The coronavirus pandemic has increased the amount of waste we create at home. But, the nation’s second largest waste manager is having mixed results taking care of all the trash. Phoenix-based Republic Services reported second quarter earnings on Thursday.
Residential trash collection during the quarter was up 10.1% year over year. Recycling revenue rose to $73.5 million, a 2.5% increase. But, collections from all lines of business and overall revenues are down 7.4%. Landfill special waste volumes were also down 17% during the period.
“We’ve learned things about ourselves on how we can operate differently, one within cost of operations as well as within SG&A. And we would expect those benefits to accrue to the P&L in future periods,” said Jon Vander Ark, company president.
“We’re still doing great work taking care of our frontline people. We talk about the acquisition pipeline being full," said Don Slager, CEO. “We’re talking about tuck-ins, obviously. You know, we are tucking into current markets. That’s a margin enhancement in and of its own. We talk about running the business for the long-term. You know, in sort of the depths of COVID, we were busy adapting to a new way of doing business, but we’re back at long-term planning of the business."
Republic reported $31 million in COVID-19 related expenses.
