Who is buying waste hauling companies?
19 named consolidator platforms are actively acquiring US waste hauling businesses; 10 of them are private-equity-backed. Typical waste hauling acquisitions price at 5x-8x EBITDA (2.5x-4x SDE for smaller owner-operated businesses), per published ranges from BizBuySell, John M. Salony and others. The most recent named acquisition tracked on this page closed in September 2026.
Why waste hauling companies are consolidating
- •The US waste and recycling industry, including medical and hazardous waste, reached an estimated $104.63 billion in revenue in 2024. Collection made up two-thirds of it ($69.46 billion), according to Waste Business Journal data reported by Waste Dive.
- •Municipal governments' share of industry revenue has fallen from 38% in 1992 to 16.9%, while private companies hold an 18.3% share worth just over $20 billion, according to Waste Business Journal via Waste Dive.
- •Public companies took roughly 85% of commercial and industrial collection revenue in 2024. In residential collection, private companies still earned $11 billion against $14.49 billion for public companies, according to Waste Business Journal via Waste Dive.
- •The five largest publicly traded waste companies tracked by Waste Dive spent nearly $3.3 billion on acquisitions in 2025. That was down from an estimated $10.9 billion in 2024, which included WM's $7.2 billion purchase of Stericycle, according to Waste Dive.
- •Texas saw at least 11 waste and recycling deals in the first half of 2026. North Carolina and Kansas each saw at least five, and Ohio, Tennessee and Oklahoma at least four each, according to Waste Dive's M&A tracker.
The platforms consolidating waste hauling companies
The named groups acquiring US waste hauling businesses, with their current owner and a source for each. Most grow through individual partnerships that are not separately disclosed; where a platform publishes named deals, recent ones are listed.
| Acquirer | Owner / backer | Type | Headquarters | Latest named deal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WM (Waste Management) | Publicly traded (NYSE: WM) | Strategic / public | Houston, TX | Sep 2026 |
| Republic Services | Publicly traded (NYSE: RSG) | Strategic / public | Phoenix, AZ | Jun 2026 |
| Waste Connections | Publicly traded (NYSE/TSX: WCN) | Strategic / public | The Woodlands, TX | Nov 2025 |
| GFL Environmental | Publicly traded (NYSE/TSX: GFL) | Strategic / public | Miami Beach, FL | Jun 2026 |
| Casella Waste Systems | Publicly traded (Nasdaq: CWST) | Strategic / public | Rutland, VT | Sep 2026 |
| Waste Pro USA | Privately owned and family-run (founded 2001 by John J. Jennings; CEO Sean Jennings) | Strategic / family-owned | Longwood, FL | Apr 2026 |
| Interstate Waste Services (IWS, incl. Action Environmental) | Littlejohn & Co. and Ares Management (Ares took a significant equity stake in Oct 2023); Harvest Partners Structured Capital also lists IWS as an investment | Private equity | Teaneck, NJ | Apr 2026 |
| Ecowaste Solutions | Kinderhook Industries (single-asset continuation vehicle, in partnership with Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Apollo S3) | Private equity | Coppell, TX | Sep 2026 |
| Meridian Waste | Warren Equity Partners (since April 2018) | Private equity | Charlotte, NC | Aug 2026 |
| Waste Eliminator and Liberty Waste Solutions | TPG (TPG Transition Infrastructure), which bought both from Allied Industrial Partners; the deal closed Aug 2026 | Private equity | Gainesville, GA and Raleigh, NC | Jun 2026 |
| Recology | Employees (100% employee owned) | Employee-owned (ESOP) | San Francisco, CA | Jul 2026 |
| Best Trash | H.I.G. Capital affiliate (H.I.G. Infrastructure), since July 2024 | Private equity | Richmond, TX | Oct 2025 |
| Blue Castle Waste Solutions | Blue Sage Capital (Blue Sage Capital IV), with Castle Capital | Private equity | Not disclosed | Sep 2026 |
| TXP Environmental (Texas Pride Disposal) | NMS Capital | Private equity | Houston, TX | Jan 2026 |
| Rumpke Waste & Recycling | Rumpke family (company says it has no outside investors) | Strategic / family-owned | Cincinnati, OH | Dec 2024 |
| Coastal Waste & Recycling | Macquarie Asset Management (majority owner since June 2023) | Private equity | Boca Raton, FL | Oct 2024 |
| Arrow Waste | Carr's Hill Partners (since 2022) | Private equity | Atlanta, GA | May 2024 |
| Hoffman Sanitation Services | Owned and operated by Stewart Hoffman | Strategic / family-owned | Durant, OK | May 2026 |
| ReSource Waste Services | GCM Grosvenor (majority since 2021) and ReEnergy Holdings | Private equity | Avon, MA | Apr 2026 |
WM (Waste Management)
Strategic / public- Owner
- Publicly traded (NYSE: WM)
- Headquarters
- Houston, TX
- Scale
- Owned or operated 342 transfer stations in the U.S. and Canada as of Dec. 31, 2025
WM completed about $400M of tuck-in acquisitions in 2025. It expects to return to its typical $100M-$200M a year of M&A spending in 2026 (Waste Dive, Feb 2026). HBS was reported by Waste Today (Jun 2026) and Mumford by the Herald Journal (Sep 2026).
Republic Services
Strategic / public- Owner
- Publicly traded (NYSE: RSG)
- Headquarters
- Phoenix, AZ
- Scale
- 377 collection operations, 255 transfer stations, 79 recycling centers and 207 active landfills across the U.S. and Canada (2025 10-K)
Republic spent about $1.1B on acquisitions in 2025. Its CEO said it could spend another $1B in 2026 (Waste Dive, Feb 2026).
Waste Connections
Strategic / public- Owner
- Publicly traded (NYSE/TSX: WCN)
- Headquarters
- The Woodlands, TX
- Scale
- Solid waste services in 46 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces
Completed 19 deals in 2025 (Waste Dive, Feb 2026).
GFL Environmental
Strategic / public- Owner
- Publicly traded (NYSE/TSX: GFL)
- Headquarters
- Miami Beach, FL
- Scale
- Operations throughout Canada and in 18 U.S. states (Q1 2026 MD&A)
OWNER MAY CHANGE. Bloomberg reported in Jul 2026 that GFL was weighing a take-private after interest from buyout firms. In Sep 2026 Bloomberg reported two rival consortia were bidding: KKR, Energy Capital Partners and Blackstone in one, Brookfield and IFM Investors in the other. CEO Patrick Dovigi said he was open to offers. No signed agreement was found as of Oct 5, 2026. GFL's registered office is still in Vaughan, ON.
Casella Waste Systems
Strategic / public- Owner
- Publicly traded (Nasdaq: CWST)
- Headquarters
- Rutland, VT
- Scale
- Operating locations in eleven states: VT, NH, NY, MA, CT, ME, PA, DE, NJ, MD and WV (fiscal 2025 10-K)
Closed nine acquisitions in 2025 (Waste Dive, Feb 2026).
Waste Pro USA
Strategic / family-owned- Owner
- Privately owned and family-run (founded 2001 by John J. Jennings; CEO Sean Jennings)
- Headquarters
- Longwood, FL
- Scale
- 12-state footprint (Oct 2025)
Had closed 24 acquisitions in 2025 by Oct 8, 2025 (company release).
Interstate Waste Services (IWS, incl. Action Environmental)
Private equity- Owner
- Littlejohn & Co. and Ares Management (Ares took a significant equity stake in Oct 2023); Harvest Partners Structured Capital also lists IWS as an investment
- Headquarters
- Teaneck, NJ
- Scale
- Fleet of more than 600 vehicles in the Northeast (Aug 2024)
POSSIBLE SALE: Octus reported on Jul 30, 2026 that Littlejohn and Ares are preparing a potential sale of IWS. MergerLinks dates the Harvest Partners transaction to Sep 29, 2025, but Harvest calls it a Structured Capital investment and its size is not disclosed. Waste Dive (Nov 2025) says Action has bought assets from more than a dozen NYC haulers since the city began rolling out commercial waste zones.
Ecowaste Solutions
Private equity- Owner
- Kinderhook Industries (single-asset continuation vehicle, in partnership with Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Apollo S3)
- Headquarters
- Coppell, TX
- Scale
- Operates in ten states (company release, Sep 2026). At formation it had 600+ vehicles, 29 hauling yards, nine transfer stations/MRFs and three landfills (Waste Dive, Feb 2026)
Formed in Jan 2026 by combining Live Oak Environmental and CARDS Recycling. Kinderhook's release gives Dallas as the HQ; Waste Dive and the company's own releases say Coppell, a Dallas suburb. Ecowaste had closed 10 deals by Jul 2026. Its CEO says it will look at haulers of all sizes, including one-to-10-route operators in its existing markets (Waste Dive, Jul 2026).
Meridian Waste
Private equity- Owner
- Warren Equity Partners (since April 2018)
- Headquarters
- Charlotte, NC
- Scale
- Operates in Northeast FL; St. Louis, MO; Raleigh and the Triad, NC; Greenville, SC; Knoxville, TN; Huntsville and Central AL; North and South MS; and Blacksburg, Harrisonburg and Richmond, VA (Feb 2026 release)
Waste Knot was Meridian's 37th acquisition under Warren Equity (Apr 2026 release).
Waste Eliminator and Liberty Waste Solutions
Private equity- Owner
- TPG (TPG Transition Infrastructure), which bought both from Allied Industrial Partners; the deal closed Aug 2026
- Headquarters
- Gainesville, GA and Raleigh, NC
- Scale
- 14 permitted facilities and more than 500 fleet vehicles across Georgia and the Carolinas
NEW OWNER. The listed add-ons were made under Allied Industrial Partners. TPG signed in Jun 2026 and closed in Aug 2026 (Allied/Business Wire; Waste Dive). It named Rich Kang CEO of both companies.
Recology
Employee-owned (ESOP)- Owner
- Employees (100% employee owned)
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
- Scale
- 133 communities in California, Oregon and Washington (2026 Sustainability Update)
Recology does not buy often. Waste Dive called the Tahoe Truckee deal its first acquisition since 2023. The deal is expected to close in fall 2026.
Best Trash
Private equity- Owner
- H.I.G. Capital affiliate (H.I.G. Infrastructure), since July 2024
- Headquarters
- Richmond, TX
- Scale
- More than 400 trucks and 700,000 homes served in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi (company site, 2025)
H.I.G. Infrastructure's portfolio page still lists Best Trash as active. In 2025 Best Trash also bought the Circle Lake Transfer Station permit in Montgomery County, TX (company site).
Blue Castle Waste Solutions
Private equity- Owner
- Blue Sage Capital (Blue Sage Capital IV), with Castle Capital
- Headquarters
- Not disclosed
- Scale
- Three acquisitions in Minnesota and Iowa; owns one transfer station and operates two more under contract
Launched Sep 2026. Blue Sage calls Castle Capital 'experienced operators' who have built and exited environmental services platforms. Blue Sage was an early backer of Frontier Waste. It expects Blue Castle to close two more acquisitions in its first year (Waste Dive, Sep 2026).
TXP Environmental (Texas Pride Disposal)
Private equity- Owner
- NMS Capital
- Headquarters
- Houston, TX
- Scale
- Not disclosed
Diamond Back was TXP's fifth acquisition under NMS. Stonepeak Credit provided a new credit facility that TXP says will fund more acquisitions. TXP is the parent of Texas Pride Disposal, West Texas Dumpsters, South Texas Dumpsters, Smooth Move Services, Basin Disposal and Diamond Back.
Rumpke Waste & Recycling
Strategic / family-owned- Owner
- Rumpke family (company says it has no outside investors)
- Headquarters
- Cincinnati, OH
- Scale
- Team of more than 4,000 serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and West Virginia; 15 landfills and 14 recycling centers
Completed 10 acquisitions in 2024 and 72 since 2016 (company release). Its acquisitions page says it is actively looking for more. No named 2025-2026 deals were found.
Coastal Waste & Recycling
Private equity- Owner
- Macquarie Asset Management (majority owner since June 2023)
- Headquarters
- Boca Raton, FL
- Scale
- 51 locations in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina; fleet of over 1,000 (Waste Advantage, Oct 2026)
Backed by an infrastructure fund, which is counted here as private equity. Macquarie's portfolio page still lists Coastal. No named 2025-2026 deals were found.
Arrow Waste
Private equity- Owner
- Carr's Hill Partners (since 2022)
- Headquarters
- Atlanta, GA
- Scale
- 35+ roll-off routes serving 10,000+ roll-off customers a year and 15,000+ residential and commercial customers (per Carr's Hill)
Carr's Hill closed a new senior credit facility with Crestline for Arrow in Oct 2025 to speed up growth (Business Wire). The PrivSource deal database lists one more add-on, Clean Earth Sanitation (Jackson, GA, Sep 2024). No named 2025-2026 add-ons were found.
Hoffman Sanitation Services
Strategic / family-owned- Owner
- Owned and operated by Stewart Hoffman
- Headquarters
- Durant, OK
- Scale
- Not disclosed
An owner-operated buyer, not institutionally backed. County Line was its 12th acquisition and its second of 2026. It made five in 2025 (Waste Today, May 2026).
ReSource Waste Services
Private equity- Owner
- GCM Grosvenor (majority since 2021) and ReEnergy Holdings
- Headquarters
- Avon, MA
- Scale
- Four C&D processing facilities in NH, MA and ME and a rail-served C&D transfer station in MA; more than 170 employees (Nov 2025)
Focused on C&D (construction and demolition) recycling, and buys roll-off haulers in New England. GCM Grosvenor is an alternative asset manager, counted here as private equity.
Selling in your state?
What waste hauling businesses sell for, who is buying, and how many there are, state by state.
Frequently asked
Who buys waste hauling companies?
Two main groups. The first is the public consolidators. WM, Republic Services, Waste Connections, GFL Environmental and Casella together spent nearly $3.3 billion on acquisitions in 2025 (Waste Dive). The second is private-equity-backed platforms. These include Kinderhook's Ecowaste Solutions, TPG's Waste Eliminator/Liberty Waste, Warren Equity's Meridian Waste, H.I.G.'s Best Trash, Blue Sage's Blue Castle and Littlejohn/Ares-backed Interstate Waste Services. Family-owned Waste Pro, Rumpke and Hoffman Sanitation buy haulers too, as does employee-owned Recology.
What multiple will my hauling company sell for?
For small owner-operated businesses, BizBuySell says waste and recycling companies sold on its site tend to go for around 3x seller's discretionary earnings (SDE). Its 2021-2025 average was 3.31x. Advisor John Salony puts residential and commercial owner-operators at 3.5x-4.5x SDE and roll-off-heavy businesses at 2.5x-3.5x. Lower-middle-market haulers are quoted at roughly 5x-8x EBITDA (Salony), and Waste Advantage puts a single regional hauler at five or six times EBITDA. Lakeside Acquisitions' Matt Hillin says six to nine times is realistic for well-run haulers with $10M-$30M of revenue.
What raises or lowers the price a buyer will pay?
Advisors point to route density, contract mix, recurring revenue, asset quality and customer concentration. Salony says buyers discount owner-dependent companies by 0.5x-1.5x EBITDA. They take a similar 0.5x-1.5x off when the top five customers make up more than 25% of revenue. Lakeside's Matt Hillin says an owner-dependent business can lose 'a couple turns of EBITDA' in value, if a buyer will take it at all.
Will a private-equity platform look at a hauler with only a few trucks?
Some say yes. Ecowaste CEO Dustin Reynolds told Waste Dive in July 2026 that the company will look at haulers of all sizes, including one-to-10-route operators in its existing markets. Ecowaste had closed 10 deals by then. Blue Castle launched in September 2026 by buying three small Minnesota and Iowa haulers, and expects two more acquisitions in its first year.
Which states are seeing the most hauler acquisitions?
In the first half of 2026, Waste Dive's tracker counted at least 11 waste and recycling deals in Texas and at least five each in North Carolina and Kansas. Ohio, Tennessee and Oklahoma had at least four each. Waste Dive says capital is chasing markets with room for consolidation and population growth, which has drawn plenty of M&A interest to the Southeast and central US.
Is the industry still consolidating?
Yes. Waste Business Journal says municipal governments' share of US waste revenue has fallen from 38% in 1992 to 16.9%. Private companies hold 18.3%, and public companies took about 85% of commercial and industrial collection revenue in 2024. Private companies are strongest in residential collection, where they earned $11 billion in 2024.
Methodology & sources
Deals and acquirers came first from Waste Dive's 2024-2026 M&A tracker. We read its three underlying Datawrapper tables (319 rows) directly. We then checked each platform owner, target location and date against the sponsor's or acquirer's press release, an SEC filing, or local and trade press, all read on Oct 5, 2026. Where the tracker and a press release disagreed, the press release won. For each platform we also searched for any 2025-2026 sale, recapitalization or merger. Multiples come from BizBuySell closed-sale data, M&A-advisor publications, a podcast transcript and trade press. Platform revenue and EBITDA are left out on purpose. Research used direct page fetches and the Parallel search helper. The built-in WebSearch tool was not used.
Multiple sources
- BizBuySell, Waste Management & Recycling Valuation Benchmarks (closed sales 2021-2025) ↗
- John M. Salony, M&A advisor, YourExitValue (May 8, 2026) ↗
- John M. Salony, M&A advisor (Mar 30, 2026; same author as above) ↗
- Matt Hillin, Lakeside Acquisitions, on the Waste Nexus podcast (Jul 6, 2026; transcript) ↗
- Waste Advantage Magazine, Samuele Barrili (Jul 15, 2026) ↗
- CurbWaste, dumpster rental industry white paper (software vendor) ↗
Market sources
- Waste Dive: Waste and recycling is now a $100B industry (Waste Business Journal data), Mar 21, 2025 ↗
- Waste Dive: Major public waste companies spent nearly $3.3B on M&A in 2025, Feb 26, 2026 ↗
- Waste Dive: Waste M&A remained active through the first half of 2026, Jul 20, 2026 ↗
- Waste Dive: Tracking the waste and recycling industry's M&A activity (2024-2026 deal tables, updated Oct 1, 2026) ↗
Last updated October 6, 2026. Platform ownership last verified October 6, 2026. Ownership in this sector changes frequently; figures reflect the most recent public sources available and are not investment, legal, or tax advice.
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