Waste Management

In 2001, Waste Management revolutionized its industry as the first major player to introduce single-stream recycling, which allows customers to skip the sorting and throw all recyclables in one bin. But Americans have become increasingly lazy about throwing all sorts of things in their blue recycling bins, running up the cost of processing. The company is now investing in educational campaigns to end the complacency and get trash out of the recycling stream, while renegotiating contracts so that it can still make a profit in the new era. “Waste Management is going to recycle forever,” says CEO David Steiner.