WASTE MANAGEMENT INC (WM)

Waste Management, Inc. is a holding company operating through subsidiaries as North America's leading provider of comprehensive environmental solutions, providing services throughout the United States and Canada. The company partners with customers and communities to manage and reduce waste from collection through disposal, while recovering valuable resources and creating clean, renewable energy. Its core solid waste business is managed locally through subsidiaries focused on distinct geographic areas, offering collection, transfer, disposal, recycling and resource recovery services; the company owns or operates 263 landfill sites (258 solid waste and five secure hazardous waste landfills), the largest such network in the U.S. and Canada, and manages 332 transfer stations that consolidate and compact waste for efficient transport to disposal sites.

Collection services are provided to commercial and industrial customers typically under three-year agreements, and to residential customers through municipal contracts or franchises typically spanning three to ten years, or via direct monthly subscriptions. Through its WM Renewable Energy business, the company is a leading developer, operator and owner of landfill gas-to-energy facilities that produce renewable electricity and renewable natural gas, generating royalties from third-party power generating facilities, RNG facilities, and pipeline projects, including a 15% royalty based on net operating revenue from 83 landfill beneficial use renewable energy projects. The company is also a leading recycler in the U.S. and Canada, handling materials such as cardboard, paper, glass, plastic and metal, providing cost-efficient, environmentally sound recycling programs to municipalities, businesses and households.

Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2023, the company reorganized its segment reporting into four reportable segments: Collection and Disposal - East Tier (covering the Eastern U.S., Great Lakes region, and substantially all of Canada), Collection and Disposal - West Tier (covering the Western U.S., upper Midwest, and British Columbia), Recycling Processing and Sales, and WM Renewable Energy, with additional services presented as Corporate and Other. The company's Strategic Solutions business (WMSBS) serves customers with multi-location footprints across the U.S. and Canada through streamlined service, enhanced reporting, sustainability measurement tools, and centralized billing. Customers span municipalities, businesses, industrial accounts and households, with no single customer representing more than 5% of annual revenues in 2023.

The company's strategy centers on focused differentiation and continuous improvement, leveraging its extensive asset network, investing in automation and technology to improve operational efficiency and customer experience, and pursuing a sustainability growth strategy with significant planned investments in its Recycling Processing and Sales and WM Renewable Energy businesses, alongside evaluation of emerging waste diversion technologies. The company also returns value to stockholders through dividends, having increased its quarterly dividend for 21 consecutive years, and through a common stock repurchase program.