Waste Management 2006 Annual Report Download - page 37

Operations
General
We are the leading provider of integrated waste services to commercial, industrial, municipal and residential
customers throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. Our core business includes collection, transfer,
recycling, disposal and waste-to-energy services. We manage and evaluate our operations through six operating
Groups, of which four are organized by geographic area and two are organized by function. The geographic Groups
include our Eastern, Midwest, Southern and Western Groups, and the two functional Groups are our Wheelabrator
Group, which provides waste-to-energy services, and our Recycling Group. We also provide additional waste
management services that are not managed through our six Groups. These services include on-site services,
methane gas recovery and third-party sub-contracted and administrative services managed by our National
Accounts and Upstream organizations, and are presented in this report as “Other.”
The table below shows the total revenues (in millions) contributed annually by each of our reportable segments
in the three-year period ended December 31, 2006. More information about our results of operations by reportable
segment is included in Note 20 to the Consolidated Financial Statements and in the Management’s Discussion and
Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included in this report.
2006 2005 2004
Years Ended December 31,
Eastern ............................................. $ 3,830 $ 3,809 $ 3,744
Midwest ............................................ 3,112 3,054 2,971
Southern ............................................ 3,759 3,590 3,480
Western ............................................. 3,160 3,079 2,884
Wheelabrator ......................................... 902 879 835
Recycling ........................................... 766 833 745
Other............................................... 283 296 261
Intercompany. ........................................ (2,449) (2,466) (2,404)
Total ............................................. $13,363 $13,074 $12,516
The services we provide include collection, landfill (solid and hazardous waste landfills), transfer, Wheela-
brator (waste-to-energy facilities and independent power production plants), recycling, and other services, as
described below. The following table shows revenues (in millions) contributed by these services for each of the three
years indicated:
2006 2005 2004
Years Ended December 31,
Collection ........................................... $ 8,837 $ 8,633 $ 8,318
Landfill ............................................. 3,197 3,089 3,004
Transfer............................................. 1,802 1,756 1,680
Wheelabrator ......................................... 902 879 835
Recycling and other .................................... 1,074 1,183 1,083
Intercompany. ........................................ (2,449) (2,466) (2,404)
Total ............................................. $13,363 $13,074 $12,516
Collection. Our commitment to customers begins with a vast waste collection network. Collection involves
picking up and transporting waste from where it was generated to a transfer station or disposal site. We generally
provide collection services under two types of arrangements:
• For commercial and industrial collection services, typically we have a three-year service agreement. The
fees under the agreements are influenced by factors such as collection frequency, type of collection
equipment furnished by us, type and volume or weight of the waste collected, distance to the disposal
3