Waste Management, Inc

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Waste Management, Inc. (WM; NYSE: WMI) is a leading American company in the field of waste management. The Chief Executive Officer is David P. Steiner. The President and Chief Operating Officer is Lawrence O’Donnell, III. WM employed approx 50,000 people as of December 31, 2005 ^[1].

Waste Management, Inc. is the leading provider of comprehensive waste and environmental services in North America. Headquartered in Houston, the company's network of operations includes 413 collection operations, 370 transfer stations, 283 active landfill disposal sites, 17 waste-to-energy plants, 131 recycling plants, 95 beneficial-use landfill gas projects and 6 independent power production plants.^{[citation needed]} These assets enable Waste Management to offer a full range of environmental services to nearly 21 million residential, industrial, municipal and commercial customers in the 48 contiguous United States, Alaska, Canada, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. With 22,000 collection and transfer vehicles, the company has the largest trucking fleet in the waste industry.

[edit] History

In the 1800s, Harm Huizenga, a Dutch immigrant, began hauling garbage at $1.25/wagon in Chicago. In 1968, Wayne Huizenga, Dean Buntrock, and Larry Beck founded Waste Management, Inc. and began aggressively purchasing many of the smaller garbage collection services across the country. In 1971, Waste Management went public, and by 1972, the company had made 133 acquisitions with $82M in revenue. It had 60,000 commercial and industrial accounts and 600,000 residential customers in 19 states and the province of Ontario. In the 1980s, WM acquired Service Corp of America (SCA) to become the largest waste hauler in the country.

In 1998, in a pivotal development point, WM merged with USA Waste and moved its headquarters from Chicago to Houston. The merged companies retained the WM brand.

In mid-1998, an accounting scandal led to a major stock price drop and the replacement of top executives when the new CEO ordered a review of the company's accounting practices. The company had augmented the depreciation time length for their PP&E, making their after-tax profits appear higher. The net result was $1.7B in inflated earnings. WM paid $457M to settle a shareholder class-action suit and the SEC fined WM's independent auditor, Arthur Andersen, $7 million for their role.^{[citation needed]}

In November 1999, turn-around CEO Maury Myers was brought in to help Waste Management recover. The company has since implemented new technologies, safety standards, and operational practices, and is on a steady upward climb.

As of 2006, the company had generated $1 billion in free cash and was returning profits to shareholders in the form of dividends.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Marketing

WMI used aggressive marketing to try to turn the company around in the 1990s, with slogans like: “What business do we have saying we help the environment? That is our business.“ and "Waste Management, helping the world dispose of its problems." The current slogan is “From everyday collection, to environmental protection, think green. Think Waste Management.“

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Form 10-K Part I, Item 1. http://www.wm.com/wm/investor/subscriptions/2005/2005Annual_with_10k.pdf

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Wheelabrator Technologies Canadian Subsidiary