About Us
Waste Management is North America’s leading provider of integrated environmental solutions.
We partner with our customers and communities to manage and reduce waste from collection to disposal while recovering valuable resources and creating clean, renewable energy. Waste Management, Inc. is a holding company and all operations are conducted by its subsidiaries. Our subsidiaries provide collection, transfer, recycling, and disposal services. We are also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. When the terms “the Company,” “we,” “us” or “our” are used on this site, those terms refer collectively to Waste Management, Inc.’s consolidated subsidiaries and variable interest entities, unless specifically noted otherwise.
Our 45,000 employees are committed to Environmental Performance — our mission to maximize resource value, while minimizing environmental impact so that both our economy and our environment can thrive. Serving over 20 million residential, industrial, municipal and commercial customers, Waste Management posted $12.52 billion of revenues in 2010.
Financial highlights of 2010 include:
- Internal revenue growth from yield from the Company’s collection and disposal operations was 2.3% for 2010.
- Internal revenue growth from volume was negative 2.6% for 2010.
- Revenues increased by 6.1%, or $724 million for 2010.
- Free cash flow was $1.2 billion for 2010.
- Capital expenditures were $1.1 billion for 2010.
- For 2010, the Company returned $1.1 billion to shareholders, consisting of $604 million in dividends and $501 million in common stock repurchases.
Drawing on our resources and experience, we actively pursue projects and initiatives that benefit the waste industry, the communities we serve and the environment.
- Waste Management uses waste to create enough energy to power more than 1 million homes every year. By 2020, we expect to double that output, creating enough energy to power more than 2 million homes.
- As North America’s largest recycler, Waste Management managed more than 7 million tons of recyclable commodities in 2009. By the year 2020, we expect to increase the amount of material we manage to more than 20 million tons per year.
- By the end of 2009, Waste Management had 119 landfill-gas-to-energy projects producing 540 megawatts of power, the equivalent of powering approximately 400,000 homes.
- At the end of 2009, we had more than 800 natural gas-powered trucks in our fleet, with plans to add 200 more in 2010. During the year, we also used technology to reduce the fuel burn of every truck in our fleet. When fully implemented, this is expected to save 9 million gallons of fuel per year.
- Our wholly owned subsidiary Wheelabrator Technologies owns or operates 16 waste-to-energy plants and five independent power production facilities in the U.S. that generate enough energy to power more than 900,000 homes.
- Through a joint venture with the Linde Group, we have built a plant that converts landfill gas into liquefied natural gas for use as fuel in our trucks. The facility is currently producing 13,000 gallons per day.
- At the end of 2009, we had a total of 73 WHC-certified sites. We also set a goal to have 25,000 acres dedicated solely to nature preservation by 2020, and we have nearly reached that goal: at year-end, we had 24,000 protected acres.