A new holding company, Mountain Waste & Recycling Inc. (MWR), has formed to merge and manage two waste haulers and consider expanding the operation.

Chicago-based private investment firm Concentric Equity Partners (CEP) and waste industry executive Scott Eden formed and capitalized the new firm, which will serve as the parent company for Mountain Roll-offs (MRI) and InterMountain Waste & Recycling, according to a news release.

The holding company, jointly owned by members of the management team, local investors and CEP, will focus on continuing to provide service to customers in the Roaring Fork, Grand and Vail valleys of Colorado, and evaluate potential new markets to enter.

Eden, a 30-year industry veteran, will serve as CEO of Mountain Waste, with full responsibility to operate and expand the business. "MRI and InterMountain are both very focused on providing excellent customer service," Eden said. "The merger of these companies, with their unique strengths and proficiencies, will strengthen our collective ability to serve our clients and expand opportunities to develop ancillary services in our current and in additional markets."

He said there will be no immediate changes in the companies’ business processes.

CEP has a specific mandate to invest in Colorado-based companies, and the firm hopes that this investment will be one of multiple projects in the state.

MRI is based in Carbondale, with other Colorado facilities in Rifle and Gypsum. The company provides waste and recycling services to residential, commercial and municipal customers in the Roaring Fork and Vail valleys and as far west as Rifle.

Based in Glenwood Springs, InterMountain provides waste and recycling services to residential, commercial and municipal customers throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.

The move continues the brisk recent pace of smaller mergers and acquisitions of smaller waste and recycling operations. Earlier this month Deptford, N.J.-based Gold Medal Services LLC purchased substantially all the assets of waste hauler Casworth Enterprises Inc. and recycler Blue River Resources LLC. Also, the former management team of Mid America Recycling purchased from Waste Management Inc. its recycling plant in Des Moines, Iowa.

In May Red River Waste Solutions LP acquired two waste and recycling haulers in Glenwood, Iowa–Steve Konfrst Trash Service and Mel Konfrst Trash Service. In March Area Disposal Service Inc. bought Captain Hook Inc., an Illinois waste roll-off container business. Also that month, Winters Bros. Waste Systems has purchased the Long Island, N.Y., waste and recycling operations of Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd.

But in her June Waste360 Business Insights column, industry financial analyst Leone Young wrote of her impressions from WasteExpo 2015 that the bigger companies feel that high seller expectations for valuations on acquisitions is a stumbling block to more deals getting done.