J.P. Morgan Foresees Better Times Ahead For Waste Companies
J.P. Morgan has released guidance suggesting that waste-management firms will benefit over the next several years, since an economic recovery will generate increased construction and manufacturing and, thus, more industrial waste. "We now expect industrial waste volumes to pick up starting next spring, based on our economist's more bullish outlook for capital spending (i.e. construction) and our machinery analyst's bullish outlook for manufacturing," wrote J.P. Morgan analyst Amanda Tepper in research notes in which she upgraded Allied Waste Industries Inc. (NYSE: AW) and downgraded Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG)...Read More »
EZ Payment Services Announces New Waste Disposal Invoicing System
EZPaymentservices has announced a new financial management tool that can help waste disposal companies reduce their costs of billing and collection by more than 90 percent. The online invoice management approach eliminates the process of sending paper invoices to customers, sending reminder letters and replacements for lost invoices, and recording and depositing checks. Instead, companies upload their invoices and their customers are immediately notified via email and view the invoices online. Company officials note that The Gartner Group estimates that it costs $12 to $17 to send a paper bill and process a manual check...Read More »
Lexmark Joins EPA's E-Cycling Campaign
Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Plug-In To eCycling campaign, an effort under EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge that seeks to increase the national recycling rate. The program is a partnership between the EPA and businesses to help collect used electrical and electronic equipment. As a Plug-In To eCycling partner, Lexmark will help the EPA in its initiative to educate consumers about the recycling of end-of-life electronic products...Read More »
Waste Management Wins CIO Award
Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WMI) has been named a winner of the "CIO 100" Award from IDG's CIO magazine for the third consecutive year. The 2003 CIO 100 Award honors the top 100 companies that excel in a particular designated aspect of business. This year, the theme of the CIO 100 award was resourcefulness, the ability to generate greater value with more limited IT resources in a tough economic climate. CIO judges determined that Waste Management demonstrated resourcefulness in the areas of hardware and software procurement, consolidation of IT equipment, distance learning/Web-based training, and selective outsourcing of IT services...Read More »
Clean Harbors Shares Fall After Disappointing News
Shares of Clean Harbors Inc. (NasdaqNM: CLHB) fell to a 52-week low last week after the company reported a significant second quarter loss and rescinded its earnings projections for the rest of the year. The news drove the company's stock price to a 52-week low of $5.55 a share. Earlier last Thursday, Clean Harbors reported a net loss of $6.8 million, or 57 cents a share for the second quarter, compared with net income of $483,000, or three cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts had expected quarterly earnings of 27 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call. The company said its results were hurt by low volumes in its landfill and facilities businesses...Read More »
Florida Judge Blocks Local Commission's Landfill Restriction
A Polk County, Florida circuit judge has struck down the Fort Meade City Commission's vote in January that barred Waste Corp. of Florida from expanding its landfill. The commission voted 4-1 to deny a conditional use permit to Waste Corp., contending that the company had failed to perform agreed-upon landscaping duties. But the judge said in his ruling that the city did not have sufficient evidence to deny the permit, and voided the commission's decision. Now city commissioners will have to reconsider the conditional use permit, which allows for the expansion but also imposes height restrictions and allows for frequent inspections by the city...Read More »
Illinois Landfill is Focus of Bankruptcy, Methane Disputes
Concern for a fire hazard and potential environmental damage at the Livingston Landfill has prompted Livingston County, Illinois to consider intervening in a four-year-old bankruptcy case. According to reports in the Bloomington Pantagraph, Resource Technology Corp., which extracts and burns methane, has been accused of pumping too much of the gas, a move which potentially increases the danger of a fire. RTC, now involved in a bankruptcy case, also has been in dispute over methane pumping with Allied Waste Industries, the firm that owns and operates the landfill. Allied Waste shut off the 100 methane wells in June, claiming the fire hazard was growing. By closed the wells, Allied defied a federal bankruptcy court order allowing RTC to continue to extract the methane...Read More »
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