Philadelphia has witnessed a revolution in recycling and green energy services. It is now easy to rent a dumpster for junk disposal, so that all the waste and junk or residents and businesses alike can be sent to the nearest landfill.
Philadelphia dumpster rentals
Let’s first talk about the main US waste management companies.
Rollins is a Delaware company specializing in the incineration of hazardous materials. In 1993, it bought a subsidiary of Westinghouse specializing in the same field (turnover $85m) which brought its activity to $214m.
With these exchanges which involve Westinghouse or Union Pacific, it should be noted that the consolidation of the sector can be done by taking over public contracts and/or private companies but also by buying out subsidiaries of groups for which this is not the central business.
Safety Kleen, created in 1968, is the leader on the American market in the recovery of oils and solvents by different types of processes, in particular by suction. It held 50% of the service station market in 1992 and on that date its turnover was $795m.
Thanks to this acquisition, the new Laidlaw-Safety Kleen group has a turnover of $1.6bn, holds 50% of the hazardous waste market (incinerators, landfills and collection centers) and can develop thanks to Safety Kleen towards smaller customers (garage operators). The new set will take the name of Safety Kleen; it is a 44% subsidiary of Laidlaw.
A year later, in 1999, a new turnaround. The management of Laidlaw announces its decision to sell its health department (ambulance transport) and the 44% it holds in the new SK. She is expecting $2bn, which after debt reduction would leave her with $1bn to concentrate on bus transport alone.
This is in more ways than one a change of strategy. A year earlier, the group was battling for control of SK. And it was in 1997 that he decided to enter the health sector by taking control of American Medical Response, the first American group of ambulances.
This plan will not have time to be put in place.
Philadelphia junk disposal services
In the spring of 2000 Laidlaw announced a huge loss of $1.46bn linked to its waste and ambulance activities. The first were affected six months earlier by revelations concerning accounting irregularities in the South Carolina subsidiary.
It was an asset from the laidlaw waste department, while the group fails to sell the ambulances. The group reassesses the value of SK from $560m to $43.8m which gives an idea of the losses and it could be obliged to review the accounts for the past three years. In June SK announces a default of $60m and files for bankruptcy protection.
Ogden waste management
Ogden (New York) was created in 1939 and operated until 1953 as an investment company. It was listed on the stock exchange in 1966. In the early 1990s, it could be defined as a leader in incineration (waste-to-energy) in the same way as Wheelabrator and as a service company working for airports and complexes.
It only approached the waste market through this single incineration component. It then develops rapidly in its initial trades and diversifies. This is how it signed a partnership agreement in 1994 with Yorkshire Water, the fifth largest English water company, with a view to developing in the waste water sector.
Various disposals will lead to a sharp reduction in turnover, which after its peak in 1993 stood at 0.97bn in 1997. The group developed vigorously in the production of independent energy by Ogden Energy.
In 1999, the group decided to sell all its activities in aviation and leisure services and to refocus on the environment, which includes: incineration, environmental services, dumpster rentals, water treatment and electricity generation. In this last activity, the group operates a fleet of 1,735 MW with power plants in North America and abroad: China, Philippines, Thailand, India, Costa Rica.
A year later, it will be done with the sale of catering concessions and leisure parks.
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