The History of J. P. Mascaro & Sons

From a one truck operation in 1964, J. P. Mascaro & Sons, a privately owned and locally based company, has grown today into one of the premier solid waste service companies in the country, successfully competing against the large national public companies.

The patriarch and matriarch of the Mascaro company are the late Joseph P. Mascaro, Sr. (“Joe Sr.”) and Ida Angelillis Mascaro. Joe Sr. was the son of Francesco A. Mascaro, Sr. and Felicia Pagnotta Mascaro, from Serrastretta, in the Catanzaro Province, Calabria Region, and Ida was the daughter of Michael Angelillis and Mary DeLora Angelillis from Monte Sant’Angelo in Foggia Province, Puglia Region.

Joe Sr. and Ida married in 1942 and had six children: Rose, Joe, Jr., Francesco, Louis, Michael and Pasquale. After originally settling in Ambler, Pennsylvania, the couple moved to Trooper, in Montgomery County, where Joe Sr. started the family business.

Joe Sr. started J. P. Mascaro & Sons with one truck and one contract – the General Electric Aerospace Center in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. His business plan was simple and straightforward: Serve your customers well, treat your employees as family, and work hard. Early on, Joe Sr. declared the J. P. Mascaro & Sons Company Motto to be: “If it’s Service, it’s Us!” a motto which remains unchanged today.

With the business seeds planted by Joe Sr. and with the help and hard work of his five sons, Joe Jr., Frank, Lou, Mike and Pat, J. P. Mascaro & Sons flourished and grew, procuring business in the municipal, governmental, commercial, institutional and industrial sectors.

Upon Joe Sr.’s death in 1981, J. P. Mascaro & Sons had a firm business foundation that enabled the five Mascaro brothers to further grow the business into what it has become today, a fully-integrated waste service company in the Mid-Atlantic region that competes in all sectors of the business, that has 17 operating divisions, 850 employees, and 400 trucks; that owns four DEP-permitted landfills and three DEP-permitted transfer stations, that operates three large-volume recycling facilities with a fourth modern single-stream recycling facility being constructed, and that owns and operates one of the largest compost facilities in the country.

While J. P. Mascaro & Sons is today a company that has facilities, infrastructure, resources, capabilities, and expertise equal to those of the large national waste companies, it still has the dedication, commitment and family feel of the local company Joe Sr. started in 1964. J. P. Mascaro & Sons’ continued success and growth is, today, in the hands of a Third Generation of Mascaros that are manning key company positions in Operations, Sales, Human Resources, Customer Service, Engineering, Facilities Management and Environmental Compliance, and it is they who will successfully lead J. P. Mascaro & Sons deep into the 21st Century and who will perpetuate the core values upon which Joe Sr. and Ida based their family business.

The core corporate philosophy of J. P. Mascaro & Sons has always been and continues to be that it has a commitment to its customers, its employees, and the community. Many Mascaro employees have worked for the company for decades and are an integral part of the family business. And as it relates to community involvement, J. P. Mascaro & Sons has a long and deeply-rooted history of quietly and substantially supporting a broad array of community programs, events and organizations. As a family business, the company views such support as a corporate responsibility and as being consistent with its philosophy of operating as “Your Friend in the Community.”

J. P. Mascaro & Sons is particularly proud of its company-initiated “RESPECT Program” which each year is presented in schools to more than 50,000 elementary school children, and which is a fun-filled interactive program designed to remind children of the importance of respect in their lives, for themselves, for others, and for the environment. As part of that program and others, Mascaro has made a 10 million dollar commitment to education over the next five years. 

It has been 50 years since Joe Sr. started J. P. Mascaro & Sons on its way with one truck. His sons, Joe Jr., Frank, Lou, Mike and Pat, have carried on the family business and it has thrived. The Third Generation of Mascaros is now in place to continue and advance what has been passed on to them by their grandfather and fathers. No one can say with certainty what will happened 50 years from now in 2064, but there is a real good chance that, at that time, the Fifth Generation of Mascaros will be proudly operating the “Family Business” that Joe Sr. started in 1964.