The acquisition of Stericycle expands the company's offerings in regulated waste and compliance services, as well as secure information destruction services. The acquisition builds upon the company's sustainability initiatives.

The company is also evaluating and pursuing emerging diversion technologies that may generate additional value. In addition, with our acquisition of Stericycle, we have advanced our growth strategy and built upon our sustainability initiatives.

As a result of the Stericycle acquisition, the Company has temporarily suspended share repurchases. We expect to resume share repurchase once the Company's leverage returns to targeted levels.

During the first quarter of 2025, we prioritized maintaining service delivery continuity for our customers, ensuring business alignment with WM's core values and capturing preliminary synergies through reduction of duplicative processes and costs.

We remain focused on our automation and optimization investments to enhance our operational efficiency and change the way we interact with our customers. Advancements made through these initiatives are intended to seamlessly and digitally connect all enterprise functions required to service customers and provide the best experience.

We must dynamically manage our cost structure in response to volume changes and cost inflation. We believe the Company's industry-leading asset network and strategic focus on investing in our people and our digital platform will give the Company the necessary tools to address the evolving challenges impacting the Company and our industry.

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains certain forward-looking statements that are made subject to the safe harbor protections provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those set forth in such forward-looking statements.

The company is exposed to different regulatory, legal, financial and economic conditions in international jurisdictions; failure to attract, hire and retain key team members and a high quality workforce; increases in labor costs due to union organizing activities or changes in wage and labor related regulations; disruption and costs resulting from severe weather and destructive climate events.

The company is exposed to macroeconomic conditions, geopolitical conflict and large-scale market disruption resulting in labor, supply chain and transportation constraints, inflationary cost pressures and fluctuations in commodity prices, fuel and other energy costs; increased competition.

We encounter intense competition from governmental, quasi-governmental and private service providers based on pricing, and to a much lesser extent, the nature of service offerings, particularly in the residential line of business.

Company faces competitive disposal alternatives, diversion of waste from landfills and declining waste volumes; changing conditions in the healthcare industry; weakness in general economic conditions and capital markets; instability of financial institutions; adoption of new tax legislation; fuel shortages.

We believe that focused differentiation, which is driven by capitalizing on our unique and extensive network of assets, will deliver profitable growth and position us to leverage competitive advantages. Simultaneously, we believe that investing in automation to improve processes and drive operational efficiency combined with a focus on the cost to serve our customers will yield an attractive profit margin and enhanced service quality.

We remain focused on our automation and optimization investments to enhance our operational efficiency and change the way we interact with our customers. Advancements made through these initiatives are intended to seamlessly and digitally connect all enterprise functions required to service customers and provide the best experience.

We remain focused on delivering outstanding customer service, managing our variable costs with changing volumes and investing in technology that will enhance our customers' experience and provide operating efficiencies intended to reduce our cost to serve our customers.

We sometimes experience margin pressures and variability in earnings and margins from our commodity-driven businesses, specifically within our Recycling Processing and Sales and WM Renewable Energy segments. During the first quarter, we experienced moderate decreases in the market price for recycled commodities when compared to the prior year period.

We continue to invest in our people through paying a competitive market wage, investing in our digital platform and providing training for our team members. We also continue to make investments in automation and optimization to enhance our operational efficiency and improve labor productivity for all lines of business.

Furthermore, we are also evaluating and pursuing emerging diversion technologies that may generate additional value. These efforts may not be successful for various reasons including the pace of inflation, operating cost inefficiencies, market responses and contractual limitations, such

Furthermore, we are also evaluating and pursuing emerging diversion technologies that may generate additional value. These efforts may not be successful for various reasons including the pace of inflation, operating cost inefficiencies, market responses and contractual limitations, such

In the fourth quarter of 2024, we announced our temporary suspension of share repurchase activity as a result of the acquisition of Stericycle. We expect to resume share repurchases once the Company's leverage returns to targeted levels, which is currently projected to be about 18 months after the November 2024 acquisition of Stericycle.

Proceeds in 2025 primarily related to the sale of our WM Healthcare Solutions' Spain and Portugal subsidiaries. The remaining 2025 and 2024 proceeds were from the sale of certain non-strategic assets.

The increase in capital spending is primarily driven by (i) investments in capital assets such as trucks, landfills and equipment and (ii) capital expenditures within our WM Healthcare Solutions segment to support the business.

Consistent with our Company's long-standing commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship, we have published our 2024 Sustainability Report providing details on our sustainability-related performance and outlining progress towards our 2030 sustainability goals.

As North America's leading provider of comprehensive environmental solutions, we are taking big, bold steps to catalyze positive change - change that will impact our Company as well as the communities we serve. The Sustainability Report conveys the strong linkage between the Company's sustainability goals and our growth strategy, inclusive of the planned and ongoing expansion of the Company's Recycling Processing and Sales and WM Renewable Energy segments.

The provisions of the IRA concerning investment tax credits are expected to generate a cumulative benefit ranging from $300 million to $400 million, $145 million of which was recognized in 2023 and 2024 with the remainder anticipated to be realized in 2025 and 2026.

We monitor these developments to adapt our service offerings. As companies, individuals and communities look for ways to be more sustainable, we promote our comprehensive services that go beyond our core business of collecting and disposing of waste in order to meet their needs.

Our operating revenues and volumes typically experience seasonal increases in the summer months that are reflected in second and third quarter revenues and results of operations.

We continue to take proactive steps to adjust our business models to protect against the downside risk of changes in commodity prices. Variability in economic conditions, including inflation, interest rates, employment trends and supply chain reliability, can create risk and uncertainty in financial outlook.