Waste Management 2011 Annual Report Download - page 83

Our Company is dedicated to three transformational goals that we believe will drive continued growth and
leadership in a dynamic industry: know more about our customers and how to service them than anyone else; use
conversion and processing technology to extract more value from the materials we manage; and continuously
improve our operational efficiency. We intend to pursue achievement of our long-term goals in the short-term
through efforts to:
‰Grow our markets by implementing customer-focused growth, through customer segmentation and
through strategic acquisitions, while maintaining our pricing discipline and increasing the amount of
recyclable materials we manage each year;
‰Grow our customer loyalty;
‰Grow into new markets by investing in greener technologies; and
‰Pursue initiatives that improve our operations and cost structure.
These efforts will be supported by ongoing improvements in information technologies. We believe that
execution of our strategy will provide long-term value to our stockholders. In addition, we intend to continue to
return value to our stockholders through common stock repurchases and dividend payments. In December 2011,
we announced that our Board of Directors expects that quarterly dividend payments will be increased to $0.355
per share in 2012, which is a 4.4% increase from the quarterly dividend we paid in 2011. This will result in an
increase in the amount of free cash flow that we expect to pay out as dividends for the ninth consecutive year and
is an indication of our ability to generate strong and consistent cash flows. All quarterly dividends will be
declared at the discretion of our Board of Directors.
Operations
General
We manage and evaluate our principal operations through five Groups. Our four geographic operating
Groups, comprised of our Eastern, Midwest, Southern and Western Groups, provide collection, transfer, disposal
(in both solid waste and hazardous waste landfills) and recycling services. Our fifth Group is the Wheelabrator
Group, which provides waste-to-energy services and manages waste-to-energy facilities and independent power
production plants, or IPPs. We also provide additional services that are not managed through our five Groups, as
described below. These operations are presented in this report as “Other.”
The table below shows the total revenues (in millions) contributed annually by each of our Groups, or
reportable segments, in the three-year period ended December 31, 2011. More information about our results of
operations by reportable segment is included in Note 21 to the Consolidated Financial Statements and in
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, included in this
report.
Years Ended December 31,
2011 2010 2009
Eastern ................................................ $ 3,115 $ 2,943 $ 2,960
Midwest ............................................... 3,213 3,048 2,855
Southern ............................................... 3,390 3,461 3,328
Western ................................................ 3,282 3,173 3,125
Wheelabrator ........................................... 877 889 841
Other .................................................. 1,532 963 628
Intercompany ........................................... (2,031) (1,962) (1,946)
Total ................................................ $13,378 $12,515 $11,791
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