Department, points out that about 47 percent of the housing stock in the growing city are multifamily dwellings. He says to meet this challenge for a city with a zero waste goal, the city adopted an ordinance that requires commercial and multifamily properties to provide their employees and tenants with convenient access to recycling. By Oct. 1, 2016, all multifamily properties in Austin will be required to provide recycling services.