The World's Top 15 Biggest Waste Management Companies
Biggest Waste Management Companies
The platform “Insider Monkey” ranked the biggest companies worldwide whose main business is recycling. The rankings are based on each company’s average annual revenue, and where available, the actual financial statements were converted to USD as a standard metric for foreign companies.
15. Bingo Industries Limited
Revenue 2019: $398 million · Total income: $51 million · Total assets: $398 million · Employees: 1,020.
Based in New South Wales, Australia, Bingo Industries is a waste management and recycling company founded in 2005. It was founded and is headed by the Tartak Family, with Daniel Tartak as CEO. The company operates residential and commercial recycling and waste services as well as bin manufacturing through its subsidiaries.
14. Casella Waste Systems, Inc.
Revenue 2019: $743 million.
Casella (CWST) ranks 14th on the list of the biggest recycling companies in the world. Headquartered in Vermont with at least 2,300 employees, it is one of the older companies on this list, founded back in 1975, and is considered a vertically integrated waste management and recycling company. It has acquired a market capitalization of at least $3 billion.
13. US Ecology, Inc.
Revenue 2019: $1,051 million.
US Ecology proclaims to be an industry leader in environmental services, and its revenue seems to back that up. The company offers proper disposal of hazardous, non-hazardous, and even radioactive waste — and not only treats the waste but also works on recycling it.
12. Recology (Private)
Revenue 2019: $1,300 million.
This Californian company is headquartered in San Francisco and offers a range of services including waste management and reclaiming usable materials, while also operating several landfills.
11. Biffa plc
Revenue 2019: $1,484 million · Total income: $70 million · Total assets: $1,564 million · Employees: 6,000.
Biffa ranks 11th on the list of the biggest recycling companies in the world. Based in High Wycombe, United Kingdom, Biffa was founded in 1912. The company provides collection, landfill, recycling, and special waste services to local authorities and industrial and commercial clients, and is the UK’s second-largest waste management company as of 2017, generating annual revenue of $1.4 billion.
10. Cleanaway Waste Management Limited
Revenue 2019: $1,819 million · Total income: $88 million · Total assets: $3,518 million · Employees: 6,000+.
This Australian waste management company is headquartered in Melbourne, founded in 1979, and generates yearly revenue of $2.1 billion. It has over 250 branches across Australia, employs more than 6,000 people, and operates over 5,300 trucks.
9. Covanta Energy Corporation
Revenue 2019: $1,870 million · Total income: $10 million · Total assets: $3,715 million · Employees: 4,000.
Covanta (CVA) ranks 9th on the list of the biggest recycling companies in the world. Founded in 1939 in New Jersey, it provides energy-from-waste conversion and industrial waste management. The company charges a fee for waste disposal, sells the electricity produced in the process, and recovers metal for recycling, generating annual revenue of $1.8 billion.
8. Renewi plc
Revenue 2019: $2,415 million · Total income: −$95 million · Total assets: $2,883 million · Employees: 6,800.
Founded in 1880, Renewi plc is headquartered in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. This leading European waste management company primarily operates in the Benelux region. Originally founded as a construction company in the west of Scotland, it became a waste management company in the mid-1990s, generating annual revenue of $2.1 billion.
7. Stericycle, Inc.
Revenue 2019: $3,309 million · Total income: −$300 million · Total assets: $6,437 million · Employees: 23,200.
Stericycle (SRCL) ranks 7th on the list of the biggest recycling companies in the world. Headquartered in Illinois and founded in 1989, the company is one of the few recycling companies on this list to have made a loss in 2019 — and we will have to wait for the 2020 annual report to see if it maneuvered one of the most difficult years in history.
6. GFL Environmental Inc.
Revenue 2019: $3,347 million.
GFL Environmental is one of the biggest Canadian recycling companies, founded just 14 years ago in 2007. According to its 20-F filing, “GFL is the fourth largest diversified environmental services company in North America, with operations throughout Canada and in 27 states in the United States, and more than 15,000 employees as of December 31, 2020.”
5. Clean Harbors, Inc.
Revenue 2019: $3,412 million · Total income: $111 million · Total assets: $4,109 million · Employees: 14,400.
Founded in 1980, Clean Harbors is a provider of environmental, energy, and industrial services, including hazardous waste disposal for companies, small waste generators, and federal, state, provincial and local governments. It has over 400 service locations throughout North America, Canada and Puerto Rico, generating yearly revenue of $3.4 billion.
4. Waste Connections, Inc.
Revenue 2019: $5,389 million · Total income: $566 million · Total assets: $13,738 million · Employees: 16,000.
Waste Connections (NYSE: WCN) was founded in 1997 in Texas. The company provides waste collection, transfer, disposal, and recycling services, primarily of solid waste. Its headquarters are in The Woodlands, Texas and Vaughan, Ontario. It is one of North America’s third-largest waste management companies, generating yearly revenue of $4.92 billion.
3. Republic Services, Inc.
Revenue 2019: $10,299 million · Total income: $1,073 million · Total assets: $22,684 million · Employees: 36,000.
The second-largest recycling company in the United States, Republic Services (NYSE: RSG) is based in Arizona. Its services include non-hazardous solid waste collection, transfer, disposal, recycling, and energy services, generating an average of $9.4 billion per year.
2. Veolia Environmental Services (Private)
Revenue 2019: $12,505 million · Total income: $328 million · Total assets: $18,867 million · Employees: 179,000.
With $29 billion in yearly revenue, Veolia Environmental makes the list of the biggest recycling companies in the world. Founded in 1853 and headquartered in Paris, France, Veolia provides management, treatment, and disposal of waste, in addition to the recycling, reclamation and re-use of waste products. The company has a presence in 35 countries and employs nearly 70,000 people.
1. Waste Management, Inc.
Revenue 2019: $15,455 million · Total income: $1,749 million · Total assets: $27,743 million · Employees: 44,900.
Waste Management tops the list of the biggest recycling companies in the world. Founded in 1968 in Chicago and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Waste Management (NYSE: WM) is North America’s comprehensive waste and environmental services company. It operates 293 active landfill disposals and 146 recycling plants, as well as 111 beneficial-use landfill gas projects and six independent power production plants, generating annual revenue of $14.48 billion.
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