Waste Management, Inc.

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the WM's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 11 on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 11 again. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Ed Eggle, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2026 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 will hear prepared comments from each of them today. Jim will cover high-level financials and provide a strategic update. John will cover an 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 with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs. Jim and John will discuss our results in the areas of yield and volume, which unless stated otherwise, are more specifically references to internal revenue growth or IRG from yield or volume. During the call, Jim, John, and David will discuss operating EBITDA, which is income from operations before depreciation, depletion, amortization, and accretion. Beginning this year, landfill accretion expense was moved from operating expense to depreciation, depletion, amortization, and accretion to enhance comparability and better reflect operating performance. For comparability purposes, 2025 actuals have been updated to reflect that change. 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 adjusted measures, in addition to free cash flow, are non-GAAP measures. Please refer to our earnings press release and tables, which can be found at the company's website at www.wm.com, for reconciliations 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 at 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 April 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.

All right, thanks, Ed, and thank you all for joining us. The WM team again delivered strong quarterly results with earnings and cash flow results that achieved our expectations. What continues to set us apart is our ability to consistently achieve strong performance regardless of external factors. Q1 operating EBITDA grew by nearly 6% compared to the first quarter of 2025, driven by solid performance in our collection and disposal business and further supported by growth in our sustainability businesses and ongoing optimization of healthcare solutions. This momentum to start the year, combined with our proven operational execution and resilient business model, reinforces our confidence in achieving our full-year financial guidance. In the first quarter, our results clearly advanced each of our four strategic priorities for 2026. First, we grew our collection and disposal business, achieving 6.4% operating EBITDA growth supported by our focus on customer lifetime value, operational excellence, and network advantages. Our strategically positioned post-collection network is driving profitable MSW volume growth, while our technology leadership leads to differentiated services and lower costs. Additionally, our people-first culture and disciplined approach to retention are driving meaningful improvements in safety, service reliability, and operational efficiency. As we look ahead, we continue to see opportunities for tuck-in acquisitions that complement our existing portfolio that we expect to close in 2026. Second, our sustainability investments continue to generate meaningful returns, underscoring the value of the capital we've deployed over time. In renewable energy, operating EBITDA more than doubled in the quarter, driven by the completion of seven new renewable natural gas facilities since the first quarter of 2025. In the recycling segment, even though pricing for single stream commodities declined 27%, operating EBITDA grew by 18% as we realized automation benefits that lower labor costs and higher quality material and process 9% more volume. In 2026, we're on track to substantially complete the sustainability capital expenditure program we laid out in 2023. Third, in healthcare solutions, we continue to advance the business towards scalable, accretive growth. While revenue was impacted by volume losses from last year, effective cost management and synergy capture drove operating EBITDA growth of nearly 12% in the quarter. Importantly, we expect an inflection in revenue growth in the second half of 2026 as the ERP is stabilized and the benefits of our integrated offering become more evident. And finally, turning to capital allocation, our strong operating performance translated into significant free cash flow generation with Q1 free cash flow of $920 million, nearly doubling from the prior year. This enabled us to return about $730 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. As we close out the first quarter, our performance reinforces both the strength of our strategy and its alignment With the long-term trends shaping our business, we're delivering consistent results in our core operations, realizing returns from years of disciplined investment and sustainability, advancing healthcare solutions towards scalable growth, and pairing that execution with a thoughtful, shareholder-focused approach to capital allocation. As we progress through 2026, we're well-positioned to continue to produce strong results and harvest the benefits of our investments. I want to thank our employees for their continued dedication and hard work. Now I'll turn the call over to John to discuss our operational results.