GFL Environmental has acquired Angelo's Recycled Materials, a Florida-based company with multiple transfer stations and a C&D landfill in Dade City.

An operations manager with GFL announced the deal had closed on LinkedIn. Representatives from the two companies have not responded to requests for additional comment.

The deal adds capacity for GFL in a growing market. CEO Patrick Dovigi told investors during the company’s Q4 earnings call in February that GFL was closing an acquisition of a "medium-sized" company in the Southeast U.S. At the time, Dovigi said the deal would constitute about half of the company's total spending on mergers and acquisitions for the year, projected at $600 million to $650 million (Canadian). Dovigi described the company as a “great family business” on the call.

“We like the markets around it a lot and we think over time, it’ll just fill in an area where we would like to be,” Dovigi said. “These opportunities don’t come along sort of every day and I think we were very well positioned, both from a relationship perspective with the seller as well as being able to get through the DOJ regulatory process in relatively short order.”

Angelo's operates a Class III C&D landfill in Dade City, which is part of Pasco County. It also takes in storm debris and yard waste, and it received an air permit in 2022 to continue operating an air curtain incinerator capable of processing 30 tons per hour of wood waste or equivalent. The incinerator is authorized to burn clean wood waste only, according to permitting documents.

Angelo's had previously attempted to permit a MSW landfill adjacent to its C&D facility that could eventually span 1,000 acres, the Tampa Bay Times reported in 2012. But after some debate, Pasco County county voted to extend its contract with Covanta for its waste-to-energy facility instead the following year. Last year, the county approved a $550 million expansion of the WTE facility through an agreement with Covanta, which is expected to add 515 tons of daily capacity.

Angelo's lists seven facilities on its website across multiple central Florida counties, including the Dade City landfill site. The company also offers roll-off dumpster service, asbestos disposal, tire disposal, recycled aggregates and other services. The company’s stem from a Michigan concrete recycling operation, started by Angelo Iafrate Sr. in the 1950s. The family later expanded their business to Florida in 1997.

Dominic Iafrate, a former partner in the business, said on LinkedIn that the family had decided to sell so it could “focus on other endeavors,” and thanked the company’s employees and customers.

“While it's bittersweet, we're thrilled that GFL is the perfect organization to carry on the cultural beliefs that have guided Angelo's from its early days as a small, family-run business and ultimately into a highly professional and organized business,” he wrote.

GFL has been active on the M&A front as of late, recording 39 acquisitions in 2023. The company has previously expanded its footprint in Florida via acquisitions. In 2020, GFL acquired a portfolio of assets from WM and Advanced Disposal Services, which the companies were required to divest following a U.S. Department of Justice review of their proposed merger. GFL further expanded its Florida holdings in a deal for WCA Waste the same year, followed by other tuck-in deals. Angelo’s will extend GFL’s holdings in the Tampa area.

GFL has been deleveraging its debt in order to earn more investor confidence in what’s been an aggressive growth strategy. The company’s deleveraging campaign bore some fruit this week when S&P Global Ratings upgraded GFL’s debt rating from a BB- to B+. RBC Capital Markets analysts said the change was a positive step for GFL as the company continues to take a “tempered” approach to growth spending “within their guardrails.” The note from RBC went out prior to news of the acquisition.