Casella Waste Systems Inc., a regional solid waste, recycling and resource management services company based in Rutland, Vermont, reported its financial results for the period ended Dec. 31, 2019. The company also provided guidance for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2020.

Highlights of the fourth quarter included:

• Revenues were $193.6 million for the quarter, up $18.9 million, or up 10.8 percent, from the same period in 2018. Revenues were $743.3 million for the fiscal year, up $82.6 million, or 12.5 percent, from fiscal year 2018.
• Overall solid waste pricing for the quarter was up 5 percent, driven by robust collection pricing, up 4.8 percent, and strong landfill pricing, up 7.6 percent, from the same period in 2018.
• Net income was $9.1 million for the quarter, up $22.7 million from the same period in 2018. Net income was $31.7 million for the fiscal year, up $25.2 million from fiscal year 2018.
• Adjusted net income was $10.2 million for the quarter, up $6.1 million, or up 146.2 percent, from the same period in 2018. Adjusted net income was $40.6 million for the fiscal year, up $13.5 million, or up 49.6 percent, from fiscal year 2018.
• Adjusted EBITDA was $41.1 million for the quarter, up $7.3 million, or up 21.5 percent, from the same period in 2018. Adjusted EBITDA was $156.5 million for the fiscal year, up $18.5 million, or 13.4 percent, from fiscal year 2018.
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $116.8 million for the fiscal year, down $4 million, or 3.3 percent, from fiscal year 2018.
• Normalized free cash flow was $55.5 million for the fiscal year, up $8.4 million, or 17.9 percent, from fiscal year 2018.
  

“We had another great quarter and year, as we continued to execute well against our key strategies as part of our 2021 plan,” John Casella, chairman and CEO of Casella Waste Systems, says. “We remain focused on driving cash flow growth by increasing landfill returns, improving collection profitability, creating incremental value through resource solutions, using technology to drive profitable growth and efficiencies, and prudently allocating capital for strategic growth.

“During 2019, we continued to make substantial progress executing against our strategic growth initiative, as we acquired nine businesses with approximately $53 million of annualized revenues. And, in early 2020, we have started the year well, completing another two acquisitions with approximately $6 million of annualized revenues. We expect revenue growth of roughly 4.7 percent (or $35 million) in 2020 from the roll-over impact of acquisitions completed in 2019 and those already completed in early 2020. Our acquisition pipeline remains robust, and we believe that there is continued opportunity to drive additional cash flow growth across our footprint through the sustained execution against our disciplined acquisition strategy.

“Our solid waste pricing programs were ahead of budget again in the fourth quarter as we advanced 4.8 percent pricing in the collection line-of-business and 7.6 percent pricing at the landfills, with overall solid waste price increasing by 5 percent,” Casella says. “Solid waste volumes were down 0.9 percent in the quarter, with collection volumes down as we continued to focus on shedding unprofitable work and advancing pricing in excess of heightened inflation. Disposal volumes were down slightly on lower transportation and disposal work; however, landfill volumes were up 1.1 percent as we continued to ramp tons into our sites.

“As a company, we have spent the last 45 years working to develop an integrated resource management strategy that balances our customers' current solid waste collection, recycling, organics and disposal needs with a vision for the future through increased sustainability and resource management. We have worked extremely hard to develop and successfully implement leading resource initiatives, long before sustainability was in vogue. One such success is our innovative recycling business model. Our revenue share model and other risk management programs coupled with our investments in new processing technologies and our efforts to produce higher quality materials and manage processing costs with increased automation have allowed us to improve our recycling business's financial performance, mitigate commodity risk and maintain viable end-markets in a challenging pricing environment. These efforts have allowed our recycling program to remain both environmentally and economically sustainable through this historically low commodity pricing cycle.

“While we are actively working with many of our customers to reduce their waste footprint and drive higher resource recovery and diversion, landfills still serve as necessary elements of an integrated resource management strategy. There are still many materials that need to be landfilled—these are streams that cannot be recycled, beneficially reused or certain materials that have time-sensitive needs, such as debris from natural disasters. We strive to operate safe and environmentally sound disposal facilities while we work diligently to expand permits to maintain necessary disposal capacity to meet these on-going needs.

“Our team did a great job in 2019 meeting these goals as we received two important landfill permit expansions. In December 2019, we received a 2.7-million-cubic-yard expansion at our Hakes landfill located in New York, which will serve as an important multi-year bridge to the next phase of this landfill. And, in September 2019, we received a 13.7-million-cubic-yard expansion at our Waste USA landfill located in Vermont, which will create approximately 20 years of additional airspace at the current run-rate.

“Despite these great successes, we faced an unexpected setback at our North Country landfill located in New Hampshire in February 2020, when we learned from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services that it had decided to interpret the state’s public benefit statute in a manner that we believe was different than how it had consistently interpreted it in the past. As such, we decided to withdraw our airspace expansion permit application at this site, and we plan to quickly resubmit our application to address the department’s interpretation of the long-standing statute. As this step adds time to the process, we will need to ramp down volumes at the site in 2020 to maintain adequate near-term capacity.”

2020 outlook

As part of the earnings report, Casella outlined its expectations for 2020.

“Our 2020 budget is on track with the 2021 strategic plan that we first introduced in August 2017 and reflects continued execution of our key strategies with the goal of driving additional shareholder value," Casella says. “We expect strong growth again in 2020 despite our plan to slow volumes into our North Country landfill as we work to permit the next expansion airspace. We remain focused on pricing execution, driving core operating efficiency programs, ramping up tons at our landfills in New York, and our integration of acquisitions completed in 2019 and in early 2020.”

The company provided guidance for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31 by estimating results in the following ranges:

• Revenues between $800 million and $815 million (as compared to $743.3 million in fiscal year 2019);
• Net income between $35 million and $39 million (as compared to $31.7 million in fiscal year 2019);
• Adjusted EBITDA between $170 million and $174 million (as compared to $156.5 million in fiscal year 2019);
• Net cash provided by operating activities between $131 million and $135 million (as compared to $116.8 million in fiscal year 2019); and
• Normalized free cash flow between $60 million and $64 million (as compared to $55.5 million in fiscal year 2019).
  

The Responsible Battery Coalition (RBC)—a Milwaukee-based coalition of companies, academics and organizations dedicated to the responsible management and environmental sustainability of batteries— applauded research published Feb. 18 by the University of Michigan in the Journal of Energy Storage regarding best practices for consumers for extending the life of lithium-ion batteries, as well as the cost-savings associated with minimizing degradation.

This research is the second phase of work conducted by the university and supported by RBC. The first phase was published in May 2019 and outlined 10 “Green Principles for Vehicle Energy Storage” that represent a set of recommendations to guide mobile battery deployment and technology development from an environmental perspective, particularly defining best practices for minimizing the environmental impact of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

In the new research, the university’s team expands on Green Principle No. 6—to design and operate battery systems to maximize service life and limit degradation—by outlining nine consumer best practices for extending battery life to decrease costs and reduce environmental burdens associated with the production of new batteries. The new best practices address material consumption, mining impacts and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the disposal of used batteries.

“As the nation and world shift to economies powered by batteries, it is paramount as responsible stewards of the environment that we extend the life of all types of batteries, particularly those in our cars and trucks,” Steve Christensen, executive director of the Responsible Battery Coalition, says. “This work by such a respected research institution as the University of Michigan is an important first step toward creating a generational change in how consumers use and manage batteries.”

The International Energy Agency has predicted that 125 million electric vehicles will be on roads globally by 2030. The RBC seeks to develop a circular economy for batteries that ensures that they are part of the solution in creating a more sustainable environment.  

Many of the recommended practices discovered by the research team are related to three main variables that impact battery health: temperature, state of charge and current. Specific recommendations in the findings include:

• Avoiding temperature extremes, both high and low, when using or storing lithium-ion batteries, with specific recommendations of leaving phones and laptops out of direct sunlight. These also include parking and charging electric vehicles in shaded or cool locations.
• Minimizing the amount of time a battery spends at either 100 percent or 0 percent of charge, as both extremely high and low “states of charge” stress batteries.
• Avoiding “fast-chargers,” that, while convenient, degrade lithium-ion batteries more quickly than standard charging.

“As the mobile electronics and EV industries continue to grow, even small improvements in lifetime extension will have significant environmental benefits,” the authors of the Journal of Energy Storage paper wrote.

“By minimizing exposure to the conditions that accelerate degradation, batteries can last longer. And this has a positive environmental impact, as battery production is a source of greenhouse gas emissions and many other pollutants,” said study corresponding author Greg Keoleian, director of the University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems at the School for Environment and Sustainability.“Additionally, there are significant financial incentives for users to avoid adverse conditions, as the cost of lithium-ion batteries can range from 5 percent to over 50 percent of a product’s cost.”

“As an organization whose members include the world’s largest battery manufacturer and recycler, leading automotive aftermarket retailers, and some of the largest auto producers and transportation fleet owners, we’re proud to have been able to support this research to help both industry and consumers get maximum life and value out of their lithium-ion battery products,” Christensen says.

The NextGen Consortium, led by McDonald's and Starbucks, is starting two reusable cup pilot programs in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California this week. The consortium, managed by New York-based Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, will also test compostable or recyclable single-use cups in Oakland in March.

In San Francisco, startup Muuse will trial its reusable cub, which comes with a QR code and tracking device that allows consumers to rent the cups. Customers scan the code on the bottom of the cup to check it out and receive a 25-cent discount. They can return the cup within five days to any partner café. Failure to return the cup results in a $15 fee. Muuse cleans and sanitizes each cup for reuse. The startup has rolled out similar programs in Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong.

London-based startup CupClub will test its stackable white reusable cups in Palo Alto, which marks the company’s first entry into the U.S. market. The cups contain RFID tags, which can be scanned when they’re checked out at coffee shops or returned at the collection point. Palo Alto will host drop-off locations throughout the city during the pilot. The startup says using reusable cups can reduce landfill waste by up to 40 percent.

CupClub’s white cups are made of polypropylene with polyethylene (PE) lids, while Muuse's cups are stainless steel with a polypropylene (PP) lid.

Live piloting offers these cup companies the opportunity to further test, learn and innovate according to the unique material, technical and operational changes necessary to facilitate a seamless and convenient transition to reusable cups for customers and companies, according to a NextGen Consortium news release. The month-long pilot programs, along with customer feedback and data captured during them, will provide valuable insights into each cup's technical feasibility, business viability, user desirability and circular resiliency, the NextGen group says.

The pilots will help build on the NextGen Consortium's work to advance the development of new, alternative cup solutions before scaling the model at leading food and beverage companies.

"We know finding a more sustainable cup solution will continue to require partnership and innovative thinking," says Michael Kobori, chief sustainability officer at Starbucks. "The ongoing work from the NextGen Cup Consortium provides valuable insights and learnings for all the members, us included, as we continue to explore a variety of ways to better manage our waste and reduce our environmental footprint."

"We're excited to see many of the winning ideas become potential solutions that can be tested in a customer-facing environment," says Marion Gross, senior vice president and chief supply chain officer at McDonald's North America. "Finding a cup that can be scaled will require continued innovation, testing and honing of solutions, so these pilots are an important step forward on that journey."

Andritz, headquartered in Graz, Austria, has completed the startup of a Universal Shredder FRP at the Moelven Notnäs Ransby AB sawmill in Torsby, Sweden. Moelven is a Scandinavian industrial group, headquartered in Moelv, Norway, that produces building products and systems for the construction industry. 

The sawmill produces about 225,000 cubic meters (or about 7.9 million cubic feet) of sawn goods every year, Andritz reports in a news release on the shredder startup. The wood waste generated will be processed with an Andritz Universal Shredder FRP, type 2000P, which is able to process up to 5 tons per hour. 

According to Andritz, the single-shaft shredder breaks down bulky materials into small particle sizes in a single step. The FRP is equipped with a pendulum pusher that prevents material ejection and contributes toward a clean and safe work environment.

Prior to installing the FRP model, Moelven had used a mobile shredder that caused “substantial noise pollution.” At only 81 to 85 decibel, Andritz reports that the new FRP is much quieter than other shredders. 

The FRP2000P is the second machine Moelven has ordered from Andritz; the company has another FRP shredder operating at Moelven Soknabruket in Norway.