WASTE MANAGEMENT INC (WM)

Waste Management, Inc. is a holding company whose operations are conducted through subsidiaries. It describes itself as North America's leading provider of comprehensive environmental solutions, serving the United States and Canada. The company helps customers and communities manage and reduce waste at each stage from collection to disposal, while recovering valuable resources and creating renewable energy. It follows a strategy of focused differentiation and continuous improvement, built on its asset network, automation, and sustainability investments.

Management runs the business through five reportable segments. Collection and Disposal - East Tier covers the Eastern U.S., the Great Lakes region and substantially all of Canada. Collection and Disposal - West Tier covers the Western, Southern and Central U.S., including the upper Midwest, and British Columbia. Recycling Processing and Sales handles paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metal. Renewable Energy develops, operates and owns landfill gas-to-energy facilities that produce renewable electricity and renewable natural gas, some of which fuels the company's natural gas fleet. Healthcare Solutions, added through the 2024 acquisition of Stericycle, provides regulated waste and compliance services and secure information destruction in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe. Collection and Disposal services include collection, landfill disposal and transfer. Other businesses include Strategic Solutions, which serves national accounts, and Sustainability and Environmental Solutions. At year-end 2025 the company owned or operated 253 solid waste landfills, four hazardous waste landfills and 342 transfer stations, excluding those acquired from Stericycle. It describes this as the largest landfill network in the U.S. and Canada.

Customers include commercial, industrial and residential accounts, as well as municipalities, homeowners' associations, third-party haulers, and households that subscribe directly. No customer accounted for more than 5% of 2025 revenues. Commercial and industrial collection typically runs under three-year service agreements, with steel containers provided to most customers. Residential service generally runs under contracts or franchises of three to ten years with municipalities or other authorities, or under monthly subscriptions. Fees depend on factors such as service frequency, waste type and volume, distance to disposal, and labor and fuel costs. Third-party haulers also pay tipping fees to use the company's landfills and transfer stations.

The company's solid waste business is managed locally by subsidiaries focused on distinct geographic areas. It favors internalization, sending the waste it collects to its own transfer and disposal sites to improve margins and cash flow, and is automating residential collection. Some transfer stations are leased from third parties or operated under municipal contracts. Landfills also supply gas to third-party power, renewable natural gas and pipeline projects in exchange for royalties. The company was incorporated in Oklahoma in 1987 as USA Waste Services, Inc., reincorporated in Delaware in 1995, and took the Waste Management name in a 1998 merger. Its principal executive offices are at 800 Capitol Street, Houston, Texas, and its stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under "WM."