About Us – Corporate Profile
Corporate Profile
Waste Management, Inc. is the leading provider of comprehensive waste and environmental services in North America. The company is strongly committed to a foundation of financial strength, operating excellence and professionalism.
Waste Management tailors its services to meet the needs of each customer group and to ensure consistent, superior service at the local level. Headquartered in Houston, the company's network of operations 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. These assets enable Waste Management to offer a full range of environmental services to nearly 21 million residential, industrial, municipal and commercial customers.
Drawing on our resources and experience, we actively pursue projects and initiatives that benefit the waste industry, the communities we serve and the environment. Waste Management works to make a positive difference for the environment in every aspect of its business.
- We recover and process methane gas, naturally produced by decomposing waste in landfills, into an energy source for generating power. We currently supply enough landfill gas to create more than 250 megawatts of green energy that could power about 225,000 homes or replace about 2 million barrels of oil per year.
- With 495 vehicles now converted from diesel fuel to clean-burning natural gas, we operate one of the nation's largest fleets of heavy-duty trucks powered exclusively by natural gas.
- We have taken a leadership role in promoting the recycling and reuse of materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. Waste Management, combined with its wholly owned subsidiary WM Recycle America, is North America’s largest recycler. We process 5.8 million tons of commodities each year, saving approximately 41 million trees through paper recycling alone.
- Through its waste-to-energy plants, WM uses solid municipal waste to generate power. This reduces the volume of the waste by 90 percent and saves space in local landfills while providing an economical alternative to the use of fossil and nuclear fuels.
- WM partners with communities, government and industries to redevelop closed landfill sites into recreational and commercial facilities such as parks, athletic fields, campgrounds and golf courses.
- Across North America, we work with environmental groups to set aside land to create and manage wetlands and wildlife habitats. Our landfills provide more than 16,000 acres of protected land for wildlife; 24 landfills are certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council.
- WM helped found the Chicago Climate Exchange, an organization established to provide a voluntary marketplace for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions.
Waste Management's environmental initiatives have drawn recognition numerous times from organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Wildlife Habitat Council.
Operations
Collection
Waste Management provides solid waste
collection services to millions of customers across North America,
ranging in size from single residential subscriptions to large national
customers requiring comprehensive, one-source waste programs to serve
hundreds of locations. With 22,000 collection and transfer vehicles,
the company has the largest trucking fleet in the waste industry. The
company uses advanced technology and disciplined programs to bring
improved efficiency to the process of solid waste collection.
Transfer
With most of the waste collected by Waste
Management going to its own landfills, a supporting network of transfer
stations provides an important link for efficient disposal. Waste Management
has 370 strategically located transfer stations to consolidate, compact
and load waste from collection vehicles into long-haul trailers, barge
containers and rail cars for transport to landfills.
Disposal
Waste Management operates the largest network
of landfills in its industry, with 283 active sites managing the disposal
of more than 125 million tons of waste per year. The company operates
its sites according to standards of safety and environmental compliance
that go beyond regulatory requirements. Waste Management is focused
on solutions that impact the future of solid waste management, including
bioreactor technology, which accelerates the decomposition of organic
waste through the managed introduction of air and liquids into the
waste mass. Currently, the company is conducting research at 10 landfills
to confirm the environmental benefits of bioreactor technology as an
alternative method for managing landfill waste.
Recycling
As the largest recycler of municipal solid
waste in North America, Waste Management processes more than 5.8 million
tons of recyclable materials each year through its 131 material recovery
facilities. Through the resources of WM Recycle America, a majority-owned
subsidiary, WM provides cost-efficient, environmentally sound recycling
programs for municipalities, businesses and households across the U.S.
and Canada.
Renewable Energy
For many years, Waste Management
has worked with businesses, industries and public utilities across
North America to develop beneficial-use projects from landfill gas.
This gas is a reliable, renewable energy source that is produced naturally
as waste decomposes in landfills. When collected, it can be used directly
as medium Btu gas for industrial use or sold to gas-to-energy plants
to fuel engine or turbine-driven generators that produce electricity.
Through 95 landfill gas projects, we currently supply enough landfill
gas to create more than 250 megawatts of green energy that could power
about 225,000 homes or replace about 2 million barrels of oil per year.
In addition, our waste-to-energy subsidiary Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. burns solid waste to generate clean energy. Its 17 waste-to-energy plants have the capacity to process up to 24,200 tons of waste per day and have an electric generating capacity of more than 650 megawatts of energy, potentially saving more than 6 million barrels of oil and generating clean, renewable energy that could power about 600,000 homes each year.
