Greasecycle Founder and President Selected as North Carolina's Small Business Person of the Year
April 18 2024 - 12:30PM
Business Wire
The U.S. Small Business Administration, the voice for more than
33 million small businesses and innovative startups, has selected
Dylan Gehrken as North Carolina’s 2024 Small Business Person of
the Year. Gehrken founded and leads Raleigh-based Greasecycle,
a green company that converts food waste materials into renewable
energy resources.
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Founder & President, Dylan Gehrken
(Photo: Business Wire)
The 38-year-old Durham resident will attend a special award
ceremony in Washington, DC, this spring, and he is one of a small
group of individuals now nominated for the National Small Business
Person of the Year. Gehrken’s ascension as a nationally recognized
SBA person of the year is a lesson in perseverance, vision, and in
building a sustainable all-in-one solution to a commercial
need.
“There are so many impressive people in North Carolina whose
work is truly impactful, and I’m humbled and honored to represent
our state as the Small Business Person of the Year,” said Gehrken.
“I was introduced to sustainability decades ago during a pivotal
time in my life and those lessons resonated with me. When it came
time to start my own business, I wanted to find a way to repurpose
something people overlooked and convert it into something that
helped our planet, and had staying power. That’s how Greasecycle
was born.”
Gehrken founded Greasecycle in 2009 with a windowless van, some
blank contracts he created on his college laptop, and a hunger to
get all the grease in his neighborhood. In 2012, Greasecycle built
its own processing facility in Raleigh before opening a second
Charlotte-area location in 2022, empowering them to recycle more
discarded waste than anyone in the industry. Inside these
facilities, solid matter is composted, extracted brown & yellow
grease is converted into feedstock for the biodiesel industry and
Sustainable Aviation Fuel, and wastewater is processed into clean
water that is discharged into the local water system. Today,
Greasecycle employs nearly 75 people and services most of the
southeast with about 5000 customers.
"We have the great fortune of working with amazing small
businesses every day – and we enjoy every minute,” said Elaine
Fairman, Executive Director, Business Expansion Funding
Corporation. “When the North Carolina Small Business Person
nomination cycle was opened, our team knew Dylan would be this
year’s nominee. Greasecycle’s expansion to the Charlotte market is
a great project, and we are pleased to be a part of that. Dylan’s
efforts to provide jobs for communities are outstanding and his
efforts to protect our environment are beyond impressive.”
With a customer base that includes restaurants, commercial
kitchens, and food manufacturers Greasecycle provides grease trap
cleaning, waste processing, cooking oil recycling and preventative
care. From 2020 to 2024, the company grew from 28 employees to 70
located in NC, SC & VA territories. Sales rose from $6.5
million in 2020 to over $22 million in 2022. Greasecycle is a 5
time honoree of Inc Magazine’s list of the 5000 fastest growing
private companies in the United States. The company provides paid
internships for college students who are mentored by the sales
team. They also financially support environmental university
research. They offer a “Greasecycle MBA” program for middle
managers who meet as a cohort with a Duke MBA twice a month for 6
months who trains time management, employee management and feedback
best practices, as well as the basics of business principles and
performance tracking.
About Greasecycle
Established in 2009, Greasecycle is an all-in-one grease
management resource for restaurants collecting used cooking oil,
automatically scheduling grease trap pumping, offering line jetting
maintenance, and distributing quarterly reimbursement payments to
customers for their oil waste. As a full-service provider,
Greasecycle hauls material to its two North Carolina facilities
where 100% of the grease, water, and food particles are recycled
into compost or feedstock for biofuel. Good for customers, good for
the environment.
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Jill Gehrken, Greasecycle jill@grease-cycle.com 919-817-6792