In Episode 6 of the Waste Nexus podcast, hosts Brian and Charlie Dolan sit down with Justin and Quentin Blazer, two brothers from Pittsburgh who turned their late father's idea into a real product on the shelves of Ace Hardware stores nationwide. Blazer Brand makes the Strong Strap, a lid-locking bungee latch for outdoor waste containers, and they've spent nearly a decade figuring out injection molding, US-based manufacturing, and how to get haulers to care.

The conversation covers everything from the raccoon that started it all, to the new auto-release notch that finally makes the product viable for residential collection routes. They get into the hard parts of building a physical product — finding manufacturers willing to work at entry-level volumes, engineering a self-tapping bolt that didn't cost $10 a unit, and surviving COVID-era supply chain chaos by moving production entirely to the US.

A fun, grounded conversation amongst brothers about entrepreneurship and Pittsburgh pride.