Waste Management Profits up 26 Percent
Waste Management posted fourth quarter profits that rose by 26% to $309 million, or $0.61 per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31, versus $246 million, or $0.46 per share, a year earlier. Even without the help of tax benefits and some asset sales, earnings would have risen to $276 million, or $0.54 per share. These earnings were buoyed by revenue that increased to $3.36 billion from $3.28 billion in the year-ago period. The revenue gains came despite a 3.8% drop in waste volumes and evidence a healthy pricing environment and market discipline by the company. Continuing this trend, the company forecast 2008 earnings to between $2.19 and $2.23 per share. They also expect to spend up to $870 million on share repurchases and will pay dividends of about $1.08 per share in 2008...Read More »
Allied Waste 4th-Quarter Profit Surges despite Slowdown
Fourth quarter and year-end revenues and profits were up substantially for Allied Waste despite slight declines in volume related to the economy. Allied earned $115.3 million or $0.26 per share in the quarter compared to $9.8 million, or less than a $0.01, for the same quarter in 2006. The recent quarter's results included a tax benefit of $0.03 per share, while the 2006 quarter include charges totaling $0.17 per share stemming from tax related matters, divestitures and asset impairments. Revenues rose by 3.7% to $1.52 billion from $1.47 billion in last year's fourth quarter. Driving these revenues were 5.7% average price increases which offset a 3.8% decrease in volumes related to the continued economic slow down. For the full year, Allied earned $273.6 million, or $0.63 per share, compared with $160.9 million, or $0.33 per share, in 2006. Revenue rose to $6.07 billion from $5.91 billion...Read More »
Georgia-Pacific Invests $50 Million in New Paper Recycling System
Georgia-Pacific is investing $50 million in a new paper recycling system at its Broadway mill in Green Bay, WI. The new technology is expected to reduce water use by up to 1 million gallons per day and greatly improve energy efficiency. It replaces and augments systems built as early as the 1950's and should be fully operational by 2009. The Broadway mill uses 475,000 tons of recycled paper each year to make new products. Georgia-Pacific is a subsidiary of Wichita-based Koch Industries Inc...Read More »
CSX Corp. Spent $3.2 Million in 2007 to Lobby Congress
The Associated Press reports that CSX Corp. spent $3.2 million in 2007 to lobby on legislation related to rail security, renewable energy and investments. Among other issues, CSX lobbied on bills designed to establish a federal renewable energy portfolio standard for certain utilities, to exclude solid waste disposal from the jurisdiction of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and to create incentives for investments to expand freight rail infrastructure capacity. The major railroads have been concerned that the rail-waste exemption issue could affect the STB's exclusive jurisdiction of the rail system...Read More »
Mayor Bloomberg Vows to Veto City Council E-waste Law
The Associated Press reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he will veto a bill by the City Council that requires electronics manufacturers to be in charge of recycling their products, and he plans not to enforce such a law if the veto is overridden. The council's measure is in line with similar measures employed by a number of states to address the rising tide of electronics wastes, many of which contain toxic elements, entering the waste stream. New York City disposes more than 25,000 tons of electronic waste each year. Bloomberg agrees that e-waste is an environmental concern but disagrees with the producer responsibility approach which he likens to the idea of requiring publishers to be responsible for whether their readers recycle newspapers. The recently passed law would require manufacturers to submit electronic waste recycling plans beginning this year, and to start collecting products in next year. They would have to demonstrate that they were collecting and recyclinga certain portion of discarded electronics each year, equal to a percentage of their average annual sales, as measured by weight...Read More »
CBS Corp. to Pay $31 Million to Cleanup Six Bloomington, Ind. Superfund Sites
CBS Corp., whose predecessor Westinghouse Electric Corp. operated an electrical capacitor production facility in Bloomington, Ind., agreed to pay $31.35 million to resolve all outstanding liability related to the cleanup of six Superfund sites there...Read More »
Sims Recycling Acquires Canadian Electronics Recycler
Metal recycling giant Sims Group recently purchased Canadian electronics recycler Accu-Shred Ltd. The purchase should add to the economies-of-scale of Sims Recycling Solutions' five other North American operations which at present, collectively handle about 200 million pounds annually. Those other facilities are in Los Angeles, Hayward, Calif., Roseville, Calif., Nashville, Tenn., and Chicago...Read More »
Waste Industries Plans to Install High-Performance Oil Filtration Systems
Waste Industries USA, Inc. has begun installing Cleantechnics branded bypass oil filtration systems in some of its trucks and heavy equipment with plans to eventually outfit the entire fleet. "The CTI filtration system was ideal for our situation," said David Peck, Fleet Manager for Waste Industries. "We were seeking a way to reduce our carbon footprint in keeping with our corporate philosophy, but we also wanted to reduce our fleet's operating costs."...Read More »
NSWMA will Employ MPRI to Create Waste Training Simulator
The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) has hired MPRI, a simulator development company, to create a refuse truck simulation program. NSWMA, working under an OSHA grant, is developing the Simulator as a valuable training tool that will provide drivers the opportunity to practice complex driving scenarios in a risk-free environment...Read More »
Veolia Wins Partial Approval for Clarion County PA Transfer Station
Veolia ES Solid Waste won partial approval from the Pennsylvania DEP to build a 350-ton per day transfer station in Paint Township of Clarion County, PA. The DEP concluded that the benefits of the site which would have a maximum daily volume of 500 tons per day, outweigh the known and potential harms. The proposed location is the site of a former heavy equipment maintenance facility...Read More »
Company to Lease Recycling Facility to Feed its RDF Plant
Manitoba Canada-based Outlook Resources Inc. will lease BFI Canada's Prairie Green Road Recycling Facility to guarantee feedstock for its subsidiary - Prairie Bio Energy's Biomass fuel cubing operation. Prairie Bio Energy is developing a 400 ton per day operation to process solid waste materials in the form of wood, cardboard and paper wastes into fuel commonly known as Biomass-fuel or Refuse-Derived-Fuel. The resulting operation should be able to handle a variety of industrial and agricultural processing wastes and by-products...Read More »
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