Following recycling training, 100 percent improvement
eliminating contamination

Foxboro, Mass. – The Total Recycle Program is one of WM’s value-added programs that’s
dedicated to assisting customers with landfill waste diversion through waste assessments,
materials management system recommendations, on-site training, education and
environmental reporting.

This program has now been extended to employees working at the company’s New England
Area offices, where after months of waste assessments of individual bins and comprehensive
recycling training, the facility has moved from a failing grade to a solid “A.”

“Extracting more value from the materials we manage is a key transformation goal,” said
Michelle Lee Guiney, Total Recycling Program manager for Waste Management. “Our
employees came together and executed something we do for our customers every day,
which is educating around, organizing and instituting a successful recycling program.”

Before this initiative took off, survey results indicated less than 30 percent of employees
in New England had received any sort of education around recycling. This created a
tremendous opportunity.

To make New England’s Total Recycling Program a success, Guiney used collateral from
Recycle Often. Recycle Right.®, an initiative WM launched in 2013 to educate communities
on the importance of proper recycling. Guiney incorporated that program collateral into
comprehensive employee training, as well as information on common contaminants, Guiney
MRF capabilities, waste ban regulations, market area diversion rates and environmental facts.

Following their training, staff members said that learning about recycling was very beneficial
and would lead to them recycling more often. In addition, 88 percent of employees said they
were better prepared to educate customers on everyday questions, like, can plastic utensils
be recycled, does shredded paper go in a single-stream bin, are candy bar wrappers and chip
bags recyclable, etc. All of these questions mirror what WM is asked every day by customers.

In order to keep employees informed, a bulletin board has been dedicated to recycling and
sustainable practices, as well as a recyclometer (pictured). Now that the Total Recycling Program
has launched, the New England Area has set a goal to divert 85 percent of their materials from
the landfill. In Q4 2013, the Area diverted nearly 600,000 tons, or 60 percent of their total waste,
all of which went to either a single-stream recycling facility or Wheelabrator plant, where it was
used to produce energy.

In terms of material conservation, this performance was enough to:

“This exercise was a win on many levels,” said Area Vice President Chris DeSantis. “Not only did we
dramatically improve our recycling performance, we’re also educated to teach others. It is very
important for us to be experts at what we preach.”