Waste Management 2014 Annual Report Download - page 173

WASTE MANAGEMENT, INC.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS — (Continued)
approximately $23 million due to the acceleration of the timing of closure and post-closure activities at two
of our landfills related to landfill asset impairments, discussed further in Note 13.
(b) The amount reported in 2013 for our environmental remediation liabilities includes the impact of an
increase in the risk-free discount rate used to measure our liabilities from 1.75% at December 31, 2012 to
3.0% at December 31, 2013, resulting in a decrease of $18 million to our environmental remediation
liabilities and a corresponding decrease to “Operating” expenses.
The amount reported in 2014 for environmental remediation liabilities includes the impact of a decrease in
the risk-free discount rate used to measure our liabilities from 3.0% at December 31, 2013 to 2.0% at
December 31, 2014, resulting in an increase of $13 million to our environmental remediation liabilities and
a corresponding increase to “Operating” expenses.
(c) The amounts reported for our 2014 landfill liabilities include reductions of approximately $25 million for
divestitures, including the divestiture of our Wheelabrator business.
Our recorded liabilities as of December 31, 2014 include the impacts of inflating certain of these costs based
on our expectations for the timing of cash settlement and of discounting certain of these costs to present value.
Anticipated payments of currently identified environmental remediation liabilities as measured in current dollars
are $43 million in 2015, $26 million in 2016, $26 million in 2017, $24 million in 2018, $12 million in 2019 and
$98 million thereafter.
At several of our landfills, we provide financial assurance by depositing cash into restricted trust funds or
escrow accounts for purposes of settling final capping, closure, post-closure and environmental remediation
obligations. Generally, these trust funds are established to comply with statutory requirements and operating
agreements. See Note 20 for additional information related to these trusts.
5. Property and Equipment
Property and equipment at December 31 consisted of the following (in millions):
2014 2013
Land ............................................ $ 611 $ 636
Landfills ........................................ 13,463 13,416
Vehicles ......................................... 4,131 4,115
Machinery and equipment(a) ........................ 2,470 3,888
Containers ....................................... 2,377 2,449
Buildings and improvements(a) ...................... 2,588 3,594
Furniture, fixtures and office equipment ................ 985 969
26,625 29,067
Less accumulated depreciation on tangible property and
equipment ..................................... (8,278) (9,205)
Less accumulated landfill airspace amortization ......... (7,690) (7,518)
$10,657 $12,344
(a) The decreases at December 31, 2014 are primarily related to the sale of our Wheelabrator business as
discussed further in Note 19.
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