The country’s largest publicly traded waste companies spent nearly $3.3 billion on mergers and acquisitions in 2025. The total is down considerably from the estimated $10.9 billion spent in 2024, although much of the difference came from WM’s $7.2 billion acquisition of Stericycle that year.
Overall, executives at the five companies analyzed by Waste Dive shared favorable dispositions toward M&A both for 2025 and 2026. During their earnings calls, several indicated they would continue spending on tuck-in acquisitions around the country.
Below is a recap of M&A activity for the industry’s five largest public companies. Executives also offered insights during their most recent earnings calls about what’s to come in 2026.
| Q4 Acquisition Spend | 2025 Spend | |
|---|---|---|
| WM | $1M | $395M |
| Republic Services | $90M | $1.1B |
| Waste Connections | $190.3M | $817.6M |
| GFL Environmental* | $267.9M | $718.3M |
| Casella Waste Systems | $6.2M | $223.4M |
Spending totals are net of cash acquired, with some variation in methodology among companies.
*GFL figures converted from Canadian to U.S. dollars for comparison purposes, based on March 3 exchange rate.
Recaps and outlooks
WM
WM’s acquisition activity was minor for Q4, as the company continues to focus its efforts on integrating Stericycle assets into its Healthcare Solutions segment instead of pursuing major deals.
In 2025, the company completed about $400 million in tuck-in acquisitions, including Washington DC-area WB Waste Solutions; Countrywide Sanitation, which serves parts of North and South Dakota; and Miller Recycling in Massachusetts.
That $400 million number fell short of executives’ expectation that it would reach about $500 million by year’s end.
It’s also just half of the $800 million WM spent in 2024 on deals, not counting the major $7.2 billion purchase of Stericycle it also completed in 2024.
In 2025, acquisitions and divestitures increased net revenue by about 10.6% or about $2.3 billion compared to 2024, according to filings. That increase was largely due to the 2024 acquisition of Stericycle, with the rest mainly attributed to tuck-ins.
In 2026, WM expects rollover from solid waste acquisitions to contribute about $65 million of revenue and $25 million of adjusted operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
WM also expects in 2026 to return to its typical $100 million to $200 million range for M&A spending, CEO Jim Fish said during the Q4 earnings call in January. That would include its acquisition of Waste Resources in California, which has come up in local meetings. “There's still plenty of good strategic acquisition opportunities out there. I wouldn't expect to see us kind of stray outside of that [range],” he said.
Republic Services
Republic had a relatively quiet quarter for M&A after topping $1 billion spent by the end of the third quarter. The most notable transaction the company made in the fourth quarter was for Leck Waste Services, a Pennsylvania-based hauler, and its related subsidiaries.
In total, Republic spent about $1.1 billion on acquisitions in 2025, up considerably from the $358 million it spent the previous year. Republic’s 2025 total was dominated by its acquisition of Shamrock Environmental, a provider of industrial waste and wastewater treatment services. The company did not disclose the total number of acquisitions it made in its annual report to the SEC.
CEO Jon Vander Ark said during the company's fourth quarter earnings call that Republic would keep its foot on the gas for acquisitions in 2026, saying the company could spend another $1 billion for the year. He noted the company's pipeline of acquisitions is "predominantly recycling and waste, but we've got a number of attractive [environmental services] opportunities that we're looking at as well."
Vander Ark also emphasized a continued focus on post-collection assets. So far this year, Republic has acquired the Hamm Sanitary Landfill and CDR North Landfill in Kansas, public documents show.
Waste Connections
Waste Connections finished what CEO Ron Mittelstaedt described as an “above average” 2025 for acquisition activity with 19 deals and about $330 million in acquired annualized revenue.
That included a mix of West Coast franchises, a few tuck-ins and what the company described as a few “new market entries.”
Notable deals included a transfer station in Queens, New York, and a recycling facility in Hoboken, New Jersey. “I'd say [we’ve] put a lot of effort into building our leading position in the New York City metro area,” he said. The company also closed two Florida acquisitions towards the end of 2025: Great Waste and Florida Express Environmental.
Expected rollover revenue contribution this year from 2025 acquisitions is about $125 million, executives said during the call.
So far in 2026, Waste Connections already closed on about $20 million in acquisitions the first week of February, he added.
GFL Environmental
CEO Patrick Dovigi told analysts that GFL spent nearly $1 billion (Canadian) on M&A in 2025, largely in the back half of the year due to its complicated recapitalization deals in the first half. The company completed roughly 20 acquisitions in 2025, based on its annual reports for 2025 and 2024.
Because of the complex dealmaking in the first half of the year, the company focused on smaller tuck-in deals and assets that were simpler to integrate during the third and fourth quarter, Dovigi said.
"Given that we were taking a year and shoving it into basically six months, we really focused on the ones that were most accretive that were going to give us the biggest bang for our buck quickest," he said on the call.
Dovigi also said the company is focused on "good opportunities in markets where we're already operating" in order to maximize returns on invested capital. Acquisitions included small haulers in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Illinois. The company will likely spend $1 billion or more on acquisitions again this year, executives said.
Casella Waste Systems
Casella closed on nine acquisitions in 2025 with about $115 million in annualized revenue, according to CEO Ned Coletta. These deals were aimed mainly at densifying its presence in the Mid-Atlantic. Five of those deals were described as tuck-ins in that region, while two other tuck-ins added businesses in the company’s western region. It acquired Save That Stuff, an organics hauler in Boston, in February; Seyrek Disposal, a small New York hauler, in April; and Gerber’s, a commercial hauler in Maryland, in May.
Brad Helgeson, Casella’s CFO, called the $115 million in annualized revenue a “light year,” and noted that the deals mainly took place during the first half of the year, leaving only about $30 million rolling over into 2026.
Not counted toward 2025 M&A spending is the acquisition of Mountain State Waste that the company had planned to close in Q4, but instead closed on Jan. 1. That deal is expected to generate about $30 million of annualized revenues.
“We've got a lot of great opportunities for 2026. I think it will be a nice solid year for us on the acquisition growth side,” said Coletta during the Q4 earnings call in February.
