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WM Unveils New $30 Million State-of-the-Art Fort Walton Beach Recycling Facility in Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Fort Walton Beach, Florida – October 3, 2024 – WM announced today it has opened a new, 45,000 square-foot recycling facility in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The state-of-the-art technology deployed in the new WM Fort Walton Beach Recycling Facility is expected to allow the facility to process up to approximately 76,000 tons per year of recyclable materials.

WM hosted a grand opening/ribbon cutting ceremony to recognize the occasion. Special guests in attendance included:

  • Brandon Shaw, WM Gulf Coast Area Vice President
  • Patt Maney, Florida State Representative, District 4
  • Paul Mixon, Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners, Chair
  • Dick Rynearson, Mayor of City of Fort Walton Beach

“WM continues to execute on its investment plans in recycling infrastructure with the opening of our new WM Fort Walton Beach Recycling Facility,” said Brandon Shaw, WM Gulf Coast Area Vice President. “For decades, we’ve played an integral role in helping to keep Northwest Florida clean and safe. This new facility enables us to further our commitment to bringing sustainability-related solutions to the region by expanding access to recycling services to more communities across the Gulf Coast.”

WM’s planned investments in new and upgraded recycling facilities, including the WM Fort Walton Beach Recycling Facility, are intended to:

  • Increase access to recycling, while increasing overall recycling capacity
  • Collect more types of plastics
  • Utilize intelligent sorting technologies, where conveyors and optical sorters communicate with each other, and with technicians, to improve material quality
  • Include an additional optical sort line that serves as a final quality control measure for any recyclables not initially captured.

This project is part of WM’s enterprise-wide plans to invest more than $1.4 billion in new and upgraded recycling facilities across North America from 2022 to 2026, which is expected to add approximately 2.8 million tons of incremental annual processing capacity by the end of 2026. With the demand for recycled content products anticipated to rise, these planned investments seek to enable WM to increase its ability to manage more recycled materials and potentially enhance access to recycling for its customers.

Media Contact:
Tricia Farace 
tfarace@wm.com
(504) 218-3351

About WM
WM (WM.com) is North America's leading provider of comprehensive environmental solutions. Previously known as Waste Management and based in Houston, Texas, WM is driven by commitments to put people first and achieve success with integrity. The company, through its subsidiaries, provides collection, recycling, and disposal services to millions of residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout the U.S. and Canada. With innovative infrastructure and capabilities in recycling, organics, and renewable energy, WM provides environmental solutions to and collaborates with its customers in helping them pursue their sustainability goals. WM has the largest disposal network and collection fleet in North America, is the largest recycler of post-consumer materials, and is the leader in beneficial use of landfill gas, with a growing network of renewable natural gas plants and the most landfill gas-to-electricity plants in North America. WM's fleet includes over 12,000 natural gas trucks – the largest heavy-duty natural gas truck fleet in the industry in North America. To learn more about WM and the company's sustainability progress and solutions, visit Sustainability.WM.com. 

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including all statements regarding future events, future investments and all outcomes or benefits of such investments. Such statements are based on the facts and circumstances as of the date the statements are made and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different. Please see Part I, Item 1A of the Annual Report on Form 10-K, and subsequent Forms 10-Q, available at investors.wm.com for information regarding such risks and uncertainties. WM assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.