Solid Waste Industry Leaders Publish Environmental Goals

Waste Management

In January 2009, Waste Management (WM) published its 2008 Sustainability Report to communicate its goals of helping "pass on the planet to the next generation in better shape than we inherited it." This sustainability initiative serves as a platform for the company’s growth between now and 2020.

In its 2008 Sustainability Report, WM explains that plans to work toward achieving four goals by 2020:

1. Doubling its renewable energy generation to power more than two million homes;
2. Tripling the amount of material it recycles to more than 20 million tons each year; 
3. Providing over 25,000 acres of wildlife habitat;
4. Investing in green technologies for managing waste, including new technology to reduce its fleet’s emissions by 15 percent and increase its efficiency by 15 percent.

See WM CEO David Steiner describe these goals.

Download a copy of WM's 2008 sustainability report.

Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. It is also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. The company’s customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout North America.

Republic Services

In July 2009, Republic Service published its 2009 Sustainability Report to highlight "some of the many innovative environmental projects and initiatives taking place throughout the company, from the nation’s first solar energy cover on one of the company’s landfills to reducing the amount of fuel and oil used by its vehicles."

In its 2009 Sustainability Report, Republic explains that is committing to the following:

• Establishing an Environmental Sustainability Team that includes stakeholders from all departments.
  
• Incorporating aims and objectives of the company’s environmental plan into our strategic planning process.
  
• Reducing our consumption of natural resources.
• Increasing green energy produced and used by our business.

About these goals, Republic Services CEO Jim O'Connor said, "The sustainability report was an opportunity to identify and discuss what we already do to protect the environment and to set a course to do more. Being green is not just a philosophy at Republic. We’ve been doing it for years. From our landfills to our state-of-the-art recycling facilities, we’ve been dedicated to protecting the environment from the beginning."

Download a copy of Republic Service's 2009 sustainability report. Republic Services welcomes comments on how they can have a more positive impact by emailing sustainability@republicservices.com.

Republic Services, Inc., based in Phoenix, Arizona, is a leading provider of services in the domestic, non-hazardous solid waste industry. It provides non-hazardous solid waste collection services for commercial, industrial, municipal, and residential customers through 400 collection companies in 40 states and Puerto Rico. They also own or operate 242 transfer stations, 213 solid waste landfills and 79 recycling facilities. Republic serves millions of residential customers under terms of contracts with more than 3,000 municipalities for waste collection and residential services.

Read more stories