Waste Management & Remediation Services

NAICS 562 covers firms that collect, haul, treat, and dispose of solid and hazardous waste, operate landfills and transfer stations, run recycling and materials-recovery facilities, and perform environmental remediation of contaminated sites. Waste Management Inc. and Republic Services — the two largest publicly traded operators — together control roughly 50% of US solid-waste collection revenue, according to IBISWorld. GFL Environmental (Canada-based, major US operations) and Casella Waste Systems (focused on the Northeast) round out the top tier.

The subsector's economics are shaped by tipping fees, hauling contracts, and landfill capacity. Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) governs solid-waste landfill design and monitoring, while Subtitle C imposes cradle-to-grave tracking on hazardous waste. The EPA's 2023 proposal to designate PFOA and PFOS as CERCLA hazardous substances under Superfund authority is the single largest regulatory development in a decade, potentially exposing landfill operators, wastewater utilities, and industrial dischargers to retroactive cleanup liability.

Geographic concentration matters: landfill permitting is controlled by state environmental agencies and local zoning boards, creating regional monopolies where new-site permits are effectively unobtainable. Texas, California, and the Great Lakes states (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana) host the highest volumes of municipal solid waste by tonnage. Remediation services cluster around Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) sites — New Jersey alone has 114 NPL sites, the most of any state — driving demand for firms like Clean Harbors, US Ecology (acquired by Republic Services), and Tetra Tech's remediation practice.