Waste Management 2008 Annual Report Download - page 85
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Please find page 85 of the 2008 Waste Management annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.(a) Environmental liabilities include final capping, closure, post-closure and environmental remediation costs. The
amounts included here reflect environmental liabilities recorded in our Consolidated Balance Sheet as of
December 31, 2008 without the impact of discounting and inflation. Our recorded environmental liabilities for
final capping, closure and post-closure will increase as we continue to place additional tons within the permitted
airspace at our landfills.
(b) Our debt obligations as of December 31, 2008 include $347 million of fixed rate tax-exempt bonds and
$40 million of tax-exempt project bonds subject to repricing within the next twelve months, which is prior to
their scheduled maturities. If the re-offerings of the bonds are unsuccessful, then the bonds can be put to us,
requiring immediate repayment. We have classified the anticipated cash flows for these contractual obligations
based on the scheduled maturity of the borrowing for purposes of this disclosure. For additional information
regarding the classification of these borrowings in our Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2008,
refer to Note 7 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
(c) Our recorded debt obligations include non-cash adjustments associated with discounts, premiums and fair value
adjustments for interest rate hedging activities. These amounts have been excluded here because they will not
result in an impact to our liquidity in future periods. In addition, $35 million of our future debt payments and
related interest obligations will be made with debt service funds held in trust and included as long-term “Other
assets” within our December 31, 2008 Consolidated Balance Sheet.
(d) Our unrecorded obligations represent operating lease obligations and purchase commitments from which we
expect to realize an economic benefit in future periods. We have also made certain guarantees, as discussed in
Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, that we do not expect to materially affect our current or
future financial position, results of operations or liquidity.
(e) Our unconditional purchase obligations are for various contractual obligations that we generally incur in the
ordinary course of our business. Certain of our obligations are quantity driven. For these contracts, we have
estimated our future obligations based on the current market values of the underlying products or services. This
approach has resulted in a significant decline in our reported contractual obligations associated with our waste
paper purchase agreements due to the sharp decline in commodity prices late in 2008. Accordingly, the amounts
reported in the table will not be indicative of our actual cash flow obligations associated with these contracts
should the market prices for the recyclable commodities recover. See Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial
Statements for discussion of the nature and terms of our unconditional purchase obligations.
We have contingencies that are not considered reasonably likely. As a result, the impact of these contingencies
has not been included in the above table. See Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for further
discussion of these contingencies.
Liquidity Impacts of Uncertain Tax Positions
As discussed in Note 8 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, we have liabilities associated with
unrecognized tax benefits and related interest. These liabilities are primarily included as a component of long-
term “Other liabilities” in our Consolidated Balance Sheet because the Company generally does not anticipate that
settlement of the liabilities will require payment of cash within the next twelve months. We are not able to
reasonably estimate when we would make any cash payments required to settle these liabilities, but do not believe
that the ultimate settlement of our obligations will materially affect our liquidity.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We are party to guarantee arrangements with unconsolidated entities as discussed in the Guarantees section of
Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial Statements. Our third-party guarantee arrangements are generally established
to support our financial assurance needs and landfill operations. These arrangements have not materially affected
our financial position, results of operations or liquidity during the year ended December 31, 2008 nor are they
expected to have a material impact on our future financial position, results of operations or liquidity.
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