Our Story
Stan Kaminski, otherwise known as Happy Stan, started his recycling journey with then girlfriend Della, collecting newspapers from local hotels to raise money for the Gibson’s Boys Club.
A few years later, Stan – now married to Della with three young children – started, “All Canadian Janitorial,” providing janitorial services for households and businesses in the North Vancouver area. Instead of throwing out all the paper and cardboard from the companies he was cleaning, he decided to sell it to local recycling companies. Stan found this to be very rewarding, and in 1988 he gave All Canadian Janitorial to his partner Angela and opened All Canadian Recycling Services with a new partner.
Soon after opening, All Canadian Recycling was servicing print shops and real estate offices from Vancouver to Maple Ridge with a single one-ton cube truck. From there, Stan and his partner took on larger contracts such as Island Paper Mills and BC Rail. His workforce also increased, adding on two very dedicated employees, Stan’s two son’s Chris and Jamie.
Eventually Stan decided to sever the partnership but continued to provide recycling services under his new business name, “Happy Stan’s Recycling Services Ltd,” focusing on large industrial corporations such as Island Paper Mills, later becoming Domtar Paper Mills, and Sonoco. His main business was, and still is, the recycling of cardboard and cardboard tubes.
In 2003, Stan was approached by the city of Port Coquitlam to process the residential recycling from their blue bag program. The city stated that their current service provider was unable to handle the material because of the plastic bags. Stan, unaware of this type of processing but still wanting to help, accepted the contract and began recycling for the City of Port Coquitlam. Soon after, the blue bag system was replaced by the state-of-the-art single stream co-mingled process.
The Next Generation
Combing recycling & entrepreneurship really is a family passion. Stan’s sons Jamie and Chris both got started as children, building a cart and collecting newspapers door to door to raise spending money.
Jamie formally joined the business in 1988, and in 2005 took on the role as General Manager. Happy Stan’s took care of the city contract for another two years before changing its focus from a materials-oriented company to a service-oriented company, providing information, and recycling solutions to businesses and households across the lower mainland. Since 1988, Happy Stan’s has increased its material acceptance from strictly cardboard and paper to over 40 different commodities. Together, Stan, Jamie, and a team of dedicated friends and employees are working hard to create a one-stop recycling solution for businesses everywhere.
Proud Moments
In 2009 Happy Stan’s Recycling became a member of the Tire Stewardship of BC. Through this partnership, used tires are saved from the landfill and recycled into crumb rubber for use in synthetic turf fields and other innovative products.
In 2011, we were acknowledged as one of the Top 100 Collectors in Canada for alkaline and rechargeable batteries by the Call2Recycle Stewardship. Annually, we help save 1 million kilograms of batteries from leaking their harmful contents into our soil and groundwater.
Knowing that there is still much more that we can do to reduce the volume of waste going into our landfills, in 2012 Happy Stan’s partnered with a third party organics provider to include office and warehouse composting to its service package. This very same year, we also added Styrofoam packaging to our list.
And on June 21, 2012, Happy Stan’s Recycling Services started operating internationally under the name HSR Services. We still hold on to our fun-loving nature for the industry as well as the same amount of passion for the work that we do towards a sustainable future.
Fast forward to 2017, after experiencing firsthand the challenges posed by inefficient resource management practices, HSR has evolved to become a leading provider of knowledge, solutions, and monitoring services for facilities looking to minimize waste generation rather than simply divert it from landfills. The shift towards a Zero Waste approach marked a pivotal transition in our mission, prompting the creation of HSR Zero Waste, our specialized consulting service.
In Memory of Anastasia Kaminski
Stan’s mother, Anastasia Kaminski worked with Happy Stan’s Recycling from 2003 until she passed away at the age of 82 in 2005. She was our oldest, most dedicated and cherished employee. She believed that everything had a use and that you can’t throw something away until you’ve tried to fix it first. She is missed dearly by all her family, friends and employees who knew her and had the chance to listen to her stories.