Advanced Disposal Takes Over Management of Interstate Waste
Advanced Disposal Services, Inc., following the announcement of its acquisition of Veolia, is beginning to take steps to consolidate its management of the newly merged entities. This week the company officially took over managerial and financial control of its sister company Interstate Waste Services which is also owned by Highstar Capital. Until now, both companies had operated independently. In July, Highstar bought Veolia's US waste business for $1.91 billion to create a combined company operating as Advanced Disposal with $1.4 billion in annual revenue. Last week the company named its management team with Charles Appleby, currently president and CEO of Advanced Disposal to serve as chairman and CEO, and Richard Burke, currently Veolia's president and CEO, to serve as president.
Combining the management operations of the three previously separate businesses is an important step towards achieving operational efficiencies. Ultimately, the company will seek to combine the collection and processing operations in the northeast and southeast where there is some overlap to internalize more of the waste it collects to its own landfills and move waste in the most efficient manner possible from collection to processing and disposal.
Following the Veolia closing, the newly consolidated Advanced Disposal will serve more than 1.8 million residential customers and more than 200,000 commercial and industrial customers in 20 states and the Bahamas as the largest privately held waste and recycling business in the US...Read More »
Advanced Disposal Considers Four Cities for Headquarters
Advanced Disposal Services, Inc. (Jacksonville, FL) is courting four different cities as it considers where to locate its corporate headquarters following its recent acquisition of Veolia. These include Milwaukee, WI, headquarters to Veolia's US operations, Jacksonville, FL, Advanced Disposal's current headquarters, Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC. To accommodate the merger, the company is seeking about 25,000 square feet of office space for about 120 to 135 workers.
Milwaukee has emerged as a leading candidate since it would minimize job losses related to relocating and has an existing 25,000-square-foot space already occupied by 59 Veolia workers. The Jacksonville location hosts 37 employees in a 12,000-square-foot space. It also boasts a slightly warmer climate. Of course, financial incentives offered by the cities themselves are bound to factor into the decision...Read More »
Casella Earnings Down on Lower Commodity Prices and Volume
Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (Rutland, VT) said declining recycling prices and lower special waste volume contributed to a wider loss in its fiscal first quarter. Its net loss increased to $8.4 million or $0.31 per share from $3.1 million or $0.12 per share a year earlier. Revenue in the quarter declined by $6 million or 4.7 percent to $121.2 million from $127.2 million last year.
"Weakness in the roll-off collection line-of-business offset much of gains we had in the residential and commercial lines-of-business," said CEO John W. Casella. He also noted that recycling commodity prices continued to weaken and that special waste volumes into the company's western New York landfills had declined as a consequence of less drilling for Marcellus Shale in that area. He also said that cost-cutting steps announced last month would eliminate $6.5 million of annualized costs and position the company "to leverage a lower cost structure as cyclical revenues return in the future."
The company is selling its Maine Energy Recovery Facility in Biddeford, ME for which it has already taken a fourth quarter non-cash impairment charge in anticipation of the deal that is expected to close by December...Read More »
Judge Orders Harrisburg to Suspend Incinerator Debt Payments
A Pennsylvania judge ordered the City of Harrisburg, PA, which has been teetering on bankruptcy, to suspend debt service payments on its troubled incinerator and to raise taxes by 1 percentage point. Commonwealth Court Judge Bonnie Leadbetter ruled in favor of the state-appointed receiver William Lynch who included the tax provision in his recovery plan for the city that is burdened with $320 million of debt related to the incinerator. In June he invited the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority to begin negotiations to buy the incinerator for about $124 million. Judge Leadbetter's ruling breaks a deadlock between the city council, which opposed the tax, and the state's receiver and the city's mayor. However, the ruling restricts revenue from the tax increase to pay only for essential city services...Read More »
Aluminum Can Most Recycled Container Ever
The recycling rate for aluminum cans jumped 7 percent to 65.1 percent in 2011 from 58.1 percent in 2010. In other words, 61 billion cans were recycled last year. That is according to the latest statistics from the Aluminum Association, Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) and Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) that are collectively celebrating progress towards an industry goal of a 75 percent recycling rate. Aluminum cans are the most recycled beverage container in the US, a rate that is more than double that of any other beverage container.
A large part of the increase was driven by a 25 percent higher import rate of used beverage containers, especially from Mexico and Canada, as the higher value of aluminum drove the economic incentive to recycle.
"Cans are an obvious green packaging choice because it takes 95 percent less energy to produce a can from recycled material, resulting in significant energy, emissions and resource savings. The amount of energy saved just from recycling cans in 2011 is equal to the energy equivalent of over 17 million barrels of crude oil," said the Association's Can Committee Chair, Allison Buchanan of Alcoa. She said that is the same amount of energy necessary to power 1 million vehicles on the road for 12 months or what it takes to produce the 29 billion plastic water bottles consumed in the US each year...Read More »
Arizona County Seeks Partner for One of Nation's Largest Landfills
La Paz County, AZ is seeking a company to operate its large 160-acre desert landfill near the California border and about 15 miles south of Parker. The Subtitle-D landfill has a permitted capacity of 24 million tons but could be expanded by an additional 75 million tons if the county develops another 480 acres of contiguous land that it already controls. Moreover, the landfill has no daily tonnage limits and is accessible via Interstate 10 and the BNSF Railway and Rail America to a 2,400-foot rail siding six miles to the north. Historically, the site has received both municipal solid waste and special waste streams from California. The site is about 300 miles east of Los Angeles.
La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin said they are seeking proposals from "financially capable waste operators that will recognize the unique economic advantages of the site and align interests in a public-private partnership to maximize revenues to both parties from its operations."...Read More »
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