What Liquid Environmental Solutions does

Liquid Environmental Solutions (LES) is a US-based, privately held provider of non-hazardous liquid waste management services, founded in 2002 and headquartered in Irving, Texas. The company collects, transports, treats, and recycles liquid waste streams — primarily grease trap contents, used cooking oil, and oil-water separator outputs — for commercial customers in the food service, grocery retail, hospitality, and education sectors. Its physical platform comprises approximately 65 collection branches, 25-26 owned wastewater treatment and recycling facilities, and a fleet of roughly 650 vehicles, providing coverage in all 50 states and supporting downstream brown grease recovery for green-energy feedstock.

LES operates a recurring contracted service model, with relationships embedded into customers' kitchen and facility operations and supported by regulatory compliance documentation. Services are delivered via direct enterprise field sales to national and regional accounts; pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The product portfolio has been broadened through acquisition to include kitchen exhaust hood cleaning and commercial drain line cleaning (via Grease Masters), commercial pumping (via Commercial Pumping Services), and Gulf Coast grease trap services (via New Orleans Grease Trap Cleaning).

Capital structure and ownership have moved through three private-equity sponsors. Following growth-equity rounds from Craton Equity Partners (2009) and ABS Capital Partners (2014), Audax Private Equity acquired LES in late 2017 and executed a Buy & Build strategy involving 13 acquisitions that grew the footprint from roughly 45-50 to 90+ locations. In July 2025, Goldman Sachs Alternatives acquired LES from Audax through its Infrastructure platform, and the company has continued acquiring, with three further transactions completed by March 2026. Cory White was appointed CEO in January 2026, bringing prior leadership experience at Stericycle.

Name

Liquid Environmental Solutions

Legal name

Liquid Environmental Solutions

Website

https://liquidenviro.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2002

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Liquid Environmental Solutions is a US national non-hazardous liquid waste management provider, founded in 2002 and headquartered in Irving, Texas, that collects, treats, and recycles grease trap waste, used cooking oil, and wastewater for commercial food service, grocery, hospitality, and education customers across 50 states.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Liquid Waste Management Services

NAICS

Waste Treatment and Disposal (5622), Sewage Treatment Facilities (221320)

SIC

Refuse Systems (4953), Sanitary Services (4950)

akta.pro primary industry

Grease Trap, Used Cooking Oil & FOG Services (Collection & Recycling) (EUAIAGAK)

Keywords

• Liquid waste management
• Grease trap cleaning
• Used cooking oil recycling
• Wastewater treatment services
• Commercial drain cleaning

Headquarters

HQ city

Irving

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Non-Hazardous Liquid Waste Management Services: LES generates revenue through collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal of non-hazardous liquid waste including grease traps, oil water separators, and used cooking oil. Services are provided to commercial customers on recurring contractual basis.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

Liquid Environmental Solutions provides non-hazardous liquid waste management services to commercial customers in the United States. Its core offerings include grease trap and interceptor cleaning, used cooking oil collection and recycling, commercial drain line cleaning, oil/water separator servicing, kitchen exhaust hood cleaning, and wastewater treatment through a national branch-and-treatment-plant network.

Product overview

Liquid Environmental Solutions operates a unified non-hazardous liquid waste management platform offering grease trap cleaning, used cooking oil collection, wastewater treatment and recycling, and related services. The company runs a network of approximately 65 collection branches and 25 wastewater treatment plants across the United States, with recent acquisitions (Grease Masters, Commercial Pumping Services, New Orleans Grease Trap Cleaning) expanding its service offerings to include kitchen exhaust hood cleaning and commercial pumping. The portfolio integrates collection, treatment, and recycling capabilities, recovering brown grease for green energy production. LES serves blue-chip customers across restaurant, grocery, hospitality, education, and environmental services sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Nearly doubled footprint from ~50 to 90+ locations through 13 acquisitions under Audax ownership

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Stericycle: National regulated waste management services company offering collection and treatment across healthcare, retail, and commercial customers. Direct comparable on national-scale waste services model; LES' new CEO Cory White is a former Stericycle executive.
• Heritage-Crystal Clean: Provides industrial and commercial waste services including used oil collection, parts cleaning, and wastewater services. Directly comparable on used-oil/liquid-waste collection and treatment business model and customer overlap in commercial and industrial end markets.
• Darling Ingredients: Global renderer that collects used cooking oil and animal by-products and converts them into renewable diesel feedstock and specialty ingredients. Directly comparable on the used cooking oil collection and brown-grease-to-renewable-fuel value chain that LES accesses through its treatment plants.
• Baker Commodities: Rendering and used cooking oil recycler serving the food service industry on the West Coast. Closely comparable on the UCO-to-rendered-products business model, though it operates regionally rather than nationally.

Broad incumbents

• Clean Harbors: Largest North American provider of environmental and industrial services, including hazardous waste management and field services. Overlaps with LES on liquid waste handling capability but operates across a much broader hazardous-waste and industrial-services portfolio.
• Waste Management: Largest US solid waste and environmental services company with national hauling, transfer, recycling, and disposal infrastructure. Comparable as a national waste-services platform but focused on solid waste rather than dedicated non-hazardous liquid waste.
• Republic Services: Major US solid waste and recycling services company with national hauling and disposal operations. Comparable as a national environmental services incumbent, though liquid waste is not its core offering.

Emerging players

• GFL Environmental: Canada-based, rapidly consolidating environmental services platform offering solid waste, liquid waste, and infrastructure services across North America. Comparable on roll-up-led growth strategy and North American liquid waste exposure.
• Restaurant Technologies: Provider of cooking oil management and kitchen exhaust cleaning services to commercial food service operators. Directly comparable on the food-service kitchen waste services bundle that LES has expanded into via the Grease Masters acquisition.

Regional players

• Casella Waste Systems: Northeast US-focused solid waste, recycling, and resource management operator. Comparable on regional roll-up model and commercial customer base, though its geography and liquid-waste mix differ from LES' national footprint.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/49632
• Facebookfacebook.com/115

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A18 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Liquid Environmental Solutions