Major publicly traded solid waste and recycling companies spent nearly $700 million on mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter of the year, with most companies gearing up for more deals in coming months.

That spending is compared to nearly $1.5 billion in spending in Q1 of 2025. Leading the first quarter of 2026 in spending was GFL Environmental, while WM logged no acquisitions for the quarter.

Below are spending totals reported by WM, Republic Services, Waste Connections, GFL and Casella Waste Systems. 

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 May 12 exchange rate.

Recaps and outlooks

WM

WM did not spend any money on acquisitions in Q1, a continuation of more muted M&A spending in the last year as it focuses on integrating Stericycle assets into its Healthcare Solutions segment instead of pursuing major deals. 

CFO David Reed told analysts during an earnings call in May that WM still planned to close a few tuck-in deals by the end of the year. The company originally expected a total spend in the range of $100 million to 200 million, but “it's likely we'll be at the high end of that, if not above that, but we'll get more guidance next quarter in terms of that,” he said. 

WM completed its acquisition of California-based Waste Resources as of May, which provides residential waste and recycling hauling services in Southern California.

Republic Services

Republic Services plans to be active on M&A this year, and has already closed several deals to date. This includes expansions in Kansas via the purchase of a landfill and MRF from Hamm, as well as another landfill from Cornejo & Sons. The company also acquired a small hauler in Ohio.

During the company's earnings call last week, CEO Jon Vander Ark said the company was planning to both acquire assets in markets where it already operates and expand to new markets through acquisitions. 

So far this year, about 90% of transactions Republic has closed have been in recycling and waste, though the company continues to explore environmental services deal. Vander Ark said the company sees plenty of opportunities in that sector, but hasn't built as many long-term relationships with acquisition targets yet.

"In the recycling and waste side, we've had discussions with the sellers for over a decade, and it's really timing and event driven on their side that drives the sale. Environmental solutions, obviously, we don't have the relationship profile that is that long," Vander Ark said.

Republic also closed on the purchase of Utah-based Robinson Waste Services this month and plans to exceed $1 billion in total acquisitions for the year.

Waste Connections

Waste Connections acquired three “solid waste collection, transfer and recycling” businesses in the quarter, according to filings. One deal included DTG’s assets in Pierce County, Washington, including a C&D recycling facility DTG had acquired from Recovery1 and another site in Tacoma. 

Overall annualized revenue from acquisition contributions were $55 million in the quarter, net of divestitures. 

Waste Connections continues to expect “outsized” investments in M&A this year, with a few deals representing a total of about $100 million of annualized revenue expected to close by the end of Q2. Most of those deals are expected to be solid waste transactions, including franchise and competitive market deals, said CEO Ron Mittelstaedt during an earnings call in April.

GFL Environmental

Executives again defended GFL's aggressive M&A strategy in the first quarter. The company is in the midst of finalizing a deal for Calgary-based Secure Waste Infrastructure, which it announced earlier in the year. It also recently announced the purchase of Texas-based Frontier Waste Solutions, one of eight completed transactions so far this year.

In response to a question from analysts about how M&A may negatively affect GFL's stock performance, CFO Luke Pelosi said that such a reaction was "one of the flaws of the public equity markets." 

"It forces you to maybe be a little bit more short-termism in your thinking than long-term thoughts that we believe are actually the foundation for equity value creation," Pelosi said.

CEO Patrick Dovigi, meanwhile, projected confidence that GFL's M&A pace could continue or increase following the closing of the Secure deal. GFL may pursue M&A opportunities off the back of the Frontier deal as well once the hauler is fully integrated. Dovigi said GFL wants to double its revenue from Texas-based operations in the next five years, in part through M&A. 

Dovigi also noted that GFL's environmental services spin off has completed some incremental acquisitions this year.

Casella Waste Systems

Casella acquired one business in the first quarter: Mountain State Waste, which was announced last summer but closed on Jan. 1. That deal helps Casella expand into West Virginia and parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The deal is expected to generate about $30 million of annualized revenues. Casella used $93.1M in cash for the deal.

In Q1, $23.9 million in revenue came from acquisitions, including rollover, Helgeson said. 

Beyond the Mountain State Waste deal, Casella has acquired four businesses so far this year worth about $150 million in aggregate annualized revenues. That includes $100 million from the acquisition of Star Waste Systems, which closed on April 1. Casella acquired two other businesses in April, according to filings. 

Star Waste has operations in eastern Massachusetts, including the greater Boston area, and southern New Hampshire. Executives see the deal as helping to fill in Casella’s existing Boston-area footprint while potentially smoothing the way toward other regional acquisitions. Before the sale to Casella, Star Waste had been considering some future acquisitions in their pipeline “that may flow into ours going forward,” said CFO Brad Helgeson during the earnings call.

CEO Ned Coletta noted that Casella has some other tuck-in acquisition plans “in later stages that fit well within our existing markets.”