INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business

INNOVATOR
Bull Sweeper
SDT Waste & Debris Services
Key innovation: the Bull Sweeper is a compact suction
sweeper that can vacuum leaves and trash in
tight spaces along sidewalks or streets
Biggest client: city of New Orleans
Where they’re based: offices in New Orleans, Chalmette
and Jefferson Parish
Top executive: Sidney Torres, president
Year introduced: 2008
2007 company sales: $28 million
PHOTO BY FRANK AYMAMI
SIDNEY D. TORRES IV, president of SDT Waste and
Debris Services, is helping to alter the stereotype of New
Orleans from that of a dirty city to one that employs innovative
means to keep the streets clean.
One way they are doing this is with the Bull Sweeper,
which the company introduced for Jazz Fest.
“The Bull Sweeper is designed to be more efficient
and effective to clean the sidewalks of the city,” Torres
said. “It is small and compact and able to clean areas that
SDT’s larger equipment can’t reach. It allows us to do an
even better job of keeping New Orleans clean.”
About as small as a Smart car, the machine is a compact
suction sweeper that can vacuum leaves and trash in
tight spaces along sidewalks or streets, particularly in the
French Quarter. It also partners with SDT’s bull washer,
which pressure washes sidewalks.
Other popular SDT inventions introduced at the 2008
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival were the VIP comfort
stations, or air-conditioned trailers that house bathrooms.
“The comfort station addresses the dilemma at festivals,
weddings and other outdoor social events for the
need for a comfortable restroom,” Torres said. “It features
the music of your choice, airconditioner and is
clean and comfortable.”
Two of these stations at Jazz Fest were equipped with
granite countertops.
Since 2005, the Chalmette native has opened offices in
Chalmette, Jefferson Parish and New Orleans, where he
lives. SDT began in the days after Katrina when Torres,
like many New Orleanians, needed a Dumpster. But, the
post-storm price was triple what it had been pre-Katrina.
Torres decided to rent a truck, purchased a few 30-yard
roll-off containers and put his initials and logo on the side.
“Three years later, we are doing business all over
south Louisiana and are the largest waste provider to
schools in Louisiana.”
His innovations, he said, are the result of his efforts to
always find better ways in which to do his job.
“The Bull Sweeper has enabled us to clean decades of
dirt and grime in the Quarter,” he said. “It’s a tool we use in
addition to power washing the Quarter with lemon-scented
disinfectant, regular garbage pickup and sweeping.”
As for the comfort station, he said, it has set the standard
for mobile restrooms.•
— Amy Ferrara Smith Sidney Torres, president of SDT Waste and Debris Services, had the Bull Sweeper created to more efficiently clean the city’s sidewalks.
New Orleans CityBusiness 13A