Casella Drives Innovation in Recycling & Sustainability With Materials Recovery Facility Upgrade

RUTLAND, Vt., June 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling, and resource management services company, opened the doors of its newly renovated Charlestown, Massachusetts materials recovery facility (“MRF”) with nearly 100 guests in attendance on Friday, June 9, 2023. The facility upgrade is complete with state-of-the-art equipment aimed to help increase throughput, improve end-product quality, and enhance safety.

The event included remarks from Massachusetts State Representative Dan Ryan, State Senator Sal DiDomenico, and Boston's Green New Deal Director, Oliver Sellers-Garcia.

The Charlestown MRF, owned and operated by Casella, is one of the largest recycling facilities in the country and accepts materials from many customers and communities throughout Massachusetts and the greater Boston area. Casella invested approximately $20 million as part of the upgrade at the recycling facility.

“Since opening our first recycling facility in 1977, there has been a significant amount of innovation, technology, and change and we are proud to remain a leader in bringing that innovation to the marketplace,” said Casella Chairman and CEO, John W. Casella. “Today is another important milestone in our pursuit of becoming an even more sustainable business while serving our customers in a way that helps them meet their sustainability goals.”

The upgrades to the facility include some of the most advanced robotics and artificial intelligence technology in the industry from Machinex. The enhancements incorporate more than a dozen new elements for sorting material, including the Samurai® sorting robot. Machinex is an industry leader in engineering, manufacturing, and installing MRFs all around the world, renowned for its innovative, ultra-efficient, and low-maintenance recycling equipment.

“The Charlestown MRF consistently ranks among the top recycling facilities in the country in terms of tons processed annually. Our established partnership from past projects, built on mutual trust and shared values, has laid a solid foundation for success. The business philosophies between Machinex and Casella are very similar, and our goals for the project aligned perfectly, a testament to the strength of our longstanding relationship,” said Rusty Angel, Eastern Region Sales Manager for Machinex.

The facility was previously converted to a single-stream MRF in 2009 and has processed nearly 3 million tons of recyclables since then. The upgrades unveiled come on the heels of more than $30 million in investments by Casella in its Resource Solutions operations over the past two years.

“We’re thrilled to continue to grow our operations here in the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” Casella said. “With these upgrades we continue to become more efficient, produce cleaner material, and help to move forward the concept of a circular economy. While our sustainability journey is not complete, this is a significant step along that path.”

In 2005 Casella joined the EPA Climate Leaders as a charter member, and in 2012 the company was awarded the EPA’s Climate Leadership Award for Excellence in Greenhouse Gas Emissions after reducing its carbon footprint by more than 45% from 2005 through 2010. Today, Casella estimates for every metric ton of greenhouse gas Casella emits through its operations, the company prevents 4.8 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in society, through the recycling, renewable energy, and carbon sequestration services it provides. Casella continues to be an industry leader in advancing sustainability.

ABOUT CASELLA WASTE SYSTEMS, INC.

Casella Waste Systems, Inc., headquartered in nearby Rutland, Vermont, is the amongst the Northeast’s largest recyclers and is an experienced fully integrated resource management company. Founded in 1975 as a single truck collection service, Casella has grown its operations to provide solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to more than 900,000 residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers throughout the Northeast, and professional resource management services to over 10,000 customer locations in more than 40 states.

For further information, investors should contact Jason Mead, SVP Finance & Treasurer at (802) 772-2293, and media should contact Jeff Weld, Director of Communications at (802) 772-2234, or visit the company’s website at www.casella.com.

ABOUT MACHINEX

Celebrating in 2020 its 50th anniversary, Machinex became the first company in Canada to design machinery for material recycling facilities in the ‘80s. The company immediately established itself as a leader in designing profitable and high-quality recycling sorting systems. Today, Machinex is still a world leader in the industry, developing cutting-edge sorting, waste management, and recycling technology. Over the years, their experts have designed and installed several turnkey facilities in partnership with leading MRFs in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Oceania. For more information, visit the Machinex website at www.machinextechnologies.com.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

Certain matters discussed in this press release, including but not limited to, the statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, projections as to the anticipated benefits related to the recycling facility upgrade; and the expected amount and timing of benefits from the recycling facility upgrade are "forward-looking statements". 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 financial results, 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: investments in new recycling or resource management infrastructure may not improve the Company’s operations or increase financial performance; the ability to increase the amount of recyclables processed or other resources managed.

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 most recently filed Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, 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.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c396de6c-aa05-4c0f-bf70-8989b7633d7e