Dive Brief:
- USA Waste of California, a subsidiary of WM, plans to acquire California-based Waste Resources, according to municipal documents. WM did not respond to a request for comment.
- Waste Resources offers residential waste and recycling hauling services in Southern California, including Glendale, Gardena and Hawaiian Gardens. City officials in those places have recently approved franchise contract updates to transfer services over from Waste Resources to WM.
- Waste Resources also offers some roll-off and commercial services and operates a fleet of about 60 vehicles. It also operates in the city of Lynwood, as well as the city of Carson, where it has the exclusive franchise for all residential, multifamily, commercial, and industrial customers, according to its website.
Dive Insight:
WM already operates in numerous cities in Southern California, including as part of the LA Sanitation & Environment’s RecycLA commercial waste franchise system.The deal to acquire Waste Resources would allow it to take over additional established municipal franchise agreements in the region.
The deal is prompted partly by the upcoming retirement of Waste Resources’ longtime owner, Kosti Shirvanian, according to COO Tommy Gendal, who spoke during a Gardena city council meeting on Jan. 16.
He said because it’s a larger company, USA Waste “has a lot to bring to the city of Gardena,” including the resources to reach higher waste diversion rates.
Waste Resources is a subsidiary of Waste Resource Technologies, which also offers commercial and roll-off services in Hawaii under the name Pacific Waste. It’s unclear whether the deal will also include those assets. The companies did not comment on specifics of the deal or finalization timeline. The deal had not yet closed during the time of the Gardena meeting.
Shirvanian was the founder of another waste company, Western Waste Industries, that sold to USA Waste in the mid-1990s. USA Waste later bought WM in 1998, and the combined company kept the WM name.
WM’s acquisition spending in 2026 is expected to stay in its standard range of $100 million to $200 million, CEO Jim Fish said during the company’s earnings call on Jan. 29.
Cole Rosengren contributed to this story.
