There are few entrepreneurs in America who know the waste management industry as well as Rod Proto. Since 1992, Rod Proto has built up an impressive portfolio of waste management companies. His most recent acquisition, through GPB Capital, the asset management firm for which he Is the Senior Advisor for, was Mud Masters LLC, an Ohio-based wastewater processing company.

The Acquisition

Mud Masters LLC currently offer transportation, testing, and disposal of waste services to customers in the oil and gas industries. In Texas, both industries have experienced solid growth over the last few years but are also beset by a number of challenges. This acquisition of an Ohio-based business by a New York-based asset management firm could ultimately bring huge benefits to Texas.

Texas Energy Industry

Rod Proto has demonstrated in the past his desire to expand effective waste management solutions across the US. With a growing number of energy companies competing for a piece of Texas’ oil and gas industries, there are more opportunities for waste management businesses than there ever have been before.

Mud Masters provides both testing and disposal for the waste that results from the extraction and drilling that occurs in oil and gas fields. As well as handling both solid and liquid waste from these sites, Mud Masters also provides laboratory analytics ofresultant byproducts. This laboratory analysis provides a more detailed picture of the drilling process and the waste that results from it. Bringing these services to Texas’ own industries could, therefore, lead to a much more refined and effective approach to waste management than has previously been possible.

Market Growth

The last decade has seen a number of new oil and gas field discoveries across the United States, leading to a rise in the number of businesses looking to extract and sell these valuable resources. GPB is uniquely positioned amongst asset management firms to capitalize on this rise because they have Rod Proto and his decades of experience in the waste management industry.

GPB Waste Management plans to integrate Mud Masters into their portfolio as a tuck-in acquisition into another business, Buckeye Water Service, which they acquired in August 2017. Buckeye Water Service provides fluid hauling and storage, in addition to solid waste removal for businesses involved in drilling.

Currently, Mud Masters are providing Buckeye Water with a disposal well in Cambridge, Ohio. They claim that this will greatly reduce Buckeye Water’s transportation costs, as well as allowing projects to proceed much quicker.

As the United States continues towards its goal of total energy independence, the role of waste management firms will only become more important. GPB and Rod Proto have already made a mark in New York, bringing a number of new waste management ideas to the table. Given Proto’s propensity for philanthropy in Houston, where he resides, it is hoped that Texas will soon be reaping the benefits of GPB’s growing waste management portfolio, as demand for waste management rises to match growth in the energy sector.