Waste Connections

So the business has evolved quite a bit over the last few years, but you can think of us as a B2B services business that sits between multi-site waste generators.

So think of apartment complexes, restaurants, hotels, storage units, et cetera, and waste haulers, like Waste Management, Republic Services, Waste Connections.

And multi-site waste generators have a lot of on-site waste needs.

Those range from valet trash to picking up bulk items like couches and mattresses to things like they need recycling containers decontaminated.

So what that essentially means is that power is completely consolidated within the existing incumbents with very little, if no chance for any disruption whatsoever.

So the top three private landfill owners in the US are waste management, favorite of mine, heard it on the stock before, Republic services in two, and then waste connections in three.

So when it comes to market share, There are two ways of analyzing market share.

The first is publicly traded market share.

These three control about 70%.

So waste management is the clear leader with around 35%.

Republic services in the mid 20s and then waste connections in the low teens.

They're then followed up by a few smaller players, GFL, Environmental, Clean Harbors, Casella.

That brief call was the last time Shannon's family heard her voice.

It was approximately around 1230 Sunday morning that Xavier Jenkins, an employee of Waste Connections, saw Shannon Silver Forerunner parked in front of 2316 Chipman Street.

A small white car was parked closely behind it.

The porch light was on, and Jenkins later said that the house appeared unusually busy.

Counter-protesters outnumbered them, and hundreds of law enforcement officers were deployed to keep the opposing groups apart.

Whatever outside commentators believed, the evidence presented in court supported crimes motivated initially by robbery and the desire to steal Shannon's vehicle, not a planned racial attack.

In October 2008, Waste Connections, which operated on a neighboring property, purchased and demolished the house at 2316 Chipman Street.

A memorial to Shannon and Chris was later placed at the site.

In October of 2024, we got a new disposal contract in place with Columbia Resource Company.

It's a really unique three-party agreement with the City of Vancouver, Clark County, and also Columbia Resource Company, a subsidiary of Waste Connections.

So with that three-party agreement, we negotiated an opportunity for special funds that are dedicated to capital improvements at the site.

So we're going to be talking about the North County recycling transfer station siting study today.

Obviously, that has to get sorted out at some point in time.

So we work with a lot of, uh, of hauling companies that have material recovery facilities, uh, the Waste Managements, the Republics, the Waste Connections.

And, uh, we...

Our equipment, it fits into the structure, uh, comes acro- down a conveyor, and we look at the material with, uh, near-infrared camera technology, which helps us be able to sort that material out and tell it where to go so that it can be sorted out by grade, uh, of what, what the material is.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, so how long have you been with Waste Connections?

Uh, it's been about a year and a half in this role for me.

Mm.

Sorry, sorry, sorry for the pause.

All right, everybody, this is Gary J. Fryburg sitting in for Dave on News Talk 920 KBC, our hometown radio station.

With us is Zach Zimmerman, and Zach is the muni- municipal, uh, that's easy for me to say, municipal outreach coordinator with, uh, Waste Connections, and we're finding out what can we do as a community to be better recyclers because in the end, we all benefit.

With the plastic, Zach, I've noticed that sometimes it has that little square with a n- or a triangle with a, a number, and sometimes it doesn't.

Great question.

Well, so our clients have owned shares of Waste Connections, the garbage, uh, space, and, uh, we've stuck with that company for many, many years and very happy with it.

Obvi- GFL, when it went public, debt, the debt levels just scared me.

I don't like to invest in high debt level, uh, businesses, especially in a very cyclical and commodity-oriented business where you don't have a lot of control of pricing.

I will say this, the management has done a, a great job.

They've, uh, I think the acquiring Secure is probably the smart move for them.

Um, but, uh, I, I just prefer owning, uh, Waste Connections with a much better balance sheet, much better track record, long-term track record of, of being profitable.

I, I don't know which company will acquire GFL.