Aug. 23--The management of Folsom-based trash hauler Waste Connections Inc. gathered at a local restaurant in January 2000 to figure out just where the 2 1/2-year-old startup company was going.

The firm's stock price had plunged by two-thirds, some negative publicity had shaken the waste management industry and many U.S. investors were more interested in buying stock in showy high-tech companies than in an industrialized firm in the business of handling garbage.

Ron Mittelstaedt, Waste Connections' chairman and CEO, asked the assembled brass whether it would be better to seek a buyer or press on and try to make something bigger and more permanent.

Mittelstaedt recalled last week that the vote to keep growing was unanimous: "We've never looked back."

Nine years and billions of earned dollars later, Waste Connections is one of the area's business success stories.

While others have struggled amid the recession, Waste Connections has prospered. Executives say part of the company's resilience is tied to a basic principle: Businesses and consumers might cut back on transportation and entertainment spending during tough times, but they continue to generate waste that must be collected, disposed of or recycled.

Waste Connections now serves about 2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in 26 states. It topped $1 billion in revenue for the first time last year and is on track for more this year.

From a sparkling building with 55,000 square feet of office space along Highway 50, the company oversees nearly 6,000 employees spread over more than 1,000 municipalities. Workers drive trucks, oversee landfills, man transfer stations and recycle materials on a massive scale.

Was all this part of the master plan when the company launched a mere 12 years ago?

"Actually, no," Mittelstaedt said. "Back when we went public (in 1998), the thinking was that we'd get to $200 million and maybe there would be a buyer for the company. We thought it would take us five years to get to $200 million. We got there in one-and-a-half and kept getting bigger.

"It was like: 'Now, what do we do?' "

"A lot of companies look to punch out when they get to that size, but we saw an opportunity to keep going," said Worthing Jackman, Waste Connections' executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Pushing on meant sticking with the company's plan of expanding by acquiring small, privately held waste firms.

"That was our plan from the beginning," said company President Steven Bouck. "That's our bread and butter."

Starting in May 1998, when Waste Connections went public, the company made 112 acquisitions over the next 20 months. Many were what Jackman called "mom-and-pop" operations.

No acquisition seemed too small.