Dive Brief:
- Casella Waste Systems has acquired Massachusetts-based Star Waste Systems, the company announced on Wednesday.
- The deal includes three solid waste collection locations and a C&D processing and transfer station. Star Waste provides residential, commercial and roll-off collection services to about 80,000 locations in the greater Boston area and southern New Hampshire.
- Financial terms were not disclosed, but Casella expects the deal to generate about $100 million of annualized revenue.
Dive Insight:
The acquisition helps further entrench Casella in the Boston-area market by beefing up its collection density in the region, said CEO Ned Coletta in a statement.
Casella’s investments in the region include a $20 million upgrade to its Boston MRF in 2023, a move to accommodate future growth and expansion in the region. In 2025, Casella acquired Boston-area hauler and recycler Save That Stuff.
The Star Waste deal is among the first to close since Coletta took the helm from longtime CEO John Casella on January 1.
“We are excited to welcome the Star Waste team to Casella,” Coletta said in a statement. “This acquisition strategically augments our asset positioning and enhances our collection density in the highly attractive Boston market.”
Star Waste CEO Patsy Sperduto launched the company in 2018, initially known under its subsidiary name of Boston Carting Services, with the purchase of Jet-A-Way. The company went on to purchase Sunrise Scavenger, a Boston-area hauler. Sperduto came with multiple years of experience in the industry, including growing and selling portions of another company in Rhode Island to WM and Waste Connections.
In 2020, the company picked up investment from Ironwood Capital and Laurel Mountain Partners, helping to acquire Somerville-based FW Russell.
The company also went on to invest in rehabilitating the North Andover Waste Systems C&D MRF and transfer facility in Massachusetts. Speaking in 2022, Sperduto said he anticipated the site could eventually handle at least 156,000 tons of material per year. State records show that facility, under the subsidiary TBI Recycling, accepted 95,681 tons of material in 2024.
In 2022, Star Waste also received a minority investment from private equity firm Clairvest Group to continue its growth and like other haulers was actively pushing price increases for its municipal contracts. Today, Star holds multiple municipal waste and recycling contracts in certain communities surrounding Boston. Material from at least one of them, Somerville, already goes to Casella’s Boston MRF.
The company has been relatively quiet in recent years, aside from Sperduto’s critiques of Republic Services’ approach to an ongoing Teamsters labor strike last summer.
Star did acquire at least two other small haulers within the past year — G/J Carting and Maher Removal & Disposal.
Casella funded the Star acquisition through cash on hand and available capacity its revolving credit facility, the company said. This transaction is one of many in recent years that have consolidated the Massachusetts market, which is now largely covered by Casella, Republic Services, Waste Connections, Win Waste Innovations and WM.
Casella’s last major acquisition was West Virginia-based Mountain State Waste, for $93 million in cash. That deal closed in January and is expected to add $30 million of annualized revenue. Star Waste marks Casella’s fourth acquisition in 2026.
Those four acquisitions represent total annualized revenues of approximately $150 million, the company estimates. “This is a strong start to 2026, and positions us well for continued growth and strategic execution,” Coletta said in the statement.
During a Q4 earnings call in February, Casella executives estimated their M&A pipeline to be about $500 million in opportunity, with Coletta noting the company was working on some larger deals with some “high quality companies.”
