Waste Management, Inc. is North America's leading provider of integrated environmental solutions.With the largest network of recycling facilities, transfer stations and landfills in the industry, our entire business can adapt to meet the needs of every distinct customer group. In 2012, we worked with over 100 Fortune 500 companies and helped over 150 different communities become greener.
Waste Management is also a renewable energy provider, producing more than twice the amount of renewable electricity than the entire US solar industry. One of the ways we do this is by recovering the naturally occurring gas inside landfills to generate electricity, called landfill-gas-to-energy. By the end of 2012, we operated over 138 beneficial-use landfill-gas projects, producing enough energy to power nearly 500,000 homes.
As North America’s largest residential recycler, we expect to manage more than 20 million tons every year by 2020, up from the more than 12 million tons we handled in 2012. Part of that will come from expanding on proven technology to make recycling easier for consumers. Another part will be investing in future technologies, like converting organic waste from the materials stream to make high-end compost for local growers.