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Q2 by the numbers
Adjusted EBITDA: $123.2M
Up 12.5% year over year
Net income: $3.8M
Compared with $5.2M in Q2 2025, driven in part by acquisition expenses and higher interest expense
- Financial picture: Casella noted highlights such as higher landfill volumes and continued acquisition activity as drivers of a stable Q2. Solid waste revenues were also up 18.4% year over year, said CFO Brad Helgeson during an earnings call on Friday. CEO Ned Coletta also noted that geopolitical challenges have rapidly increased fuel prices. “Our floating fuel recovery fees offset this higher cost, although resulting in a headwind to adjusted EBITDA margins of 40 basis points,” he pointed out.
- Price: Pricing continues to be a “core driver of our positive results,” Coletta said. Solid waste pricing was up 5.5% overall, including 5.8% in the collection business. Price in the disposal line was 4.7%, including 4% third-party price at landfills and 5.1% at transfer stations. The company expects third-party pricing to move closer to 5% in the rest of the year.
- Volume: Landfill tons were up 8.4% year over year, in part due to the company restarting its landfill sales team while also working on internalization efforts, Coletta said. Solid waste volumes were down 0.6%. Third-party volume was up by 62,000 tons.
- Landfill dynamics: Casella is monitoring capacity updates in the Northeast region, an area that is experiencing ever-tightening capacity. In the New York market, the Hudson Falls incinerator run by Win Waste is expected to close at the end of the year, and the city of Albany has announced plans to close its landfill in the next few years, Helgeson said. That could translate into more volumes in places like Casella’s Hakes landfill, expected to receive an expansion permit in the third quarter.
- Mid-Atlantic optimizations: Casella also made “significant progress” in its ongoing efforts to integrate certain Mid-Atlantic assets, which it has been working on since it acquired them from GFL in the region in 2023. Casella is on track to cut $5 million of operating costs in 2026, and another $10 million over the next two years, Coletta said. This quarter, efforts included cutting 13 routes as part of a consolidation and automated truck conversion process.
- Mid-Atlantic pricing and margins: Helgeson noted that margins were flat in the region in Q2, but “we really do expect for the margins to start to move in the positive direction in Q3, Q4, and then especially into next year.” Pricing was “pretty good” at about 4%, which he said is a “touch below” the rest of the business but moving in a positive direction.
- M&A: Casella completed five acquisitions so far in 2026, with about $165 million dollars of annualized revenues.The latest was the acquisition of Cougle’s Recycling in Pennsylvania, which closed July 1 and represents about $15 million in annualized revenue. Coletta said future M&A for the year is likely to focus on tuck-ins in the $10 million to $20 million range, which “align well with our strategy of building density and adding key transfer stations and recycling facilities within our existing operating center.”
- Guidance adjustments: Casella raised its guidance for revenues and lowered guidance for net income for the year. Revenues are estimated between $2.09 billion and $2.11 billion, raised from a projected $2.06 billion to $2.08 billion. Net income is estimated to top out at $6 million, down from the previous range of $4 million to $10 million. The adjustments are a move Coletta said reflected acquisition activity to date and elevated fuel costs. Helgeson added that Casella expects fuel prices will “remain elevated” through the rest of the year.
