2024 By the numbers
Waste Connections is an integrated solid waste services company that provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer and disposal services, including by rail, along with resource recovery primarily through recycling and renewable fuels generation. The Company serves approximately nine million residential, commercial, and industrial customers in mostly exclusive and secondary markets across 46 states in the U.S. and six provinces in Canada.
Waste Connections also provides non-hazardous oilfield waste treatment, recovery and disposal services in several basins across the U.S. and Canada, as well as intermodal services for the movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest.
To our shareholders
2024 was an extraordinary year at Waste Connections by any number of measures, including safety performance, employee engagement and retention, acquisition activity, financial results and, ultimately, value creation.
The strength and consistency of operational execution resulting from continuous improvement in employee retention and safety metrics drove outsized financial results and positioned us for the successful completion and integration of record levels of private company acquisition activity.
Coming into 2024, we emphasized the importance and interconnectivity of Relationships and Results, and we attribute our accomplishments to that renewed emphasis on human capital. We're proud of these results and the leaders behind them who embody Waste Connections' enduring operating values and who have driven an industry-leading track record of value creation over the past 27 years. We appreciate the dedication and commitment of our 24,000 employees, who make a difference every day. Waste Connections enters 2025 well-positioned for another year of above-average growth, with ongoing momentum from continued execution on a solid waste-focused playbook that has served to set us apart. We strive to replicate the superior results we have enjoyed while acknowledging the benefits from innovation and new ideas to ensure that we are even better positioned as we grow to $10 billion in revenue and beyond. In 2025, we are focused on delivering Excellence with Humility.
WCN Performance: Total Shareholder Return
For WCN shareholders, 2024 marked another year of positive returns, our 20th annual increase over the past 21 years, and we maintained our ten-year double-digit compounded annual growth rate in adjusted free cash flow2 per share. The strength of our operating performance and free cash flow generation continue to provide the flexibility for growth and return of capital to our shareholders.
Looking at Total Shareholder Returns, our long-term outperformance of sector and market indices has delivered returns of 7,665% since going public in May 1998. These results reflect our human capital focus and decentralized operating model, both of which continue to be core to our strategy to deliver differentiated results as we grow to $10 billion in revenue and beyond.
Most notably, we deployed approximately $2.2 billion for acquisitions to expand our business, while preserving the strength of our balance sheet and maintaining flexibility in capital allocation. We completed 24 acquisitions in 14 states and two provinces in Canada, including: an E&P waste platform in Western Canada; solid waste transfer and collection acquisitions to expand our presence in New York City, where we were awarded over a dozen commercial franchise zones; a new market entry in Indiana; two recycling facilities in the Pacific Northwest; and two additional West coast collection franchises and tuck-ins across our footprint, which further solidified our market-leading positions.
In spite of record acquisition activity, our leverage ratio3, as defined in our revolving credit agreement, remained securely within our targeted range, ending 2024 at 2.67x. In 2024, we opportunistically accessed the Canadian debt capital markets with a $500 million inaugural Canadian dollar-denominated debt offering to further diversify our funding sources. With year-end liquidity of over $825 million, we remain well positioned for continued execution of our growth strategy along with increased return of capital to our shareholders.
During the year, we increased our regular quarterly cash dividend by 10.5% to $0.315 per share, our fourteenth consecutive double-digit annual increase since initiating our dividend. We also maintained optionality for opportunistic share repurchases through the renewal of our normal course issuer bid providing for the repurchase of up to 5% of our outstanding shares.
Looking at 2024
In 2024, we delivered double-digit growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA, with outsized margin expansion from price-led organic solid waste growth, along with contributions from acquisitions, recycled commodities and renewable natural gas generation at our landfills. Revenue grew by 11.2% from the prior year to $8.92 billion and drove adjusted EBITDA2 up by 15.0% to $2.90 billion. Industry-leading adjusted EBITDA2 margins of 32.5% of revenue reflect an increase of 100 basis points year over year. With acquisitions of approximately $750 million in annualized revenue closed in 2024 and continued high levels of seller dialogue, 2025 is set up for continued above average acquisition contribution. Most importantly, we demonstrated improvements in safety, employee retention and engagement, all of which will continue to pay dividends in 2025 and beyond.
Financial Highlights
Relationships and Results: Our Renewed Focus on Human Capital. We maintain that what truly sets us apart is our people and their accountability in a decentralized operating structure and servant leadership culture. Following a renewed focus beginning in 2023, we have seen continuous progress in the two key areas: voluntary turnover and safety performance.
Voluntary turnover declined by another 26% in 2024, bringing multi-year declines to 45%. As a result of this improvement, we have decreased the number of open headcount positions by over 50% from a high of over 7% in 2022 to our targeted level of approximately 3%. The benefits of optimizing headcount impact all areas of the business, from price retention and new volumes to employee morale and well-being, as we reduce reliance on overtime impacting people and equipment. To further our efforts, in 2024 we opened two commercial driver schools to train existing employees in other roles and expand the pipeline for new employees. We also partnered with a diesel technician academy to accelerate hiring in this area, including through the sponsorship of qualifying employee dependents for training.
Highly correlated to turnover is Safety, our Number One Operating Value and the primary consideration in day-to-day decision making. Our application of technology relies on a behavioral approach to coaching and development driven by our local leaders. As such, along with the improvement in employee retention, we have seen a multi-year reduction of over 20% in safety incident rates, including a decrease of 15% in 2024, during which time approximately 65% of our locations showed year-over-year improvement or recorded zero incidents. In fact, in late 2024, monthly incidents were down over 35% from 2022 levels in spite of a 13% increase in employees during that period. We are already seeing the benefits of increased retention in reduced overtime and reduced hours of service; in addition, we are seeing improvement in risk metrics as turnover declines.
Looking Ahead to 2025
We are already positioned for outsized growth in 2025, along with continued momentum from our renewed focus on human capital and additional building blocks from acquisitions closed or anticipated to close by early 2025. Our framework for 2025 is built on high-quality revenue growth from continued solid waste price-led organic growth plus rollover acquisition contribution of approximately $300 million already in place. This provides visibility for adjusted EBITDA2 margin expansion of 50 - 80 basis points and underlying free cash flow conversion in line with recent levels. Further moderation in inflationary pressures, faster recovery in recycled commodity or renewable fuels values, and contribution from additional volume growth or acquisitions would provide upside.
Excellence with Humility. At Waste Connections, we believe in core values that have been integral to our success and a key differentiator driving long-term, industry-leading shareholder value creation. In 2025, we're focused on delivering excellence with humility.
We're sticking to a model that has served us well for over 27 years and which guides us as we grow, while acknowledging the benefits of innovation and new ideas to ensure that the company is well-positioned for the future. As we approach revenue of $10 billion and beyond, we're humbled by the trust of many stakeholders, from the communities we have the privilege to serve to the private sellers entrusting us with their legacy. And we're most grateful for the dedication of our 24,000 employees who embody the enduring values of Waste Connections and whose efforts truly set us apart.
As always, we thank you for your continuing support.
Past Annual Reports
- All references to “Net income” refer to the financial statement line item “Net income attributable to Waste Connections.”
- Non-GAAP measure. See Non-GAAP Measures on pages 75-77 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024.
- Leverage Ratio (total debt to EBITDA), a non-GAAP ratio, is used supplementally for the purpose of calculating financial covenants under our revolving credit agreement.
- Total Shareholder Return (“TSR”) defined as profit generated from all share appreciation and dividends. Source—FactSet financial data and analytics and historical dividends.
This 2024 Annual Report should be read together with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, including Item 1A—Risk Factors.