Waste Management

Strategic intent

Waste Management (WM) is North America's leading provider of comprehensive environmental solutions, offering waste collection, recycling, resource recovery, and disposal services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers.

Key market signals

• 2026-10: Harris County, Texas, filed a federal lawsuit against a WM subsidiary seeking to shut down and remediate the Hawthorn Park Landfill over alleged RCRA violations and excessive methane emissions.
• 2026-08: CEO Jim Fish announced plans to retire effective January 4, 2027, with President John Morris appointed to succeed him as CEO.
• 2026-05: Tara Hemmer was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, taking over field operations, recycling, and renewable energy businesses.
• 2026-02: S&P Global Ratings upgraded WM's credit outlook to stable from negative, citing successful post-acquisition deleveraging and over $1 billion in debt paydown following the $7.2 billion acquisition of Stericycle.
• 2025-12: A federal court granted final approval to a $30 million class-action settlement resolving claims that WM misled investors regarding the timeline and regulatory risks of its 2020 acquisition of Advanced Disposal Services.

Financial health

• Revenue: Reported Q2 2026 revenue of $6.684 billion, representing 4.0% year-over-year growth, driven by core pricing yield of 5.7% (https://www.wm.com).
• EBITDA: Q2 2026 operating EBITDA reached $2.030 billion with an adjusted margin of 30.9% (https://www.wm.com).
• Full-Year 2026 Outlook: Confidently projected adjusted operating EBITDA between $8.15 and $8.25 billion and free cash flow between $3.75 and $3.85 billion (https://www.wm.com).

Impact & compliance

Legal & risks

In December 2025, Waste Management agreed to pay $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it made materially false and misleading statements regarding its 2020 acquisition of Advanced Disposal Services. In April 2026, Waste Management of Alameda County agreed to pay a $215,000 penalty […]

Forensic audit — 2 findings

• ⚠ WM is under continuous regulatory scrutiny regarding landfill methane emissions and the management of PFAS 'forever chem...
• ⚠ In 2025, Waste Management's subsidiary, Chemical Waste Management, Inc., paid a $90,240 penalty to resolve an environmen...

🔒 Proprietary analysis

Proprietary Analysis — available with full access

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