Waste Management, Inc. ( ) is a waste management, comprehensive waste, and environmental service company in North America. The company is headquartered in Suite 4000 at the First City Tower in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States.

The company's network includes 413 collection operations, 370 transfer stations, 283 active landfill disposal sites, 17 waste-to-energy plants, 131 recycling plants, 95 beneficial-use landfill gas projects and 6 independent power production plants. Waste Management offers environmental services to nearly 21 million residential, industrial, municipal and commercial customers in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. With 22,000 collection and transfer vehicles, the company has the largest trucking fleet in the waste industry. Together with its competitor Republic Services, Inc, the two handle more than half of all garbage collection in the United States.

History

In the 1890s, Ham Huizenga, a Dutch immigrant, began hauling garbage at $1.25/wagon in Chicago. In 1968, Wayne Huizenga, Dean Buntrock, and Larry Beck founded Waste Management, Inc. and began aggressively purchasing many of the smaller garbage collection services across the country, as the descendant firm of Ham Huizenga. In 1971, Waste Management went public, and by 1972, the company had made 133 acquisitions with $82M in revenue. It had 60,000 commercial and industrial accounts and 600,000 residential customers in 19 states and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In the 1980s, WM acquired Service Corporation of America (SCA) to become the largest waste hauler in the country.

In 1998, in a pivotal development point, WM merged with USA Waste and moved its headquarters from Chicago to Houston. The merged companies retained the WM brand. However, that year also brought trouble for the newly expanded company, in the form of an accounting scandal.



In November 1999, turn-around CE was brought in to help Waste Management recover. The company has since implemented new technologies, safety standards, and operational practices, and is on a steady upward climb.

In 2003, the company had generated $1 billion in free cash, and was returning profits to shareholders in the form of dividends.

On July 14, 2008, Waste Management offered a $34 per share bid to acquire arch-competitor Republic Services, Inc. On August 11, 2008, the bid was raised to $37 per share. On August 15, 2008, Republic Services, Inc. denied Waste Management's bid for a second time. On October 13, 2008, Waste Management withdrew its bid for Republic Services, citing financial market turmoil.

In January 2009, a global economic crisis forced Waste Management to aggressively reduce and restructure its corporate workforce.

Corporate structure and leadership

Waste Management is structured into the following units:

• Midwest Group
  • Jeff Harris, Senior Vice President
• Western Group
  • Duane C. Woods, Senior Vice President
• Eastern Group
  • Brett Frazier, Senior Vice President
• Southern Group
  • James E. Trevathan, Senior Vice President
• Waste Management Recycle America
  • Patrick J. DeRueda, President

Current members of the board of directors of Waste Management are: John C. "Jack" Pope, David P. Steiner, Dr. Pastora San Juan Cafferty, Frank M. Clark, Jr., Pat Gross, Thomas I. Morgan, W. Robert Reum, and Steven G. Rothmeier.

David P. Steiner is also the chief executive officer of the company (since 2004), succeeding A. Maurice Myers.

Subsidiaries

• Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.
  • Mark A. Weidman, President

Corporate issues

Anti-trust allegations

In 1987 the US Government accused Waste Management of violating antitrust laws. They were specifically accused of colluding with other waste haulers to allocate customers in Florida.

Accounting scandal

In 1998, an accounting scandal led to a major drop in stock price and led to the replacement of top executives, when the new CEO ordered a review of the company's accounting practices. The company had augment the depreciation time length for their property, plant, and equipment, making their after-tax profits appear higher. The net result was $1.7B in inflated earnings. WM paid $457M to settle a shareholder class-action suit and the SEC fined WM's independent auditor, Arthur Andersen, $7 million for their role.

Labor relations

In 2007, Waste Management locked out Teamsters at its largest hauling operation in Alameda County, CA. The lockout lasted a little less than a month and put 900 members of the Teamsters, ILWU and Machinists Union on picket lines and raised concerns over sanitary impact on the affected communities. The lockout was stopped when affected communities started legal actions against Waste Management. According to Waste Management officials, the company worked over the past three months to negotiate an agreement fair to both Waste Management and the union. The union did not want to negotiate over the company's proposals and refused to offer their own proposal unless Waste Management agreed to withdraw all proposals from the table. Oakland's City Council reached a settlement with Waste Management over the dispute in March, 2008. The company rebated more than $3 million to customers and Oakland customers will receive additional services over the next five years.

Environmental record

Waste Management works with environmental protection, groundwater protection, environmental engineering, and air and gas management. Waste Management has helped to create bioreactor landfills, that are said to better the environment. Waste Management currently operates ten full-scale waste treatment landfill projects in the U.S. and Canada. They are one of the largest private holders of greenhouse gas emission reduction credits in the United States. In 2005, WM reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 3.8 million tons. They have also replaced nearly 500 diesel-fueled trucks with vehicles that run on 100 percent natural gas. These new garbage and recycling trucks comprise one of the nation’s largest fleets of heavy-duty trucks powered exclusively by natural gas.

Marketing

WMI used aggressive marketing to try to turn the company around in the 1990s, with slogans like: “What business do we have saying we help the environment? That is our business.“ and "Waste Management, helping the world dispose of its problems." The current slogan is “From everyday collection, to environmental protection, think green. Think Waste Management.“ They also are featured in a Walt Disney World Epcot attraction, Innoventions.

Notes

1. " Contact Us." Waste Management, Inc. Retrieved on January 14, 2009.
2. Aseltine, McRea, Modi, Shukla, and Sullivan. A Strategic Case Analysis: Waste Management Inc. Spring 2006. http://www.uhv.edu/bus/conference/samples/WM1stplace.pdf. 3.6.3. Summary of Competitive Analysis. "The three largest national companies, Waste Management, Allied Waste and Republic Services together handle more than half the solid waste generated in the United States today." [and Allied and Republic have since merged]
3. Waste Management offers to buy Republic Services: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
4. [1]
5. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081013/waste_management_republic_services.html?.v=1
6. WM: 2006 Sustainability Report

External links

• Official website
• Wheelabrator Technologies