Waste Management : A Company

Waste Management Inc. (“WM”) is a company in North America currently headquartered in Houston, Texas. WM is a company that provides waste management and environmental services such as recycling and groundwater protection to residents and municipalities of the U.S. and Canada. The company was originally founded by Larry Beck, Wayne Huizenga, and Dean Buntrock in 1968. In 1971, WM went on to become a publicly traded company and in the following year went on to acquire 133 smaller waste companies and made $82 million in revenue (The Waste Management, Inc., 2017). This effectively made them one of the largest waste hauling company in the country. Currently WM is the “largest environmental solutions provider in North America” and boast over 20 million customers in the U.S. and Canada.

Municipal solid wastes are leftovers made by the population such as food, plastic bottles, household wares and many more. These items referred by most as “the garage” or “trash”. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2015) In the early 1900’s, incinerators were used to burn waste however by the Mid-20th century, lawmakers enacted the first government regulations in an attempt to address increasing concerns about the environmental impact of unregulated waste management practices. With the first waste management legislation being passed in 1965, brought along the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, thus bringing us into a new world of waste management.(Vault, n.d.)

Municipal waste includes solid waste generated by households and commercial establishments and then collected by government authorities. Mainly it is due to waste by street cleaning, landscaping, from recreational areas and wastewater treatment plants. It is made up of residual waste, bulky waste and litter collections.

Waste Management Inc. is a publicly traded for profit waste management company and is one of the largest waste collection corporation in North America. It owns 252 landfill sites and has over 39,000 employees. The waste management scandal was one of the largest accounting frauds we have seen. In 2002 there was lawsuit that was brought against the founders of the waste management Inc. which charged them with a huge financial fraud that lasted for about five years which took place between 1992 and 1997. During this scandal Waste Management was accused of increasing profits by $1.7 billion dollars, gaining almost $29 million from annual bonuses and insider trader.

The American people can be easily swayed into buying whatever they are told, and throwing away anything it replaces. This fatal flaw in society is proved by Vance Packard in his book “The Waste Makers”. He tells how corporations tricked the American public into living a wasteful life where they use something once and throw it away. A concept that had previously been unconceivable, but now was the way of living. He also proves how people had succumbed to buying things for convenience alone and nothing more. These companies did anything in their power to trick the consumer and improve their profit margins. Sometimes to their own dismay they would over sell their products and hurt themselves. Then immediately trick the public into believing another lie. Packard’s findings on the wastefulness of the American economy is irrefutable and unequivocal.

This is further broken down into policy, strategy and plans. One notable company written about in the book was Waste Management Incorporated. The CEO, David Steiner, is praised for his work in the landfill industry and the management of millions of tons the company handles in waste. The management, however, is not meeting its full potential in recycling. The emphasis is put on the high cost of recycling some materials but does not compare this to the multibillion dollar cost of incineration; capital, bond debt, high operating costs. The resources needed to run these companies include funding, workers, land sites, time, energy and

The article Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Ontario Waste Management Industry by Maria Kelleher, Christina Seidel, and Ralph Torrie, examined cap and trade policies for greenhouse gases and waste management systems in Ontario, Canada. The authors purpose was to summarize the connections between Ontario’s waste management industry and greenhouse gas emissions, as wells as to identify and explore opportunities and challenges associated with GHG cap and trade systems in industries (Kelleher, Seidel, & Torrie, 2015). A cap and trade policy for GHGs is in preparation for implantation in Ontario. The waste management industry influences GHGs in a variety of ways. Some of these influences include

The waste water management industry is experiencing significant growth around the world and expected to be worth $348 billion by 2010. The opportunities in North America are growing due to rising population, government regulations

The author gives a historical analysis on the management of waste in the United States shifting from a historical description to an analysis of the general influence of political and economic forces that shape the way we manage waste today. Throughout most of history, recycling has primarily occurred as a result of a scarcity of material. This becomes clear in the first chapter where the author talks about how the availability of pulpwood and rags was extremely low due to war outcome, therefore the government called upon the citizens to supply old rags in exchange of other goods. These are the first steps of recycling in the United States. The author explains that first the word “recirculate” was used to describe the recirculation of water

For a great majority of the households in America, one universal item that is found in almost every home is a trashcan lined with a white or black drawstring bag. Americans use billions of these trash bags each year, disposing of food and other waste. Often times, an average family will go through three to four of these bags each week. While there is nothing initially puzzling about the use of garbage bags, it does call into question why a rival product that is cheaper and reusable has yet to catch on in American markets. After all, more and more Americans are turning to “greener” lifestyles, seeking to reduce their environmental footprint while simultaneously cutting back on unnecessary expenses.

The waste crisis is a battle that we must all face and conquer systematically to protect our health and well-being. Billions of dollars spent yearly to dispose of trash that Americans create and has become a financial burden on our economy. Yearly, the waste increases rapidly and pollution affects the rivers drains that cause floods, and the air becomes poisoned by the toxic trash.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is all of the garbage, refuse, trash, or junk that gets thrown away from homes and small businesses. All of this MSW is collected and taken away. Have you ever wondered where it goes? In the 1950s and 60s, it went to open dumps. In the 1970s, landfills were established, but there were problems, and today there is new legislation and technology to better manage this waste.

A.O. Coaker ,C.G.Achi, M.K.C. Sridhor, C.J.Donnett(2015) studied the current institutional solid waste management in a Nigerian private institution of higher learning. Using key informant as interview and personal field observations, the waste generation rate, pattern and characterization was made. It was concluded that if all the organic waste streams from the kitchens ,canteens and animal house are utilized for the bioenergy and organic fertilizer and non-biodegradables can be sold in the secondary market and considerable amount of wealth can be recovered

Waste Management, Inc., incorporated in 1968, had become a leader in the industry of waste management services ranging from industrial operations to curbside collection. This company had become synonymous with many different kinds of disposal services that allowed for the company to grow and grow with a solid base over the course of twenty-eight years. Finally in 1996, the company reported total assets of almost $20 billion with net income close to $200 million. However, even with this growth and solid base, the company was feeling competitive pressures and net income was on the decline.

Waste disposal is either disposing our wastes in water, on land, or anywhere. Waste is usually managed where it can prevent the releasing of pollutants in our environment. Before disposing our wastes, it is a must that they may be classified according to its physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. By classifying them according to consistency is the major way of classification; whether it is a liquid waste, a solid waste, or sludge. Liquid wastes must be less than 1% solid. On the other hand, solid wastes must contain less than 70% water. Sludge is another classification of waste materials; being somewhere in between a liquid and a solid. It must contain 3 and 25% solid and the rest is made up of water.