Waste Management, Inc - Recycling

Recycling

Waste Management is North America’s largest residential recycler, currently managing more than 8.5 million tons of materials, including metal, plastic, glass, electronics and paper at 128 facilities.

One service provided by Waste Management, single-stream recycling, allows recyclable materials to be comingled, rather than separated by the customer and handled separately by the collection provider. The company currently operates 30 single-stream recycling facilities throughout North America. Because the single-stream recycling process eliminates the need for customers to separate items before they are collected, it usually leads to higher recycling participation rates in local communities.

Electronics recycling, or ecycling, is another focus for Waste Management. This refers to the proper disposal of electronic items like televisions, computers, microwave ovens, cellular phones, VCRs and DVDs and other such products. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encourages consumers to reuse and recycle these valuable products to keep them out of the waste stream. With this in mind, Waste Management has partnered with several companies, like LG Electronics, to recycle electronics for reprocessing.

The company operates approximately 150 e-cycling centers throughout the country through its subsidiary, WM Recycle America. It January 2010, the company announced that WM Recycle America was implementing the Responsible Recycling (R2) Program for electronics recyclers, which establishes accepted practices to help protect the environment and workers’ health and safety while e-waste is handled. In addition these practices allow third parties to monitor activity and create greater transparency in the e-cycling sector.

Waste Management has also invested in new methods and technologies for reusing and recycling non-traditional materials, such as organic waste and construction debris. In 2010, Waste Management announced two strategic investments to advance recycling technologies in North America:

• In January 2010, Waste Management announced it would fund Boston-area company Harvest Power, which specializes in turning food and yard waste into compost. Harvest Power is also working to develop anaerobic digester technology that uses waste to create a biogas, which can produce electricity, heat or be converted to natural gas.

• In May 2010, Waste Management announced its investment in MicroGREEN Polymers Inc., which specializes in reducing the amount plastic required for production of consumer products, like plastic bottles.

In June 2009, Waste Management signed an agreement with BigBelly Solar to be the sole waste company distributor of BigBelly’s technology in North America. BigBelly compactors are self-powered by built-in solar panels and are capable of holding 180 gallons of waste. The compactors decrease the need for trash pickup by 80 percent, which reduces production costs, fuel use, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Waste Management Solar Compactors became a staple at the Waste Management Phoenix Open; the company replaced FBR as the title sponsor of this PGA TOUR tournament in December 2009. As title sponsor, Waste Management introduced a variety of technologies to make the Phoenix Open one of the most eco-friendly tournaments on the PGA TOUR. Waste Management has been working with other sports and music venues across the nation to increase recycling among patrons. It teamed up with Live Nation to forward the Recycling Rocks! campaign across the U.S.

Additionally, through its subsidiaries GreenOps, LLC and Greenopolis, Waste Management partnered with PepsiCo to develop the Dream Machine recycling initiative to increase beverage container recycling throughout the U.S. Dream Machine kiosks are computerized recycling receptacles that include a personal reward system that allows users to accumulate and redeem points for every item they recycle at www.greenopolis.com.