Waste Management, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the WM Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After this speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Ed Eagle, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Olivia. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. With me this morning are Jim Fish, Chief Executive Officer, John Morris, President and Chief Operating Officer, and David Reed, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. You'll hear prepared comments from each of them today. Jim will cover high-level financials and provide a strategic update. John will cover our operating overview, and David will cover the details of the financials. Before we get started, please note that we have filed a Form 8K that includes the earnings press release and is available on our website at www.wm.com. The Form 8K, the press release, and the schedules for the press release include important information. During the call, you will hear forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations, projections, or opinions about future periods. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Some of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in today's press release and in our files at the SEC, including the most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs. John will discuss our results in the area of volume, which, unless stated otherwise, are more specifically references to internal revenue growth or IRG from volume. During the call, Jim, John, and David will discuss operating EBITDA, which is income from operation before depreciation, depletion, and amortization. References to the legacy business are total WM results excluding the healthcare solution segment. Any comparisons, unless otherwise stated, will be with the prior year period. Net income, EPS, income from operations and margin, operating EBITDA and margin, operating expense and margin, and SG&A expense and margin have been adjusted to enhance comparability by excluding certain items that management believes do not reflect our fundamental business performance or results of operations. These are adjusted measures in addition to free cash flow or non-GAAP measures. Please refer to the earnings press release and tables, which can be found on the company's website at www.wm.com, for reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures and additional information about our use of non-GAAP measures. This call is being recorded and will be available 24 hours a day beginning approximately 1 p.m. Eastern time today. To hear a replay of the call, access the WM website at www.investors.wm.com. Time-sensitive information provided during today's call, which is occurring on January 29, 2026, may no longer be accurate at the time of a replay. Any redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the express written consent of WM is prohibited. Now I'll turn the call over to WM CEO, Jim Fish.

Okay, thanks, Ed, and thank you all for joining us. We're pleased to report another year of outstanding results in 2025, including a record performance in operating expenses as a percent of revenue. This performance, combined with our disciplined approach to pricing, drove full year operating EBITDA margin 150 basis points higher in the legacy business. Strong operational performance translated to double-digit growth in cash flow from operations and nearly 27% growth in free cash flow. Our results highlight the strength and momentum we built in our business model through operational excellence, scaling sustainability businesses, and integration of healthcare solutions. You've heard me talk about the strength of our collection and disposal business with our differentiated assets and the best people in the industry. All of these were on display in 2025 as we drove our best ever operating leverage in our collection and disposal business. reflecting the intentional investments we've made in our people, technology, and fleet. Better frontline retention and a decreased average age of our trucks delivered improvements in labor and maintenance costs. Meanwhile, we continue to drive organic revenue growth from both price and volume. By using data and analytics, we're offering pricing that reflects the premium value of our service, our leading commitment to environmental sustainability, and the strength of our asset network. It's our unmatched network, particularly our transfer and disposal assets, that drove volume growth in 2025, more than offsetting the residential volume declines as we shed some low margin business. In our healthcare solutions business, 2025 was a year of teamwork, focus, and execution to build momentum to our integration. Our service delivery metrics and customer service scores have improved to levels above our legacy business. Customer call volume has been trending down, and the standardization and enhancement of customer-facing processes and invoices are all leading to rising customer satisfaction. Just last week, we received an acknowledgment from one of our largest healthcare solutions customers for the improvements we've made on invoicing. which is a great indicator of the significant progress we've made in the last year in our systems and back office processes. At the same time, we continue to significantly reduce SG&A and operating costs, streamline our operations, and greatly improve asset efficiencies. While there's still work to do, progress we've made to date puts us in a good position to grow the earnings and cash flow from this business with a lean and efficient cost structure a healthy pricing environment, and new opportunities for volume growth through both cross-selling and market share expansion. On the sustainability front, we drove notable strategic expansion in our sustainability businesses. We commissioned seven new renewable natural gas facilities, expanding our renewable energy network and further positioning WM as a leader in environmental sustainability. We completed automation upgrades at five recycling facilities and added facilities in four new markets, which are enhancing the performance of our recycling network and creating new opportunities with customers. The value of our recycling investments is clear, particularly when you consider our recycling segment delivered over 22% operating EBITDA growth despite nearly 20% lower commodity prices in 2025. This combination of operational excellence and strategic investment across our business has produced record margin performance and accelerated cash generation. As we enter 2026, we're well positioned to convert more of our earnings into long-term shareholder value. Turning to our outlook, we expect continued strong growth in the year ahead. Our guidance is for operating EBITDA growth of 6.2% at the midpoint, or 7.4% when you normalize for wildfire cleanup volumes in 2025. Free cash flow is expected to grow nearly 30% at the midpoint, reflecting structural earnings strength and the benefit of our investments. As announced in December, our board approved a 14.5% increase in the planned quarterly dividend rate in 2026, our 23rd consecutive year of dividend growth. We also authorized a new $3 billion share repurchase program. We plan to return about $3.5 billion to shareholders through dividends and share purchases in 2026, representing more than 90% of free cash flow we expect to generate. We will continue to balance these returns with disciplined reinvestment, tuck-in M&A, and a solid investment grade credit profile. Looking ahead, our priorities are clear. First, growing the core business by leveraging our focus on customer lifetime value, operational excellence, and network advantages. Second, capturing and maximizing returns from our investments in our recycling and renewable energy businesses. And third, driving a creative growth in healthcare solutions as we take the business from integration to scalable growth. Finally, executing our disciplined capital allocation plan to deliver compelling long-term shareholder value. Our results reflect the hard work of our entire team who serve our customers with pride every day. Their commitment fuels our performance and sets the foundation for the opportunities ahead. In 2026, we will build this momentum, strengthening the core, scaling our growth platforms, and creating meaningful value for all our stakeholders. I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished and excited for what's ahead. And with that, I'll turn the call over to John to provide more detail on our operational performance.