Les Leith — CEO, COO & Founder, National Doorstep Pickup

Les Leith is the CEO, COO, and Founder of National Doorstep Pickup—a national apartment door-to-door valet trash and recycling company built to solve one persistent multifamily problem: waste operations that quietly erode efficiency, compliance, and NOI.

The Hook

Multifamily waste looks simple until it isn’t: one missed pickup becomes hallway overflow, one contaminated bin becomes a rejected load, and one recurring dumpster issue becomes a resident-experience problem that property teams inherit. Les built National Doorstep Pickup to eliminate that operational drag with consistent execution, clear standards, and measurable outcomes.

The Proof (Experience & Expertise)

Les founded National Doorstep Pickup in 2014 after years of firsthand experience operating and supporting multifamily communities where trash failures were constant: overflowing dumpsters, leaking hallway bags, recycling contamination, and maintenance teams pulled off core work to manage garbage.

Since founding the company, Les has led National Doorstep Pickup as an operator-first platform—not a staffing model. Under his leadership, the company services hundreds of thousands of apartment doors every night nationwide using systems designed to deliver consistent outcomes: clean hallways, documented pickups, compliant recycling, and fewer resident complaints.

Before National Doorstep Pickup, Les was a Founding Partner and Administrator at Accelerated Waste Solutions (AWS) (2008–2014), focused on waste stream optimization across multifamily, commercial, industrial, and residential portfolios. At AWS, he worked directly with downstream waste data—consumption, hauling costs, and diversion performance—to help clients “do more with less” by reducing waste volume, improving sustainability outcomes, and lowering total disposal spend.

Origin story: It started with Tampa Bay Trash in 2006. That data-driven, sustainability-focused experience directly shaped the systems now used at National Doorstep Pickup.

Thought Leadership & Authority

Les is a long-time multifamily waste and recycling expert with deep specialization in:

• Valet trash operations at scale
• Recycling contamination reduction
• Sustainability-driven cost control
• Local recycling mandate compliance
• NOI & cash-on-cash improvement through ancillary services

He is the architect behind GreenPlus™ with Compliance Shield, a program designed to reduce contamination, document compliance, and convert recycling from a liability into a measurable financial advantage.

The Human Element (Trust)

He measures success the same way his clients do: fewer overflow calls, cleaner communities, protected assets, and maintenance teams focused on maintenance—not trash.

Every Door. Every Night.®

Articles & Insights by Les Leith

Les Leith writes from direct, on-the-ground experience operating multifamily waste and recycling systems at scale. His articles focus on solving the operational, financial, and compliance problems property managers face every day—overflowing dumpsters, recycling contamination, rising hauling costs, and increasing regulatory pressure.

Below are selected articles and operational guides authored by Les, designed to help owners and operators protect asset value, improve resident satisfaction, and drive measurable NOI.

Featured Articles

• How Recycling Mandates Impact Apartment NOI — A practical breakdown of how local recycling requirements affect hauling costs, contamination risk, and operating budgets—and how properties can stay compliant without adding onsite labor.
• Why Contaminated Recycling Costs Properties More Than Trash — An operator’s explanation of how contamination leads to rejected loads, higher fees, and compliance exposure, plus proven strategies to fix the problem at the source.
• The True Cost of Compactor Overflow in Multifamily Communities — Avoid costly trash compactor repairs and safety risks. Learn the safest way to clean apartment trash compactors, chutes, and enclosures while protecting NOI.
• From Confusion to Compliance: How Resident Recycling Education Protects Multifamily — A data-driven comparison of labor, cleanliness, consistency, and cost control across different waste management models.
• GreenPlus™ and Compliance Shield: Turning Recycling Into an NOI Asset — Explains how properly designed recycling systems reduce disposal volume, support municipal compliance, and convert waste operations from expense to cash-on-cash return.

Areas of Expertise

• Multifamily valet trash operations
• Recycling contamination reduction
• Municipal recycling compliance
• Waste stream optimization
• Real estate economics
• Sustainability-driven NOI & cash-on-cash improvement

Author Verification

Les Leith is the CEO, COO, and Founder of National Doorstep Pickup and has more than 20 years of hands-on experience in multifamily waste and recycling operations. He is responsible for all compliance, sustainability, and real estate economics content on this site. Further articles can be found through his author archive and linked profiles below.

LinkedIn  |  Crunchbase

Why GreenPlus™ Was Built (From the Operator’s Perspective)

GreenPlus™ was built after Les repeatedly encountered the same failure across multifamily properties: recycling programs that were well-intentioned but operationally broken. Bins were routinely contaminated, loads were rejected, hauling costs increased, and when municipalities began enforcing recycling mandates, property managers were left exposed—without systems to manage the risk.

The challenge was never a lack of interest in sustainability. It was a lack of execution at the point where recycling actually happens.

Drawing on more than two decades of hands-on experience, Les designed GreenPlus™ to solve that gap. The system focuses on correct material capture at the apartment door, contamination reduction before waste reaches the compactor, and documented service that allows communities to demonstrate compliance with confidence.

When recycling is executed properly, disposal volume decreases, hauling expenses decline, and regulatory risk is reduced. At that point, sustainability stops being a cost center and begins contributing directly to NOI and cash-on-cash performance.

GreenPlus™ was built to deliver those outcomes—without adding operational burden to already stretched property teams.