Dive Brief:
- Republic Services of Oregon creates 1,400 direct jobs, and delivers $99 million in total gross state product and $8.5 million in total annual tax revenue impact, according to the results of a study conducted for Republic by Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business.
- For every full-time Republic employee in Oregon, 1.8 other jobs are created. The average salary for Republic employees in the state is $59,000.
- The company runs more than 40 trucks that are powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), two recycling centers, one landfill and three hauling companies. Republic employees over 500 people in the state.
Dive Insight:
Nationwide, Republic has an economic impact of over $9.5 billion annually and employs over 30,000 people. Once the company finalizes its acquisition of ReCommunity, the largest independent recycler in the U.S., those numbers will become even larger. By comparison, Republic's Oregon business is a small piece of its national portfolio, but the company is still significant in the state. For example, the average salary in Oregon is more than $10,000 less than the average salary for Republic employees.
It might not be all smooth sailing for Republic in Oregon, however. The Portland region's Metro Council recently voted to stop sending waste to new or expanding landfills by 2020 at the latest. More immediately, Republic operations in Oregon could be hit by changes to recycling policies spurred by China's scrap import ban. Last week, that China news was cited as a main factor for a drop in the company's stock value.
This is the latest in a series of studies on Republic's economic effects by the Carey School's Seidman Resarch Institute. Previous studies have focused on the company's operations in Arizona, Texas, Montana, Nevada and Missouri.