Waste Management Issues Interactive Sustainability Report
Waste Management recycled and composted more than 14 million tons of materials from the waste stream in 2015 and operated more than 5,100 natural gas-fueled vehicles.
Houston-based Waste Management released its 2016 Sustainability Report on Dec. 14. Besides being the company's first-ever interactive report, the "Leading Change" document highlights WM's progress toward making recycling sustainable, reducing its greenhouse gas footprint, keeping employees and communities safe, and giving back to the communities it serves.
President and CEO Jim Fish highlights in the report WM's focus on making recycling sustainable over the long term. "It's time for recycling to evolve. We've started to see progress on this front, and steady progress is what we need—for the good times and the bad," he said. "When we encounter roadblocks like those we've seen in our recycling business over the past few years, we see our role as leading change to overcome them."
Highlights of the report include:
- Waste Management recycled and composted more than 14 million tons of materials from the waste stream in 2015.
- As a company, Waste Management is a net greenhouse gas reducer. In 2015, its GHG-reducing services (recycling, landfill renewable natural gas projects, landfill gas-to-energy projects, and carbon sequestration in landfills) saved more than three times the total greenhouse gas emissions its operations generated all year.
- In 2015, the company operated more than 5,100 natural gas vehicles and says this is the largest fleet of its kind in North America.
- WM uses technology at landfill-gas-to-energy facilities to power the equivalent of 470,000 households, offsetting 2.5 million tons of coal per year and 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
- By working with "myriad businesses and organizations," Waste Management helped create customized solutions that lower waste production, increase reuse, and improve the recyclability of products.
The report's contents were prepared in accordance with the core application level of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines.