Waste Management 4Q Profits Off 15% from Post-Hurricane Cleanup Results a Year Ago
Waste Management, Inc. reported that fourth quarter earnings had fallen 15% from a year ago when the company had heavy hurricane related cleanup business. Profits were $246 million, or $0.46 per share, compared to $290 million, or $0.52 per share last year. Quarterly revenues also fell to $3.28 billion from $3.37 billion in last year's fourth quarter. For all of 2006, earnings fell only slightly to $1.15 billion ($2.10 per share) from $1.18 billion ($2.09 per share) in 2005. On the bright side, revenues for the year advanced to $13.36 billion from $13.07 billion in 2005. The company said it expects adjusted full-year earnings in 2007 to increase by 8 to 10 percent...Read More »
IESI Acquires Allied Waste's New York City Operations
IESI Corporation has acquired the New York City commercial waste hauling operations of Allied Waste Industries, Inc. The deal is sure to shore up IESI's existing beachhead in the City it entered ten years ago. IESI has made some bold gambles on the future of New York City's waste market. First when it entered the market, then, when it acquired the Seneca Meadows Landfill (Upstate New York) in October 2003 for $180.5 million. Now it is betting that the Bloomberg administration will remove the rate caps on commercial waste collection in the City...Read More »
Waste Connections Turns in Stellar 4Q Report Card and Approves Stock Split
Waste Connections reported very solid fourth quarter and year end results. Making it a good time to increase management compensation and announce a 3-for-2 stock split. Stronger than expected and continuing pricing and volume growth helped push quarterly revenues up by 12% to $210.7 million from $188.4 million a year ago. Revenues for the year were up by 14.2% to $824.4 million. Net income for the quarter rose to $20.6 million from $18.7 million last year. "Now that we have transitioned to a higher fuel cost environment, we expect continuing pricing strength and increasing volume growth to drive year-over-year margin expansion in 2007," said Ronald J. Mittelstaedt, Chairman and CEO...Read More »
Animal Manure is Beginning to Get Interesting
A great deal of financial and intellectual capital is being aimed at animal manure of late. In California, a bio fuel company recently formed a joint venture with a dairy development group to build an energy park that will utilize animal wastes to fuel an ethanol plant. On the other side of the country, researchers at Michigan State along with the US Department of Agriculture, have developed a way to make fiberboard and extruded lumber from, you guessed it, cow manure. Driving these and other creative solutions is an estimated 1.5 to 2 trillion pounds of manure generated annually in the US. 95% of this waste is applied to land as fertilizer. But problems arise where there are large animal feeding operations with less land. A single cow produces over 100 pounds of manure per day; a chicken puts out about 0.9 pounds per day...Read More »
Emerald Waste Services Acquires Sunbelt Environmental
Emerald Waste Services LLC, which itself had been acquired by WHI Capital Partners, a private equity firm, is acquiring Sunbelt Environmental Inc., which also has operations throughout northwest Florida. Sunbelt, based in Gulf Shores, Alabama, provides collection, recycling and disposal services for non-hazardous commercial waste as well construction and demolition debris. Terms of the deal were not disclosed...Read More »
Covanta to Acquire 40% Interest in China's Chongqing Iron & Steel Unit
Covanta Holding Corp. announced plans to buy a 40% interest in Chongqing Sanfeng Environmental Industry Co Ltd., a unit of Chongqing Iron & Steel (Group) Ltd. Sanfeng has minority interests in two 1,200 ton per day (TPD) waste-to-energy plants located in the southwestern Chinese municipality of Chongqing and the eastern city of Fuzhou. China generates an estimated 280 million tons of municipal solid waste annually, most of which is currently being landfilled. The Chinese Ministry of Construction has ambitious plans to increase energy generated from waste from just 2% of waste disposal in 2005 to 30% by the year 2030...Read More »
Researchers Concerned About Superfund Site's Effect on Animals and Humans
Researchers from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, in analyzing data drawn from a Superfund site in Cape Cod, Mass., have concluded that chemical waste pollution there may be interfering with the reproductive systems of turtles in the area. This is of even more concern since these same pollutants have contaminated the groundwater which is used by the local population...Read More »
Tetra Tech Wins Contract with Coast Guard Valued at Up To $80 Million
Tetra Tech, Inc. has won a purchase agreement to provide up to $80 million of environmental services to the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the next five years. Tetra Tech has served the USCG for the last 13 years, but this agreement is the first with USCG headquarters...Read More »
Budget Waste Acquires Able Machine Shop
Budget Waste Inc., which provides waste and recycling services in Western Canada, is buying Able Machine Shop Ltd., which produces waste equipment, containers, fencing, etc. Budget expects bringing these services in house to reduce its costs and facilitate company expansion into new markets...Read More »
Converted Organics Inc. Begins Trading on the Nasdaq
Food waste recycling company Converted Organics Inc. (Nasdaq: COIN) recently completed its initial public offering to become a public company. The company produces a high quality natural soil amendment and fertilizer through food waste recycling in a state-of-the-art process that contains odors, thus making it more appealing to communities who would host such sites. Food waste is a relatively untapped frontier in recycling since an estimated 26 million tons are generated in the US every year while less than 3% of it is recycled...Read More »
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