The U.S. Department of Justice announced March 31 that Republic Services Inc., Phoenix, will be required to divest waste collection and disposal assets in five states in order to proceed with its acquisition of Santek Waste Services LLC, Cleveland, Tennessee. The department says that without the divestiture, the proposed acquisition would substantially lessen competition for small container commercial waste collection and municipal solid waste disposal services in six local markets across the southeastern United States.
The department’s Antitrust Division—along with the Alabama Attorney General—filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed transaction. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive harm alleged in the department’s complaint.
“The waste collection and disposal services provided by Republic and Santek are essential services for businesses, municipalities and towns,” DOJ Antitrust Division Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard A. Powers says in a written statement. “Today’s settlement, which requires Republic and Santek to divest numerous facilities and assets in five states, will ensure that these customers continue to benefit from competition for these critical services.”
According to the complaint, Republic and Santek provide small container commercial waste collection and municipal solid waste disposal services. In each of the local markets alleged in the complaint, Republic and Santek compete against each other and are two of only a few significant providers of one or both of these essential services. The combination of the two companies would eliminate head-to-head competition between them and threaten the lower prices and better service that customers have realized from that competition, the DOJ notes in the statement.
The complaint further alleges that, in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, and northern Georgia area, the proposed acquisition would limit the ability of collection rivals to compete with the merged company’s collection operations. The combination of these two vertically integrated companies that are both strong in collection and disposal in this market would give the merged company an increased incentive and ability to weaken its collection competitors by raising the price of disposal, a key input for collection services. With limited alternative disposal options left in the market, collection rivals would have to incur higher disposal costs or cease their operations, thereby reducing competition in the collection market.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Republic and Santek must divest landfills, transfer stations, hauling locations, and waste collection routes in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi to New York City-based Kinderhook Industries LLC, or to an alternate acquirer approved by the United States. Kinderhook is a private investment firm whose portfolio companies include Capital Waste Services LLC, Columbia, South Carolina, and EcoSouth Services of Mobile LLC, Axis, Alabama.
The proposed settlement also requires that Republic and Santek divest waste collection routes and associated assets in Texas to Waste Connections Inc., Ontario, or to an alternate acquirer approved by the United States. WCN is a provider of small container commercial waste collection and municipal solid waste disposal services in local markets in Canada and the United States.
Republic generated total revenues of approximately $10.2 billion in 2020.
Santek generated total revenues of approximately $140 million in 2019, the last year for which information is publicly available.
Quiet airports could yield high-volume opportunities
Airports made much quieter by COVID-19 restrictions are replacing some of the noise with federally funded construction projects.
Airports in the United States have numerous stakeholders, with regional agencies and commercial and cargo airlines usually part of the mix. The federal government, via several agencies within the U.S. Department of Transportation or Department of Commerce, also plays a role.
In addition to regional agency or port authority bonds or financing, the federal government often is turned to for funding, and that has proven to be the case as airports and airlines have grappled with a plunge in passenger traffic in 2020 and early 2021 because of COVID-19 concerns and restrictions.
In September 2020, the Trump administration allocated some $1.2 billion in infrastructure grants to airport operators, with then Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao saying, “This $1.2 billion federal investment will improve our nation’s airport infrastructure, enhance safety and strengthen growth in local communities, which is especially important as the economy recovers from COVID-19.”
The Trump administration at that time said it had directed $13.5 billion to America’s airports to improve infrastructure and safety, including about $10 billion in economic assistance relating to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Whether because of government requirements or corporate sustainability targets, many of the subsequent airport and transportation projects will aspire to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or other green building goals that prioritize recycling.
As contractors and processors of C&D materials survey their regional markets for opportunities in 2021, they may be well-served to stay in touch with developments at airports, train stations and toll roads to make sure they are aware of pending projects and bidding opportunities.
Less volume, fewer hassles
For airlines and airport management agencies experiencing plummeting revenue because of COVID-19, it may be hard to find any silver linings. One of the few may be the opportunity to ramp up renovation or construction projects when there are fewer passengers to notice the disruption.
Projects currently underway at airports were planned well before COVID-19 emerged as a global health crisis. The lack of travel seems to have helped speed up and maintain timetables of many of those projects, however, and the federal government’s willingness to inject cash into the economy is likely to prompt additional efforts in the near future.
For recyclers and contractors who specialize in materials diversion and recycling, the renewed activity has a high probability of including recycling targets set by one or more of the entities involved in overseeing these projects.
One such stakeholder is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which operates: three international airports (John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark); two smaller airports; a global seaport network with several terminals; toll roads, bridges and tunnels (see the sidebar “Bridging the diversion gap,” on page 39); bus terminals; the PATH regional train system; and the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
Abigail Goldring of the PANYNJ media relations staff says the authority’s Clean Construction Program is tied to its larger commitment to the Paris accord on combatting climate change. “That includes reaching the greenhouse gas reduction goals we set in 2018 when we embraced the tenets of the Paris Climate Agreement: reducing our emissions by 35 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050,” she comments. “We are proud to be a leader in developing and implementing innovative strategies and technologies to help us achieve those goals, including in the areas of green building and clean construction.”
Airport projects in New York and New Jersey are far from the only ones that have pursued or attained LEED certification status, a process that can include earning points by diverting a high double-digit percentage of discarded materials for recycling.
The Washington-based Green Building Information Gateway (GBIG) has identified 26 U.S. airport construction or renovation projects that have attained LEED certification. The West Coast has an outsized presence on the list, with 19 of the projects in the three Pacific Coast states (17 in California and one each in Oregon and Washington).
Some of those projects are smaller and may encompass a single airport lounge. Others are larger, such as the more than 1.2 million square feet of space at the Indianapolis International Airport that opened in 2008. LEED certification also was attained on major projects at international airports in Boston, Miami and Portland, Oregon, according to GBIG.
Green building goals will likely help ensure containers are placed to divert C&D scrap materials to recycling destinations at transportation hubs throughout the U.S. in the near future.
A small but helpful role
The materials recycling aspects of the overall LEED scorecard make up just a small percentage of the points in the scoring system, but the notion of demonstrating visible support for a more circular outcome for debris and scrap tends to make those points a priority at most job sites.
“Sustainability is one of the agency’s six core priorities,” says Goldring. “The newly launched Clean Construction Program will help the Port Authority reduce emissions through several leading initiatives, including diverting waste from landfills,” she adds.
Goldring says PANYNJ is developing new tools to help contractors recycle. “The agency is in the process of developing a Construction Waste Matching Tool and other new technologies to help promote circularity among its large portfolio of transportation facilities,” she notes.
A breakdown of the program that helped the Indianapolis International Airport (IND) attain LEED certification demonstrates some of the ways mixed C&D facility operators and contractors who are familiar with recycling can get involved in airport construction and renovation projects.
According to a news release from Indianapolis International Airport detailing LEED aspects of its construction project, “During construction, the project’s waste recycling program separated and diverted more than half of the project’s construction debris away from landfills for reuse elsewhere.”
Adds the IND airport agency, “The project also reused pavement rubble from demolished roads and taxiways as fill on-site. Overall, use of recycled materials in construction exceeded 27 percent, reducing raw material demand and often requiring less energy than materials derived ‘from scratch.’”
The airport’s managers say the recycling mentality has carried over into day-to-day operations, as “recycling stations are located throughout the airport, and channels [materials] into community recycling programs.”
Sustainability on the passenger manifesto
How many such opportunities emerge in 2021 and 2022, prompted by government stimulus spending, remains uncertain, although the Trump era allocations should provide a boost. As of February, the new Biden administration and new Congress are working their way into federal agency and legislative agendas that may look very different from the four Trump administration budgets that preceded them.
An initial proposal from Democrats in the House of Representatives calls for airline payrolls to be the biggest beneficiary, with a committee in the House recommending a $15 billion allotment to airlines to keep their workforces in place.
Adds the politics-focused website The Hill in a Feb. 9 article, “A measure from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee includes $50 billion for a disaster relief fund, $30 billion for transit agencies, $8 billion for airports, $3 billion for aerospace manufacturing and $1.5 billion for Amtrak.”
The PANYNJ is in the midst of renovating the Central Hall at LaGuardia Airport in New York and says it is “embarking on a major modernization and redevelopment effort to position EWR [the Newark, New Jersey, airport] to meet the needs of the 21st century.”
The Newark Liberty Airport project involves installing a “best-in-class arrivals frontage design,” says the authority. The 1-million-square-foot terminal will open in late 2022 “with cutting-edge design changes built into the structure,” says PANYNJ.
In a December 2020 news release, Port Authority Chair Kevin O’Toole states, “The impact of COVID-19 reflects a new reality in how transportation agencies can and must plan for the future. The Port Authority and Newark Liberty are charting a new post-pandemic path by building smart, safe and sustainable features into this impressive new terminal.”
Projects at airports throughout the U.S. are likely to include the word “sustainable” in their description, whether they are pursuing LEED certification or striving to meet other government or corporate sustainability goals that most often include a recycling emphasis.
Speaking about the agency’s willingness to continue to go green in the future, Goldring says, “We look forward to working with the Biden administration on carrying out sustainability initiatives that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
This article originally appeared in the March/April issue of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine. The author is a senior editor with the Recycling Today Media Group and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.
Lakeshore Recycling Systems announces rebrand to LRS
The rebrand will take place across all of its service areas in the six states in which it currently operates.
Lakeshore Recycling Systems, Morton Grove, Illinois, announced April 1 that it is rebranding to LRS. Effective immediately, the rebrand will take place across all of its service areas in the six states in which it currently operates.
“We’re streamlining and consolidating the history and goodwill of each company acquired by LRS over the past decade, all while continuing to honor their independence and commitment to exceptional customer service,” LRS CEO Alan T. Handley says.
Since its inception in 2013 by way of a merger between Lakeshore Waste Services and Recycling Services Inc., LRS has experienced growth through the strategic acquisition of independent waste and recycling service providers. Currently, the company notes it is the nation’s seventh-largest privately held waste and recycling company.
“Our rebrand unites and pays tribute to those incredible legacies, building support around the LRS name and brand,” says Handley.
The rebranding will be noticeable on everything from dumpsters, roll-off containers and trucks, to equipment, facility signage and customer communications, LRS says.
“In certain areas, the name change to LRS may be a new visual, but customers can continue to count on receiving the same exceptional services, managed locally, that differentiates LRS from our large publicly traded competitors,” LRS Chief Marketing Officer Brian Tibble says.
Since 2014, LRS has closed more than 25 strategic acquisitions in five states, including Heartland Recycling (Forest View, Illinois); C&D Recycling (Northbrook, Illinois); K. Hoving Companies (West Chicago, Illinois); Area Restroom Solutions (Aurora, Illinois); DC Trash of Illinois (DeKalb, Illinois); Badgerland Disposal (Milton, Wisconsin); Prime Portables Inc. (Mokena, Illinois); DuPage Disposal (West Chicago, Illinois); Royal Container Services (Madison, Wisconsin); Drop Zone Portable Services (Joliet, Illinois); Molenhouse Enterprises (Warrenville, Illinois); Atkinson Landfill (Atkinson, Illinois); Choice Disposal (Ixonia, Wisconsin); Supreme Disposal and Waste Cycle (Milwaukee, Wisconsin); Landfill Reduction and Recycling (Appleton, Wisconsin); Big John (Oregon, Illinois); Roy Strom Companies (Maywood, Illinois), Ace Portables (Janesville, Wisconsin); Joy’s Johns (Niles, Michigan); and Johnson Johns (Kingsbury, Indiana).
“In the past eight years, LRS has grown quickly through strong organic growth based on best-in-class customer service, the winning of dozens of large municipal contracts and strategically acquiring key companies throughout the Midwest that align with our business model,” says Tibble. “With this rapid growth, rebranding will assist in consolidating and unifying our brand in all of our geographic service areas. Our new logo, name and brand identity connects our company to the past and prepares us for all of the future growth that is ahead.”
Hyundai Construction Equipment holding photo contest
Equipment maker seeks photos of its machines posed or in action.
Norcross, Georgia-based Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas is holding a photo contest in the United States and Canada offering prizes with an estimated $5,000 in retail value.
“Customers have a chance to show off their Hyundai machinery with up to three entries into the contest,” says the maker of excavators, wheel loaders, compaction equipment and hydraulic breakers.
Hyundai says the judging “will be based on creativity, prominence of Hyundai Equipment, and spirit.”
The company says a grand prize worth more than $1,500 and a second prize worth more than $700 will be given to the two individuals whose eligible photo entries receive the most votes by the promotion deadline.
All other eligible entries, says the company, will receive a Hyundai branded merchandise consolation prize pack with an estimated retail value of $20.
More information on the prizes and how to enter the contest can be found on this web page.
David Seiler (left), an account executive with Gershow Recycling, joins members of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe at the “Metal for Tesla” event in Shoreham, New York. Also pictured, left to right, are: Douglas Borge, chief operating officer of TSCW; Paul Rosa, a volunteer; Eugene Genova, TSCW board member; and Dan Black, Judy Black, Jeff Brown and Karl Sidenius, volunteers.
Photo provided by Gershow Recycling and PRMG New York.
Gershow event yields 15 tons of scrap
Long Island scrap firm collects metal to help fund a campus cleanup.
Medford, New York-based Gershow Recycling sponsored and helped conduct a scrap metal collection event in March to raise money to support the renovation of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe (TSCW) in Shoreham, New York.
The currently vacant Wardenclyffe property on Long Island once served as a laboratory for inventor and entrepreneur Nikola Tesla. The site has been purchased by a crowd-funded organization that wants to see the building and campus become a regional science and technology center or a museum.
Gershow Recycling’s “Metal for Tesla” March 20 fundraiser resulted in the collection of 30,000 pounds (15 tons) of scrap metal. Through the fundraiser and donations made by Gershow, $9,500 was raised to support TSCW. Proceeds went to support renovations at the Wardenclyffe property.
In addition to its sponsorship of the event, Gershow Recycling provided the use of a scrap metal container and handed out hats, magnets, sweatshirts and brochures to those in attendance, says the firm.
Since 2013, the company has provided scrap metal containers for TSCW as part of its efforts to help the non-profit organization renovate Wardenclyffe. Plans for the property include a Tesla museum, an Education and Visitor Center with space to host community workshops and an innovation center for startup companies to help launch their businesses.
Gershow Recycling operates nine scrap yards in the New York city area, including an auto shredding plant in Medford.
Posted by Adam Redling
Brian Taylor
