How Bill Gates-Backed Republic Services Turns Trash Into Big Cash by chrishelman
the Sheep mountains just north of Las Vegas, the Apex landfill receives 8,000 tons of trash per day, delivered by 280 trucks that roll off the interstate before laboring up a winding dirt road to what’s called the working face—an active zone of 3 acres where supersize bulldozers with spiked metal wheels crush and compact the trash. The heap is already 500 feet deep at spots, but there’s enough room left to keep burying Sin City’s garbage for centuries.
Republic, which is based in Phoenix, operates 198 landfills, 71 recycling centers and collection routes in 41 states. After a pandemic down year in 2020, volumes recovered in 2021, helping it notch a 17% increase in net income, to $1.3 billion, on $11.3 billion in sales. Its stock, trading around $131, is down only 10% from its 2021 high, compared to an 18% slide in the S&P 500.
Early on, the young consultant convinced then CEO Don Slager that Republic wasn’t charging independent trash haulers high enough “tipping fees” to dump their loads at Republic-owned landfills. The marginal cost of adding another few tons of trash to a landfill appeared deceptively low because it didn’t include the high expenses of opening new landfills. In essence, Republic was selling its future profits too cheaply.
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