Waste Management, Inc.

Overview

trade name	WM
former name	USA Waste Services, Inc.
type	Public
traded as	nyse: WM S&P 500 component
founders	Wayne Huizenga Dean Buntrock
founded	January 1, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
hq location city	Houston, Texas
hq location country	U.S.
area served	North America
key people	James C. Fish, Jr. (president & CEO)
industry	Waste management
products	Bagster
services	Waste, recyclables, yard debris / organics, and hazardous materials collection, hauling, treatment and disposal Dumpster rental Portable toilet rental Sustainability Advisory Services
revenue	US$20.426 billion (Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2023)‡R1R‡
operating income	US$3.575 billion (Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2023)‡R1R‡
net income	US$2.304 billion (Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2023)‡R1R‡
assets	US$32.823 billion (Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2023)‡R1R‡
equity	US$6.903 billion (Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2023)‡R2R‡
num employees	~48,000 (December 2023)‡R3R‡
website	wm.com

Waste Management, Inc., doing business as WM, is a waste management company operating in North America. Founded in 1968, the company is headquartered in the Bank of America Tower in Houston, Texas.

The company's network includes 337 transfer stations, 254 active landfills, 97 recycling plants, 135 landfill gas utilization projects, and six power plants. WM serves approximately 21 million residential, industrial, municipal, and commercial customers across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The company operates the industry's largest trucking fleet, with 26,000 collection and transfer vehicles. WM and its largest competitor, Republic Services, Inc., manage more than half of the garbage collection in the United States.[4]

History

In 1893, Dutch immigrant Harm Huizenga began a garbage hauling business in Chicago, charging $1.25 per wagon.[5]

Corporate issues

1995 lawsuit

Shareholders sued Wheelabrator Technologies's (WTI) board of directors for breach of their fiduciary duty, challenging the merger of WTI into Waste Management. In 1995, the case, In re Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc. Shareholders Litigation, came before the Court of Chancery of Delaware on an appeal regarding the Board's motion for summary judgment. The shareholders argued the Board breached their duty of care because there was not sufficient process, they didn't look at alternative transactions, didn't consider information regarding waste's legal liabilities, they didn't appoint a committee of independent directors to negotiate the merger, and they didn't adequately consider the terms of the merger; they breached their duty of loyalty, and; they breached their duty to disclose relevant information regarding the merger. Ultimately, the court dismissed the duty of disclosure claim but allowed the duty of loyalty claim to a degree. In regards to the duty of loyalty claim, the court disagreed with both the shareholders and the Board. It labelled the merger as an interested transaction, not a controlled shareholder transaction, so the business judgment rule applies and the burden to prove waste is on the shareholders.[27][28]

Accounting improprieties

Revelations of irregular accounting led to a major drop in stock price and to the replacement of top executives after a new CEO ordered a review of the company's accounting practices in 1998. Waste Management's shareholders lost more than $6 billion in the market value of their investments when the stock price plummeted by more than 33%.[9] The company had augmented the depreciation time length for their property, plant, and equipment, artificially inflating the company's after-tax profits by US$1.7 billion. On July 8, 1999, a class action lawsuit was filed against WMI and certain officers for issuing false statements. Waste Management paid US$457 million to settle a shareholder class-action suit in 2003. The SEC fined Waste Management's independent auditor, Arthur Andersen, US$7 million for its role.[29][30]

ERP software implementation failure

In 2005, Waste Management entered into a software licensing agreement (SLA) with SAP AG. Under the agreement, SAP and its wholly owned subsidiary, Tomorrow Now, were to implement SAP's enterprise resource planning software. The implementation began when an eight-month pilot program was established in Waste Management's New Mexico market area, the market-share area at the time. This initial implementation was to be followed in two months with a company-wide implementation from Waste Management's headquarters in Houston, Texas.[31]

In December 2007, Waste Management ended their ERP implementation effort. Waste Management characterized the ERP implementation as non-functional. An SAP sponsored "Solution Review" determined that a customized ERP, based upon an updated SAP ERP, would need to be made in order to accommodate a company-wide implementation.

Waste Management sued SAP for the US$100 million to recover the funds it had spent on the failed ERP implementation.[32] In the lawsuit, Waste Management accused SAP of fraud and deception. SAP countered that Waste Management failed to present knowledgeable workers and accurate business models and failed to migrate data from legacy systems. The suit concluded in 2010 under confidential terms and a one-time payment from SAP to Waste Management disclosed to the SEC.[33]

Environmental policy and record

In 1990, the board of Waste Management adopted an environmental policy, including a policy of no-net-loss of biodiversity on the company's properties.[37][38] Waste Management also took positions around that time supporting legislation on hazardous waste reduction (1988),[39] waste export control (1989),[40] and protection of endangered species (1992).[41]

Waste Management's operations consist of environmental protection, groundwater protection, environmental engineering, and air and gas management. Waste Management currently operates ten full-scale waste treatment landfill projects in the U.S. and Canada. As a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), Waste Management made a commitment during the pilot phase to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by four percent below the average of its 1998–2001 baseline by 2006.[42] 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.[43]

In November 2009, at Waste Management's Altamont Landfill, a new plant began producing 13,000 gallons a day of LNG fuel from methane gas from the landfill that had fueled an electric power plant since 1969. Waste Management has said that the plant, announced in April 2008, and built and operated by The Linde Group with state funding, is the world's largest facility to convert landfill gas into vehicle fuel.[44][46][47]

Waste Management works with environmental groups in the U.S. to set aside land to create and manage wetlands and wildlife habitats. The company's landfills currently provide approximately 21000 acre of protected land for wildlife; 73 landfills are certified[48] by the Wildlife Habitat Council.

In May 2011, Waste Management's Wheelabrator division agreed to pay a record $7.5 million settlement with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for a host of environmental violations at its plants in North Andover, Saugus, and Millbury, Massachusetts. The settlement was announced on May 2, 2011, by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and Attorney General Martha Coakley's office.[49]

Waste Management, Inc.

History

Recycling

International

Corporate issues

1995 lawsuit

Accounting improprieties

ERP software implementation failure

Labor relations

Environmental policy and record

Financial restatements

See also

External links

References