Major publicly traded waste companies spent an estimated $10.9 billion on acquisitions in 2024. This surpassed nearly $4.2 billion spent in 2023, largely due to WM’s major purchase of Stericycle.

The totals include spending reported by WM, Republic Services, Waste Connections, GFL Environmental and Casella Waste Systems. Republic and GFL Environmental had quieter years than normal, while Casella and Waste Connections focused on a mix deals to both solidify their footprints and break into new markets.  

Below is a recap of M&A activity for the industry’s five largest public companies along with executives’ insights from recent earnings calls about what’s to come in 2025.

Spending totals are net of cash acquired, with some variation in methodology among companies.

*GFL figures converted from Canadian to U.S. dollars for comparison purposes, based on March 3 exchange rate.

Recaps and outlooks

WM

WM’s most notable acquisition of Q4 — and of 2024 — was its $7.2 billion acquisition of medical waste services company Stericycle. That deal is expected to bring in synergies of about $250 million over a three-year period, with about $100 million of that in 2025. During the company’s Q4 earnings call, executives said that estimate is double what they’d previously expected.

In addition to the acquisition of Stericycle, the company invested about $800 million in acquisitions in 2024, mainly for solid waste businesses through tuck-in acquisitions. One notable deal was the acquisition of Winter Bros. Waste Systems in New York. Others included small hauler and transfer station deals in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Minnesota. Those deals contributed about $150 million of revenue growth in 2024, according to CFO Devina Rankin. 

In Q4, WM also acquired the remaining minority interest in Natura PCR for $41 million, according to filings. WM previously acquired a controlling stake in the company, then called Avangard Innovative, in 2022.

WM noted about $2.92 million in gross annualized revenue from 2024 acquisitions. It expects to invest between $100 million to $200 million in more solid waste acquisitions this year.

Republic Services

Republic Services ended 2024 quietly with few acquisitions. The only publicly verified deal in the fourth quarter was for Aces Waste Services, a commercial and residential hauler that owns transfer stations in California. 

The company also revealed that it acquired a non-controlling equity interest in a Canadian facility used to treat and recycle contaminated soil, hazardous and nonhazardous wastes and contaminated water. It reported investing $27 million in the joint venture.

CEO Jon Vander Ark said during the company’s earnings call that Republic paused a lot of investment in environmental services acquisitions in 2024 as it worked to integrate US Ecology into its business. With those processes near completion, he expects Republic will be more active in that sector moving forward.

The company expects to ramp up acquisitions in 2025 and spend up to $1 billion over the full year. Most of that total was already spent on the acquisition of Shamrock Environmental, which Republic announced the day after its earnings call. Shamrock specializes in industrial waste and wastewater treatment services.

Waste Connections

Waste Connections completed 24 acquisitions in 2024, up from the 13 it completed in 2023. 

These deals were a mix of “new market entries” as well as tuck-ins, said CEO Ron Mittelstaedt. He touted the “record levels” of 2024 acquisition activity as representing about $750 million in annualized revenues. 

2024 acquisition highlights included the acquisition of Royal Waste Services in New York City, where Waste Connections is one of the largest contractors in a commercial waste zone system. Waste Connections also acquired certain assets from Waste-Away in Indiana, expanding its presence in that state, as well as about 30 energy waste treatment and disposal facilities from Secure Energy Services in Canada.

Other deals included Amador Valley Industries in California, as well as other deals elsewhere in California, Washington and Ontario, Canada. 

Looking into 2025, Mittelstaedt said the company has either already closed or is expected to close acquisitions worth over $75 million in annualized revenue during Q2. Those deals could bring in an expected revenue contribution of over over $300 million, he said. 

GFL Environmental

GFL had a quieter year than usual for M&A as it focused on reducing its debt leverage and finalizing a transaction to sell a stake in its environmental services business to affiliates of Apollo and BC Partners, which closed March 1. The company also reported $86 million in divestiture proceeds, including the sale of certain Michigan assets to Priority Waste.

During 2024, GFL completed 11 tuck-in acquisitions within its existing footprint. These were all smaller deals, with the exception of the vertically integrated C&D business Angelo’s Recycled Materials in Florida.

Looking ahead, CEO Patrick Dovigi previewed that the company would be “getting back to a normal year” on the M&A front. This could mean spending anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion (Canadian) on transactions. 

“It's going to be a combination of U.S. and Canada,” said Dovigi during the company’s earnings call, adding that the goal is to “densify existing markets where we already own a substantial amount of post-collection assets.”

Casella Waste Systems

Casella acquired eight businesses in 2024, including two in Q4. These deals represent over $200 million of annualized revenues, CEO John Casella said. The company has focused this year on densifying its mid-Atlantic operations through its acquisitions of Whitetail Disposal and LMR Disposal over the summer, as well as expanding operations into New York’s Hudson Valley region with its Royal Carting and Welsh Sanitation acquisitions in September. It also completed a few tuck-in acquisitions. 

Casella has already acquired three businesses in 2025 with about $40 million of annualized revenues, which cover service areas in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. That Massachusetts deal was the acquisition of Boston recycler Save That Stuff. 

Continuing into the year, President Ned Coletta said the company’s pipeline is “very active” with 100 potential deals representing about $700 million in revenue.