Katherine Fairbanks arrives at her Millbury office swathed in hot pink, into a sea of purple. This is clearly a workplace where girls rule and boys drool.

She greets her 27-year-old daughter Megan Carlson, who runs the administrative end of their all-girl operation known as Dirty Girl Disposal in addition to the family’s flagship biz, Millbury Rubbish Removal.

Rachel, at 21, is the youngest of Katherine’s brood and also the very model of her mission. She is, in fact Dirty Girl Disposal’s first protégé, having recently obtained her Commercial Driver’s License, enabling her to become the company’s main driver. It should surprise nobody that her dump truck is purple.

With matching fuschia sweatshirts and determined smiles, Katherine and her daughters have made it clear that the only way they are taking anyone’s crap is if it’s in their trash removal contract.

You might take offense at the name, and Katherine is ready to play defense. The implication is tongue-in-cheek, stemming from her life in the rubbish removal industry.

“It leaves people wondering, ‘What do they

mean Dirty Girl?’” she smirks.

In fact, the idea for the name came to Katherine and her daughters long before the idea for the business. After a particularly harrowing day spent out on the Millbury Rubbish Removal beat, they looked at each other and found amusement in their filth. “We’re dirty girls,” they cried and burst out laughing. And the rest, as they say, is history.

“With Dirty Girl, I intend to change the stereotypical image of a truck driver,” she says, “and open doors for women that they wouldn’t otherwise consider.”

So let’s talk about that image.

If you were to close your eyes and picture your average truck driver, your vision might vary in the details: Fat or thin, bald or hairy, plaid shirts or heavy jackets, worn sneakers or steel-toed boots. But chances are, it’s a dude.

Now consider Rachel Carlson, lithe and gorgeous and all of 100 pounds soaking wet – built more like an Olympic figure skater than a CDL-toting waste management specialist. She radiates confidence and security, but none of the conceit that would indicate that she is even remotely aware of how much of an utter bad-ass she is.

It’s “like mother like daughters” around this office, where girl power is like an elixir spiking their morning coffee. You can practically hear them roaring from the parking lot.

With only five employees and three of them calling the boss-lady “Mom,” Dirty Girl Disposal is largely a family affair. Katherine’s 24-year-old son Jared is the only boy allowed in this clubhouse, though he generally keeps a safe distance and waits to be called upon when the beauties are looking for some additional brawn – spending the majority of his time as the Operations Manager for Millbury Rubbish Removal.

And if it all sounds quaint and lovely, you clearly haven’t spent a day in their stilettos. This crew is so lively that the business is being targeted for a reality show, with the pilot ad garnering hundreds of daily hits on YouTube.

Not too shabby for a business that was born of a divorce so intense that it rivals the War of the Roses.

Katherine spent many of her child-rearing years working to obtain her master’s degree in nursing while helping her husband manage Millbury Rubbish Removal. When the divorce happened, and wreaked havoc on their lives with no end in sight, her mindset began to change and she found herself in a place she’d never imagined for herself.

Destitute, Katherine labored to keep her head held high throughout the legal battle and the ensuing split, which included her being awarded the rubbish removal business she had once shared with her spouse. He parted ways and opened up a business that is now one of her dozens of competitors.

“Competition can be good for business, but not when it’s excessive,” she says, adding that the rubbish removal business has been difficult because people have too many choices. “If they don’t want to pay their bill with one company, they can move on to any number of other ones. That game can go on indefinitely around here.”

Like mothers across the globe, Katherine’s every move has been an attempt to provide a better life for her children. And as each of her kids has come of age and started to leave the nest, she has turned her attention to making a better world for young women in general.

The way she sees it, for young women going out into the workforce without the benefit of access to higher education, they are likely to land on a minimum wage job where they will live paycheck to paycheck. Finding someone to sponsor, teach and finance your Commercial Driver’s License can be insurmountable – whereas for men, it’s practically a given.

At Dirty Girl, Katherine plans to become a willing mentor to women who want to more than double their earning potential and become part of something revolutionary. Her goal is to start turning out female truck drivers so that women can start being part of a career path that has, for too long, denied them complete access.

“I want to change that,” she says, adding that even before Dirty Girl, it’s always been important to her that she “be accommodating to moms’ schedules.”Dirty Girl Disposal, she says, is a one-time clean-up service company – not a weekly trash removal business. Their pledge is to provide environmentally conscious and professional waste-hauling service as they work toward the greater vision of providing the education, training and mentoring to well-qualified women.

But even through the emotionally devastating divorce and the never-ending stress that occurred in its wake, there are no regrets for this Dirty Girl.

“If it weren’t for everything that happened, I wouldn’t be where I am right now,” says Katherine. “And I’m okay now…I can hold my head up. I can breathe again.”

For more information on Katherine Fairbanks’ family business, visit dirtygirldisposal.com.

Amanda Roberge is a freelance writing living in Leominster with her husband and three daughters.