Eight customers honored across seven areas of excellence

RUTLAND, Vt., Feb. 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CWST) is pleased to announce that eight of its customers were recently honored for their leadership in sustainability at the inaugural Casella Sustainability Leadership Award Ceremony.

The customers were honored at a virtual ceremony for excellence in resource sustainability across seven categories, including: partnership, innovation, recycling, organics recovery, donations and reuse, closed loop economy, and education.

“It gives us a sense of great pride to honor these eight customers for their leadership and outstanding work in advancing sustainability,” said John W. Casella, Chairman and CEO. “We hope that by bringing attention to their efforts, others will be inspired by their passion, commitment, and success.”

Nearly 30 customers, including municipalities, colleges and universities, industrial manufacturers, food and beverage producers, and others were nominated for their efforts. Winners were chosen by a panel of Casella executives and sustainability experts, including True Zero Waste Advisors, who evaluated each nominee on several criteria.

“We’ve spent more than 45 years working towards a more sustainable future, and as we strive to help our customers reach their sustainability goals it is an honor to recognize their collective efforts. The customers and communities we have the privilege of serving are leading the way and inspiring others to live and work more sustainability and that continues to be the most rewarding part of our work,” Casella said.

2020 Casella Sustainable Leadership Award Winners

PARTNER OF THE YEAR: Recognizes the Casella customer who is advancing resource sustainability by forging great partnerships and embodying the spirit of Casella’s core value commitment to teamwork.

Tompkins County, New York has been a Casella partner since the early 1990’s and today achieves an impressive 60 percent recycling rate. Impactful programs have included: pay-as-you-throw tagging, county-wide curbside recycling, drop-off for hard-to-recycle items, early adoption of food waste services, and countless innovative and effective education programs. All of these efforts have helped to reduce contamination and put Tompkins County in excellent position to achieve its goal of 85 percent recycling by 2030.

INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR: Recognizes the Casella customer who is advancing resource sustainability by embracing innovative solutions.

UMass Lowell is always ready to try something new to advance sustainability and has earned a reputation among its peer institutions as an innovator. Organics have been a high priority on their campus and has collaborated with Casella to establish food waste collection across 13 locations. When Casella approached UMass Lowell about the potential for onsite food waste processing from InSinkErator Grind2Energy, they installed not only one machine, but two becoming the second university in the country to adopt the technology. Other innovations have included: a closed loop bagged compost program, compost for campus gardens, and an early-stage program for recycling plastic from research labs.

RECYCLING CHAMPION: Recognizes the Casella customer who has implemented an ambitious and successful recycling program.

BD Pharmaceutical Systems is a sustainability leader in many different ways and most especially in its commitment to recycling glass, which has been its largest waste stream and is traditionally a very hard commodity to recycle. Over the course of the last seven years, BD has maintained a recycling rate over 93 percent, which is a reflection of its culture and commitment to sustainable practices at every level.

ORGANICS RECOVERY CHAMPION: Recognizes the Casella customer who has implemented a successful recovery program for food, beverages, and other organic materials.

DuPont Nutrition USA generates around 50 million pounds annually of a unique organic byproduct called Algefiber. Because the material is rich in organic matter, magnesium, and lime value, it is great for improving soil and enhancing crop yields. DuPont's commitment to sustainability through innovation, safety and community engagement is inspirational and its partnership with Casella has helped local farmers and others find a higher and better use for 25,000 tons of material that was once destined for landfill.

DONATIONS AND REUSE CHAMPION: Recognizes the Casella customer who has implemented a successful reuse or donation program.

Goodwill Northern New England has been a long-standing partner to Casella on many levels. One of the most significant collaborations between the two organizations has been establishing a Green Move Out reuse program to capture items from college campuses when students move out at the end of each school year. Goodwill Northern New England has been an integral partner, making this great program a success by providing logistics, transportation, equipment, and an outlet for recovering donated materials. Since inception in 2015, Green Move Outs have recovered over 100 tons of donated items from students.

CLOSED LOOP ECONOMY CHAMPION: Recognizes the Casella customer who purchases or creates robust markets for recycled content materials, including recycled commodities, organics products, and more.

Read Custom Soils is the leading provider of custom planting soils in New England. They are the top customer for Casella's Earthlife™ products. Casella makes Earthlife™ products from recycled organics, and Read Custom Soils goes on to make them into specialized soil blends for everything from golf courses to green roofs to gardens. Working closely together to establish product and service best practices, the teams at Casella and Read Custom Soils are building healthier soils and landscapes while supporting more sustainable ecosystems and communities.

EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR (Two Recipients): Recognizes the Casella customers who implement educational campaigns to engage their communities, customers, employees, and/or students in good recycling and food waste programs.

Bentley University has created a model that today shapes the way Casella interacts with all of its university customers. With its Waste Minimization Task Force, Bentley convenes stakeholders monthly to discuss and advance waste minimization programs, ensuring an ongoing focus and strong campus-wide education and outreach. One of this group's most significant and visible successes has been the campus' ambitious green move out program, a huge operational undertaking requiring seamless logistics, education, and coordination over the course of several days at the end of each semester.

Fairfax, Vermont has focused on modern outreach and education, enabled by the launch of an innovative waste and recycling app - powered by Recollect - to give residents immediate access to their collection schedule and a searchable tool to advance recycling and compost education. As of December, 409 people had installed the app and over 5,600 items had been searched across 5,000 households. The Town Manager has supported this success through savvy use of social media and by bringing Casella in to speak with residents to complement these efforts.

Photos Available Upon Request.

About Casella Waste Systems, Inc.

Casella Waste Systems, Inc., headquartered in Rutland, Vermont, provides solid waste management services consisting of collection, transfer, disposal, and recycling services in the northeastern United States.

For further information, investors should contact Ned Coletta, chief financial officer at (802) 772-2239, and media should contact Joseph Fusco, vice president at (802) 772-2247, or visit the company’s website at http://www.casella.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain matters discussed in this press release, including, but not limited to, the statements regarding the Company’s intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning the additional disposal capacity at the NCES landfill and the Company’s ability to meet the disposal and resource management needs of its customers and New Hampshire, are "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such by the context of the statements, including words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “may,” “would,” “intend,” “estimate,” “will,” “guidance” and other similar expressions, whether in the negative or affirmative. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industry and markets in which the Company operates and management’s beliefs and assumptions. The Company cannot guarantee that it actually will achieve the plans, intentions, expectations or guidance disclosed in the forward-looking statements made. Such forward-looking statements, and all phases of the Company’s operations, involve a number of risks and uncertainties, any one or more of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in its forward-looking statements.

Such risks and uncertainties include or relate to, among other things, the following: it is challenging to predict the duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative effect on the economy, our operations and financial results; policies adopted by China and other countries will further restrict imports of recyclable materials into those countries and have a further material impact on the Company’s financial results; adverse weather conditions may negatively impact the Company's revenues and its operating margin; the Company may be unable to increase volumes at its landfills or improve its route profitability; the economics of recycling programs may cause municipalities to reconsider the viability of continuing these programs; the Company's need to service its indebtedness may limit its ability to invest in its business; landfill operations and permit status may be affected by factors outside the Company's control; the Company may be required to incur capital expenditures in excess of its estimates; the Company's insurance coverage and self-insurance reserves may be inadequate to cover all of its significant risk exposures; and fluctuations in energy pricing or the commodity pricing of its recyclables may make it more difficult for the Company to predict its results of operations or meet its estimates. There are a number of other important risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These additional risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, those detailed in Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, and in other filings that the Company may make with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the future. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Investors:
Ned Coletta
Chief Financial Officer
(802) 772-2239

Media:
Joseph Fusco
Vice President
(802) 772-2247

http://www.casella.com