By the numbers
Full year revenue: $1.84B
Up 18% year over year
Q4 adjusted EBITDA: $107M
Up 12.7% year over year
Q4 net loss: $2.5M
Compared to net income of $4.9M the previous year
- Financial Picture: In his first earnings call since becoming CEO, Ned Coletta said he is “energized by the opportunities ahead.” He credited the stable fourth quarter and full year performance to steady organic growth and pointed to ongoing improvements such as fleet optimization and billing system integrations in the Mid-Atlantic region. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amoritization increased 17% and adjusted free cash flow increased 14%. It’s the fifth consecutive year of double digit growth for these metrics, Coletta said.
- M&A: Casella acquired nine businesses in 2025 with about $115 million in annualized revenue. In January 2026, it added another $30M of annualized revenue with the closing of West Virginia-based Mountain State Waste. Casella has acquired over $800 million of annualized revenue over the last five years, mainly through tuck-in acquisitions and new market entries, Coletta said. The company’s pipeline is about $500 million in additional opportunity, and the company is looking at “a number of high quality companies we've been working with for a period of time… several of which are a little bit larger.”
- Price: Solid waste pricing for 2025 was up 4.9% year over year, driven by 5% collection price growth and 4.9% disposal price growth. In Q4, solid waste revenues were up 9.9% year over year, with price up 4.4%. Price in the disposal line of business was up 4.1%, while collection price was up 4.6% in the quarter due to increased front load and commercial business, said Brian Butler, vice president of investor relations.
- Volume: In Q4, solid waste volume was down 1.1% overall. Third party volume was down 4.5% year over year, partly due to Casella lowering the amount of third party tons it accepted at some key landfills to manage capacity concerns. Collection volume was down slightly at 0.3% with “modestly positive” volume in front load and residential, but weakness in roll-off volumes down 5.2%.
- Recycled commodity impacts: Casella’s Resource Solutions division, which includes its recycling operations, saw revenues increase 9.1% year over year in 2025, in part due to improvements at the Willimantic MRF. However, recycling and other processing revenue was down 1.4% due to lower commodity prices, Butler said. Average recycled commodity revenue per ton was down 27% year over year, with most commodities selling below five year averages. Yet the net impact of lower commodity prices on our revenue was less than $1 million due in part to adjustments in tip fees, Butler said.
- Landfill permitting update: Casella continues to make progress on permits at its Hakes and Hyland landfills in New York, expected within the year. Casella wants to more than double its capacity at Hyland from 460,000 tons a year to a million tons per year, and also add nearly 60 years of capacity at the Hakes C&D landfill.
- Landfill utilization: The Hakes and Highland expansions are important for Casella because of expected closures in New York over the next several years, including Casella’s Ontario County landfill at the end of 2028, Coletta said. “We're running a little bit short on landfill volumes at some of our key sites,” he said. To adjust, the company is on track to finish upgrades at the rail-served McKean Landfill coming online in Pennsylvania in Q2, which should help with capacity, executives said. Casella is also ramping down volumes sent to its North Country landfill in New Hampshire, due to close at the end of 2027.
- Organics facility closure: Casella spent about $1.3 million in Q4 on closure costs at its Hawk Ridge organics facility in Maine, which the company closed after the state banned the use of land-applied biosolids. Casella is “redirecting” the material to landfills. It expects to spend another $3 million on closure-related costs in 2026.
- 2026 Outlook: Executives outlined guidance for fiscal year 2026, including revenue estimates between $1.97 billion and $1.99 billion and net income between $16 million and $22 million. Adjusted EBITDA estimates are between $455 million and $465 million.
