ⓘ About this map

The Waste Industry

Garbage is one of the best businesses in the market for one boring reason: you cannot build a new landfill.

Trash looks unglamorous and throws off some of the steadiest cash flow anywhere. The moat is permitting.

Almost no one gets a new landfill approved. So the companies that already own the holes — Waste Management, Republic Services, Waste Connections — hold an asset a competitor literally cannot reproduce. They raise prices a little every year. The customer has nowhere else to put the trash.

The map runs from trucks to transfer stations to disposal, with GFL, Clean Harbors on hazardous waste, and Casella regionally. Watch the disposal end, not the routes. Owning the landfill is the moat. Hauling to it is the commodity.

Companies & entities in this map

Waste Management, Republic Services, Waste Connections, GFL Environmental, Casella Waste Systems, Clean Harbors, WM, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas–Fort Worth, Phoenix, Detroit, Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle / Columbia Ridge, Orlando, Nashville, Charlotte, Boston, Minneapolis, St. Louis, San Antonio, Kettleman Hills, RSG, Las Vegas / Apex, Los Angeles / Sunshine Canyon, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Tampa, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Beatty / US Ecology, Robstown / US Ecology, WCN, The Woodlands, Portland, Tacoma, Sacramento, Boise, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Birmingham, Western New York, Spokane, Anchorage, GFL, Milwaukee, CWST, Rutland, Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, CLH, Deer Park, Kimball, Buttonwillow, Aragonite, El Dorado, Grassy Mountain, Colfax, Baltimore

Muad'Dib Capital, the Atlas of the Physical Economy. For information only — not investment advice. Company lists are representative selections curated from public sources.

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WASTE & LANDFILLS › WHO HAULS WHERE

ALL MSW LANDFILLS HAZARDOUS TERRITORIES AIRSPACE (EPA)

v0.1 · —

Service reach (typical wasteshed)
◯ MSW landfill ≈ 75 mi (truck + transfer)
◯ Hazardous facility ≈ 400 mi (few, ship far)
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