Dive Brief:

• Waste Management Inc. will sell Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., a group of waste-to-energy facilities and power plants that convert solid waste into energy. Energy Capital Partners will purchase the group for $1.94 billion.
• The waste and recycling giant says it anticipates using the net proceeds from the sale for acquisitions surrounding its core business, stock buybacks and debt repayment.
• The company has been reducing expenditures to counteract still-weak recycling and waste-to-energy pricing, and dropping start-ups that are determined to be too costly to manage.

Dive Insight:

Waste Management released its second quarter results for 2014, which showed a drop in profits from the same time period in 2013. Second quarter profits for 2014 were $210 million, down from $244 million last year. Revenue grew by 1% to $3.56 billion. The company attributed the loss to the selling off of its interests in Puerto Rico.