<b>WMI Begins Pulp and Paper Group</b>

Waste Management created a new group focused on pulp and paper trading. The new group, the company hopes, will reduce WMI’s exposure to volatile commodity prices.

According to Maurice Myers, chairman, president and CEO of Waste Management, the company will begin the process by focusing on managing the company's four million tons of paper collected each year.

The company expects transactions through the trading group will not occur until the third quarter of the year when WMI has completed the implementation of standard trading control systems and organizational capabilities.

``The new trading group will differentiate us from our competitors in that we will be providing our municipal, national account and mill customers with an opportunity to directly manage their commodity price exposure,'' said Steve Ragiel, vice president of recycling for Waste Management.

Over the past three years, the company has taken steps to reduce the overall commodity price risk of recycling by placing 75 percent of its commodities under long-term physical delivery contracts with floor prices. The creation of the trading group allows the company to continue to reduce its overall commodity price exposure while strengthening its leadership role in the industry. (Steve Ragiel will be speaking at the Paper Recycling Conference in Chicago June 24-26.).