by Jackie Norris

On the weekdays, Eli Edwards, co-owner of  Seattle Rubbish Removal, relies on his trusted employees to keep his hauling company running smoothly, but on the weekends, the 39-year-old depends on a pit crew to keep him lapping the competition. "The importance of having a good team is the biggest parallel between my business and my racing," says the co-owner of Seattle Rubbish Removal and 2010 Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association champion. "When you have a good team, everything else falls into place."

Regardless if it's on the track or in the office, Edwards says a successful team knows its role, works hard, pays attention to the details and most importantly - communicates effectively.

Those traits were what impressed Ames Hwang of Mercer Island, Wash. The Angie's List member hired Seattle Rubbish to haul away old furniture and boxes of junk taking up space on her patio. "They showed up on time, and were efficient and polite," Hwang says. "I was pleasantly surprised at how well they cleaned up the patio when they were through."

Seattle Rubbish's jobs typically consist of removing unwanted house goods or landscaping and construction materials, but Edwards says he does receive bizarre requests. Recently, he received a call from a bar in Pioneer Square asking him to haul away more than 5,000 pounds of bacon-flavored mayonnaise. "They had a mayo wrestling contest," Edwards says, adding the condiment had been scraped up and put into 55-gallon drums that weighed more than 800 pounds each. "Those drums were heavy and very slimy."

While the barrels of mayonnaise had to be dropped off at the dump, Edwards says most items can be recycled or donated. That appealed to member Keith Creighton of Seattle, who hired Edwards' team to remove items from a home he had just purchased. "They took full responsibility of getting everything where it needs to go - the proper and legal way," Creighton says. "They're stellar people to work with.