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By the numbers: Q1 2026
Revenue: $4.1B
Up 2.6% year over year
Net income: $525M
Up 6.1% year over year, with a margin of 12.8%
Adjusted EBITDA: $1.3B
Up 4.3% year over year
- Overview: Republic Services reported its business was able to overcome the impacts of lower commodity prices, higher fuel prices and severe weather in the first quarter to deliver growth. "We are off to a strong start and remain well positioned to achieve our full‑year objectives," President and CEO Jon Vander Ark said in a statement with the company’s earnings release.
- Recycling: Commodity prices in Q1 were $120 per ton, down from $155 per ton the prior year. The company reported that increased volume at its polymer centers offset the impact of those lower prices. Vander Ark said on the company’s earnings call Thursday that Republic had seen challenges due to a glut of plastic entering the U.S. market from Asia. That’s beginning to change as constrained oil supplies due to the war in Iran have lowered virgin plastic production in Asia, he said. That shift has been supportive of Republic's recycling facilities, Vander Ark said.
- Volumes: On collections, Republic reported a 5.2% decline in residential volumes due to the loss of certain contracts that it had anticipated at the start of the year. Vander Ark said that declines would likely continue throughout the year, as the company gets beat on price by "people willing to do work for very, very low returns." Vander Ark said profitability in the segment was improving. Meanwhile, landfill MSW volumes were up 1.4%, C&D volumes were down 17.8% and special waste volumes were up 9.9%.
- Environmental Solutions: The company's sales pipeline is improving in its environmental services business segment despite revenue decreasing by $44 million year over year. Republic attributed about a third of that decline to an emergency response job a year ago that did not repeat. Executives previously said their pricing strategy needed to change after encountering some difficulties in the environmental services unit in the second half of last year. Now, "we think we got market pricing very dialed in here. We're not going to get it perfect every time, but much improved on that dimension," CFO Brian DelGhiaccio said. The company expects year-over-year revenue growth for environmental services in the second half of 2026.
- Fleet: Republic Services had more than 200 electric collection vehicles in its fleet by the end of the quarter, and it's planning to end the year with more than 300. The company worked with San Pablo, California, to make it the first city in the state with an all-electric recycling and waste collection fleet. Vander Ark said Republic would continue focusing on rolling out the vehicles in markets with favorable incentives, like in California. He noted that the rollback of federal incentives has "modestly" slowed the pace at which Republic has rolled out electric vehicles. The company also reported an $8 million impact from higher fuel prices, but those costs are recovered by fees embedded in contracts on a one-month lag.
- Technology: Republic continues to invest in artificial intelligence-based functionalities and other technology throughout the business. The company has already deployed AI within its call centers, and continues to roll it out for pricing algorithms and routing software. Vander Ark said that he expects those improvements to deliver at least $100 million of annual benefits by 2028.
