美國廢棄物管理公司 (WM) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the WM Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that today's conference is being recorded.

您好，感謝您的耐心等待。歡迎參加 WM 2025 年第四季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。

I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Ed Egl, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我將把會議交給各位演講嘉賓，投資者關係副總裁艾德‧埃格爾。請繼續。

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.

謝謝你，奧莉維亞。各位早安，感謝各位參加我們2025年第四季及全年業績電話會議。今天早上和我在一起的有：執行長吉姆·菲什；總裁兼營運長約翰·莫里斯；以及執行副總裁兼財務長大衛·里德。今天你們將聽到他們每個人事先準備好的發言。吉姆將介紹高層財務狀況並提供策略更新。John 將介紹我們的營運概況，David 將介紹財務細節。

Before we get started, please note that we have filed a Form 8-K that includes the earnings press release and is available on our website at www.wm.com. The Form 8-K, the press release and the schedules in the press release include important information.

在開始之前，請注意，我們已提交一份包含盈利新聞稿的8-K表格，該表格可在我們的網站www.wm.com上查閱。 8-K表格、新聞稿及其附件包含重要資訊。

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 filings with the SEC, including the most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs.

在電話會議期間，您將聽到一些前瞻性陳述，這些陳述是基於對未來時期的當前預期、預測或意見。所有前瞻性陳述均存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與預期結果有重大差異。其中一些風險和不確定性在今天的新聞稿以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中有所討論，包括最新的 10-K 表格和 10-Q 表格。

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 operations before depreciation, depletion and amortization. References to the Legacy Business are total WM results, excluding the Healthcare Solutions 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 adjusted measures, in addition to free cash flow, are 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 reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures and additional information about our use of non-GAAP measures.

John 將討論我們在銷售方面的成果，除非另有說明，否則這些成果更具體地說明的是銷售帶來的內部收入成長或 IRG。在電話會議中，Jim、John 和 David 將討論營運 EBITDA，即扣除折舊、損耗和攤提之前的營運收入。文中提及的傳統業務是指 WM 的總業績，不包括醫療保健解決方案部門。除非另有說明，否則所有比較均與去年同期進行比較。淨利潤、每股收益、營業收入和利潤率、營業 EBITDA 和利潤率、營業費用和利潤率以及銷售、一般及行政費用和利潤率均已進行調整，以提高可比性，剔除了管理層認為不能反映我們基本業務表現或經營業績的某些項目。除了自由現金流之外，這些調整後的指標均為非公認會計準則指標。請參閱公司網站 www.wm.com 上的獲利新聞稿和表格，以了解與最可比較的 GAAP 指標的調節情況以及有關我們使用非 GAAP 指標的更多資訊。

This call is being recorded and will be available 24 hours a day beginning approximately 1:00 PM 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 expressed written consent of WM is prohibited.

本次通話將會被錄音，並將於今天美國東部時間下午1點左右開始24小時提供錄音。如需收聽電話會議錄音，請造訪 WM 網站 www.investors.wm.com。本次電話會議於 2026 年 1 月 29 日舉行，會議中提供的時效性資訊在重播時可能已不再準確。未經 WM 的明確書面同意，禁止以任何形式重新分發、重新傳輸或重新廣播本次通話。

Now I'll turn the call over to WM's CEO, Jim Fish.

現在我將把電話交給 WM 的執行長吉姆·菲什。

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.

好的。謝謝艾德，也謝謝各位的參與。我們很高興地宣布，2025 年又取得了優異的業績，包括營運費用佔收入百分比創歷史新高。這項業績，加上我們嚴格的定價策略，使得傳統業務的全年營業 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 150 個基點。強勁的營運績效轉化為經營活動現金流的兩位數成長和自由現金流近 27% 的成長。

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.

我們的業績突顯了我們透過卓越營運、擴大永續發展業務規模和整合醫療保健解決方案，在業務模式中建立起的實力和發展勢頭。你們都聽我說過，我們擁有差異化的資產和業內最優秀的人才，這使得我們的回收和處置業務實力雄厚。2025 年，所有這些成果都得到了展現，我們在收集和處置業務中實現了有史以來最好的營運槓桿，這反映了我們對員工、技術和車隊的有意投資。第一線員工留任率提高，卡車平均車齡降低，降低了人力和維護成本。

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.

同時，我們繼續透過價格和銷售兩方面推動有機收入成長。透過運用數據和分析，我們提供的定價體現了我們服務的優質價值、我們對環境永續發展的領先承諾以及我們強大的資產網絡。正是我們無與倫比的網絡，特別是我們的轉移和處置資產，推動了 2025 年的業務量成長，超過了住宅業務量下降帶來的損失，因為我們剝離了一些低利潤業務。

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.

在我們的醫療保健解決方案業務中，2025 年是團隊合作、專注和執行力的一年，旨在為我們的整合積蓄力量。我們的服務交付指標和客戶服務評分已提升至高於我們傳統業務的水平。客戶來電量呈下降趨勢，面向客戶的流程和發票的標準化和改進都提高了客戶滿意度。

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, the 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.

就在上週，我們收到了一位最大的醫療保健解決方案客戶的認可，感謝我們在發票方面所做的改進，這很好地表明了我們在過去一年中在系統和後台流程方面取得的重大進展。同時，我們持續大幅降低銷售、管理及行政費用和營運成本，簡化營運流程，並大幅提高資產效率。雖然還有很多工作要做，但我們迄今為止的進展使我們處於有利地位，能夠透過精簡高效的成本結構、健康的定價環境以及透過交叉銷售和市場份額擴張帶來的新的銷售成長機會，來提高這項業務的收益和現金流。

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.

在永續發展方面，我們在永續發展業務方面實現了顯著的策略擴張。我們投產了七個新的再生天然氣設施，擴大了我們的再生能源網絡，進一步鞏固了 WM 在環境永續發展領域的領先地位。

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.

我們完成了五個回收設施的自動化升級，並在四個新市場中增加了設施，這提高了我們回收網路的性能，並為客戶創造了新的機會。我們對回收的投資價值顯而易見，尤其考慮到儘管 2025 年大宗商品價格下降了近 20%，但我們的回收業務部門仍實現了超過 22% 的營業 EBITDA 成長。

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.

我們透過卓越的營運和對業務的策略性投資相結合，實現了創紀錄的利潤率和加速的現金流生成。進入 2026 年，我們已做好充分準備，將更多收益轉化為股東的長期價值。

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.

展望未來。我們預計未來一年將繼續保持強勁成長。我們預期 2025 年的營業 EBITDA 成長率中位數為 6.2%，如果將野火清理量納入正常化計算，則成長率為 7.4%。預計自由現金流將成長近 30%（取中間值），這反映了結構性獲利能力的強勁以及我們投資帶來的收益。

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 repurchases 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.

正如我們在 12 月宣布的那樣，我們的董事會批准將 2026 年的計劃季度股息率提高 14.5%，這是我們連續第 23 年實現股息增長。我們也批准了一項新的30億美元股票回購計畫。我們計劃在 2026 年透過分紅和股票回購向股東返還約 35 億美元，相當於我們預計產生的自由現金流的 90% 以上。我們將繼續透過審慎的再投資、適度的併購以及穩健的投資等級信用狀況來平衡這些回報。

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 accretive growth in Healthcare Solutions as we take the business from integration to scalable growth.

展望未來，我們的優先事項很明確：首先，透過專注於客戶終身價值、卓越營運和網路優勢來發展核心業務；其次，獲取並最大化我們在回收和可再生能源業務方面的投資回報；第三，推動醫療保健解決方案業務的增值增長，使該業務從整合走向可擴展增長。

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.

最後，執行我們嚴謹的資本配置計劃，以實現令人矚目的長期股東價值。我們的業績體現了我們整個團隊的辛勤付出，他們每天都以自豪的態度服務客戶。他們的付出激勵著我們不斷進步，並為未來的機會奠定了基礎。2026年，我們將乘勢而上，加強核心業務，擴大成長平台，為所有利害關係人創造有意義的價值。我為我們所取得的成就感到無比自豪，也對未來充滿期待。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to John to provide more detail on our operational performance.

接下來，我將把電話交給約翰，讓他詳細介紹我們的營運表現。

Thanks, Jim, and good morning. WM delivered another fantastic quarter to close 2025, driven by disciplined pricing and continued cost efficiencies across the business. In the fourth quarter, operating EBITDA in our collection and disposal business grew more than 8% and operating EBITDA margin expanded by 160 basis points, supported by strong execution and the ongoing benefits of automation and technology across our operations. The strength in Q4 was driven by operating expenses as a percentage of revenue improving 180 basis points to 58.5%, marking our third consecutive quarter below 60%. And for the full year, our cost management is just as impressive. We finished 2025 at 59.5%, which is the first time in company history that operating expenses have come in below 60% for a year with each quarter of 2025 improving sequentially.

謝謝你，吉姆，早安。WM 在 2025 年最後一個季度取得了又一個出色的業績，這得益於公司內部嚴格的定價和持續的成本效率提升。第四季度，在強有力的執行以及我們營運中自動化和技術帶來的持續效益的支持下，我們收集和處置業務的營業 EBITDA 增長超過 8%，營業 EBITDA 利潤率增長了 160 個基點。第四季業績強勁成長，主要得益於營運費用佔營收的百分比下降了 180 個基點至 58.5%，這是連續第三個季度低於 60%。全年來看，我們的成本控制同樣令人印象深刻。2025 年結束時，我們的營運費用佔比為 59.5%，這是公司歷史上首次全年營運費用佔比低於 60%，而且 2025 年的每個季度都在逐季改善。

As I said on Investor Day, we are fundamentally changing our cost structure through the investments we're making in our people, technology and processes. 2025 was a year we proved the change is real and durable, and we're well positioned to continue capturing these benefits for years to come. The improvement in operating cost was led by substantial improvement in repair and maintenance costs on both a dollar basis and as a percentage of revenue, driven by operational and fleet strategies that are yielding tangible benefits.

正如我在投資者日上所說，我們正在透過對人才、技術和流程的投資，從根本上改變我們的成本結構。 2025年是我們證明這種改變真實且持久的一年，我們已做好充分準備，在未來幾年繼續獲得這些利益。營運成本的改善主要得益於維修和維護成本的大幅降低，無論從美元金額還是佔收入的百分比來看都是如此，這得益於營運和車隊策略帶來的實際效益。

Accelerated investments in new trucks over the last three years has improved our average fleet age, significantly reducing unplanned repairs and the need for third-party maintenance support. And at the same time, our disciplined focus on fleet optimization and a more streamlined maintenance model increased technician productivity and reduced reliance on rental units and external services.

過去三年，我們加大了對新卡車的投資，提高了車隊的平均車齡，並顯著減少了計劃外維修和對第三方維護支援的需求。同時，我們對車隊優化和更精簡的維護模式的嚴格關注，提高了技術人員的生產力，並減少了對租賃設備和外部服務的依賴。

These structural improvements were complemented by enhanced route automation and resource planning tools that lessen wear on the fleet and improve overall asset utilization. Taken together, these initiatives reflect our strategic commitment to operational excellence and are driving sustained cost efficiencies that strengthen our performance. Our repair and maintenance costs were not the only cost category reflecting the strength of our operating model as we saw a similar story in labor.

這些結構性改進輔以增強的路線自動化和資源規劃工具，從而減少車隊損耗並提高整體資產利用率。總而言之，這些措施體現了我們對卓越營運的策略承諾，並正在推動持續的成本效益，從而增強我們的績效。我們的維修和保養成本並不是唯一反​​映我們營運模式優勢的成本類別，我們在勞動成本方面也看到了類似的情況。

In Q4, labor costs improved as we continue to see benefits from our people-first culture across our frontline teams. Driver turnover reached its lowest level of the year at 15.7%, demonstrating our ability to sustain our meaningful improvements in frontline retention.

第四季度，勞動力成本有所改善，因為我們繼續看到以人為本的企業文化為第一線團隊帶來的益處。司機流動率達到全年最低 15.7%，這表明我們有能力在維持第一線員工留任率方面取得顯著進步。

We've implemented a people-centric approach to onboarding, training and accountability, which is improving retention, safety and operating efficiency while also reducing overtime hours and training needs. We also benefited from our connected truck platform, which gives leaders real-time visibility into sequencing, downtime and efficiency to help reduce labor dependency while improving service reliability. And it's also worth noting that our connected truck benefits are not limited to cost advantages as the technology enables rightsizing service levels and other revenue opportunities.

我們實施了以人為本的入職、培訓和問責方法，這提高了員工留任率、安全性和營運效率，同時減少了加班時間和培訓需求。我們還受益於我們的互聯卡車平台，該平台使領導者能夠即時了解排序、停機時間和效率，從而幫助減少對勞動力的依賴，同時提高服務可靠性。值得注意的是，連網卡車的優勢不僅限於成本優勢，該技術還能調整服務水平，並帶來其他收入機會。

These people, process and technology-driven improvements extend beyond our Legacy Business. And now that we've successfully integrated the Healthcare Solutions business into our existing field operations management structure, we expect to extend these improvements we've already seen in on-time service delivery, driver turnover, asset rationalization and network optimization.

這些由人員、流程和技術驅動的改進不僅限於我們的傳統業務。現在，我們已經成功地將醫療保健解決方案業務整合到我們現有的現場營運管理結構中，我們希望能夠擴大我們在準時服務交付、司機週轉率、資產合理化和網路優化方面已經看到的這些改進。

In both the Legacy Business and the Healthcare Solutions business, we are structurally lowering our labor cost base, strengthening day-to-day execution, enhancing service reliability and delivering continued opportunities for long-term operating improvements.

在傳統業務和醫療保健解決方案業務中，我們正在從結構上降低勞動力成本基礎，加強日常執行，提高服務可靠性，並為長期營運改善提供持續的機會。

Turning to the top line. We delivered another quarter of strong balanced growth. Pricing continues to be a strength for us with core price of 6.2% in the fourth quarter, not just because of disciplined execution, but because of our strong customer focus and the consistent value we provide to our customers. Our asset positioning at scale, service reliability and the investments we've made in technology and automation differentiate our service offering, which all support our pricing.

轉到第一行。我們又實現了一個季度強勁均衡的成長。定價仍然是我們的優勢，第四季核心價格漲幅為 6.2%，這不僅是因為我們執行力強，還因為我們高度重視客戶，並始終為客戶提供價值。我們憑藉規模化的資產配置、服務的可靠性以及在技術和自動化方面的投資，使我們的服務產品脫穎而出，所有這些都支撐著我們的定價。

And on the volume front, we've seen notable growth in 2025 in special waste, renewable energy and recycling. In residential collection, intentional shedding moderated in the fourth quarter, and we continue to drive operating EBITDA and margin growth. We anticipate steady residential volume improvement as we move through 2026.

在數量方面，我們看到 2025 年特殊廢棄物、再生能源和回收方面出現了顯著增長。在住宅垃圾收集方面，第四季有意減少垃圾量，我們繼續推動營運 EBITDA 和利潤率成長。我們預計，隨著2026年的到來，住宅數量將穩定成長。

In closing, I'll close by thanking the entire WM team for their commitment and execution throughout 2025. We're entering 2026 with strong momentum, an optimized operating model and clear opportunities to continue delivering value to our customers and shareholders.

最後，我要感謝 WM 團隊全體成員在 2025 年的付出與執行。我們帶著強勁的發展勢頭、優化的營運模式和明確的機會進入 2026 年，將繼續為我們的客戶和股東創造價值。

And now I'll turn the call over to David to discuss our 2025 financial results and 2026 financial outlook in further detail.

現在我將把電話交給大衛，讓他更詳細地討論我們 2025 年的財務表現和 2026 年的財務展望。

Thanks, John, and good morning. Our 2025 performance demonstrates the meaningful progress we're making toward our long-term strategic goals. Operating EBITDA margin expanded 40 basis points to 30.1% for the full year, which is a result that overcame a 140-basis-point margin headwind from the combined impact of the acquisition of the Healthcare Solutions business and the expiration of alternative fuel tax credits. This result significantly exceeded the margin outlook we provided at the beginning of 2025 as we outperformed our own high expectations for cost optimization in our Legacy Business and synergy capture in the Healthcare Solutions business during each quarter of the year.

謝謝你，約翰，早安。我們2025年的業績表明，我們在實現長期策略目標方面取得了實質進展。全年營業 EBITDA 利潤率成長 40 個基點至 30.1%，這一結果克服了收購醫療保健解決方案業務和替代燃料稅收抵免到期帶來的 140 個基點的利潤率不利影響。這一結果顯著超過了我們在 2025 年初給出的利潤率預期，因為我們在每個季度都實現了傳統業務的成本優化和醫療保健解決方案業務的協同效應，超出了我們自身的高預期。

Normalized for these known headwinds I just mentioned, our Legacy Business delivered 180 basis points of margin expansion for the year. This was driven by 120 basis points of growth in the collection and disposal business from the benefits of price, cost optimization and improved business mix, particularly growth in landfill volumes and the shedding of low-margin residential business.

考慮到我剛才提到的這些已知不利因素，我們的傳統業務今年的利潤率成長了 180 個基點。這主要得益於收集和處置業務成長 120 個基點，價格、成本優化和業務組合改善帶來了好處，特別是垃圾掩埋量的成長和低利潤率的住宅業務的剝離。

Margin growth was also bolstered by a combined 60 basis points from lower commodity pricing in the recycling brokerage business, recycling automation benefits, the growth of our high-margin renewable natural gas business and the lower risk management cost. Cost optimization remained a central theme in 2025. SG&A expense for the Legacy Business was 9.2% of revenue for the full year, a 10-basis-point improvement compared to 2024 as we continue to rationalize discretionary spending.

利潤率成長也得益於以下因素的共同推動：回收經紀業務大宗商品價格下降，回收自動化帶來的效益，高利潤率可再生天然氣業務的增長，以及風險管理成本的降低，這些因素共同促成了利潤率增長 60 個基點。成本優化在2025年仍然是一個核心主題。全年傳統業務的銷售、一般及行政費用佔收入的 9.2%，與 2024 年相比改善了 10 個基點，因為我們繼續合理化可自由支配的支出。

Within Healthcare Solutions, we are making consistent progress in reducing SG&A expenses as we integrate and optimize the business. Fourth quarter 2025 Healthcare Solutions SG&A of 20.8% of revenue is a notable improvement of 350 basis points from the prior year period and a significant step toward our long-term ambition to get the SG&A of this business in line with the rest of the company. At 10.4% for the full year, it is clear that we are on track to get total company SG&A as a percentage of revenue below 10% in short order.

在醫療保健解決方案領域，隨著業務的整合和優化，我們在降低銷售、一般及行政費用方面取得了持續進展。2025 年第四季醫療保健解決方案的銷售、一般及行政費用佔收入的 20.8%，比上年同期顯著改善了 350 個基點，這是我們朝著使該業務的銷售、一般及行政費用與公司其他業務保持一致的長期目標邁出的重要一步。全年 SG&A 費用佔收入的百分比為 10.4%，顯然我們預計在短期內將公司總 SG&A 費用佔收入的百分比降至 10% 以下。

Our strong execution translated into robust cash flow generation in 2025. Cash flow from operations grew more than 12% to $6.04 billion, and free cash flow reached $2.94 billion, an increase of nearly 27%. These results showcase our success in driving margin expansion and disciplined approach to capital investment. For the year, we spent just under $2.6 billion on capital to support the business and $633 million on sustainability growth investments.

我們強而有力的執行力轉化為2025年強勁的現金流。經營活動產生的現金流成長超過 12%，達到 60.4 億美元，自由現金流達 29.4 億美元，成長近 27%。這些結果展現了我們在擴大利潤率和採取嚴謹的資本投資方法方面所取得的成功。今年，我們花了近 26 億美元用於資本支援業務，並花費了 6.33 億美元用於永續成長投資。

In 2025, we allocated $1.3 billion to dividends and paid down $1 billion in debt, reaching a leverage ratio of 3.1 times. We expect to reach a leverage ratio within our targeted range of between 2.5 and 3 times during 2026. We also invested more than $400 million in tuck-in acquisitions to expand our traditional solid waste and recycling footprint.

2025 年，我們分配了 13 億美元用於分紅，並償還了 10 億美元的債務，槓桿率為 3.1 倍。我們預計在 2026 年將槓桿率達到 2.5 倍至 3 倍的目標範圍。我們也投資超過 4 億美元進行補充收購，以擴大我們傳統的固體廢棄物和回收業務範圍。

Moving to the outlook. We expect operating EBITDA to be between $8.15 billion and $8.25 billion in 2026. This projection reflects an update to the classification of accretion expense, a change we are making to enhance the comparability with our industry peers and to better reflect operating performance. As a result, our 2026 operating EBITDA guidance excludes projected accretion expense of approximately $150 million. Our plan calls for a typical quarterly cadence of operating EBITDA contributions across the year.

接下來展望未來。我們預計 2026 年的營運 EBITDA 將在 81.5 億美元至 82.5 億美元之間。此預測反映了增值費用分類的更新，我們做出這項改變是為了提高與業界同行的可比性，並更好地反映經營績效。因此，我們 2026 年的營運 EBITDA 指引不包括預計約 1.5 億美元的增值支出。我們的計劃要求全年按季度進行典型的營運 EBITDA 貢獻。

Additionally, we expect an effective tax rate of approximately 24% and a share count at the end of the year of about 402 million shares. We anticipate capital expenditures for 2026 to be between $2.65 billion and $2.75 billion, which is inclusive of about $200 million directed towards high-return sustainability projects.

此外，我們預計實際稅率約為 24%，年底股份數量約為 4.02 億股。我們預計 2026 年的資本支出將在 26.5 億美元至 27.5 億美元之間，其中包括約 2 億美元用於高回報的永續發展項目。

Sustainability growth capital includes spending of about $85 million on two recently approved renewable natural gas facilities and one new recycling growth project, each expected to be completed and to begin contributing operating EBITDA by 2028. These projects are attractive opportunities to extend our network while bolstering WM's industry-leading return on invested capital.

永續發展成長資本包括最近批准的兩座可再生天然氣設施和一個新的回收成長項目，預計每座設施都將在 2028 年建成並開始貢獻運營 EBITDA，總投資額約為 8,500 萬美元。這些項目為我們拓展網絡提供了極具吸引力的機會，同時也提高了 WM 產業領先的投資報酬率。

In 2026, we expect free cash flow growth of nearly 30% to $3.8 billion at the midpoint of the outlook, which drives our projected operating EBITDA to free cash flow conversion above 46%. Our guidance includes an anticipated benefit from investment tax credits of about $110 million, which is about a $75 million headwind from the prior year.

預計到 2026 年，自由現金流將成長近 30%，達到 38 億美元（預測中位數），這將推動我們預測的營運 EBITDA 與自由現金流的轉換率超過 46%。我們的預期收益包括約 1.1 億美元的投資稅收抵免，這比前一年的損失約為 7,500 萬美元。

In closing, 2025 underscored the strength of our business model, the resilience of our operations and the discipline with which our teams execute every day. We are proud of our progress toward our long-term strategic goals, driving margin expansion, strong cash flow generation and continued optimization across the enterprise.

總之，2025 年凸顯了我們商業模式的優勢、我們營運的韌性以及我們團隊每天執行任務的嚴謹性。我們為在實現長期策略目標方面取得的進展感到自豪，這些進展推動了利潤率的擴大、強勁的現金流產生以及整個企業的持續優化。

I want to thank our dedicated team members whose commitment makes these results possible. As we look ahead to 2026, we are confident in our ability to sustain this momentum to continue delivering operational excellence and to generate long-term value for our shareholders.

我要感謝我們敬業的團隊成員，正是他們的付出才使得這些成果成為可能。展望 2026 年，我們有信心保持這一勢頭，繼續實現卓越運營，並為股東創造長期價值。

With that, Olivia, let's open up the lines for questions.

那麼，奧利維亞，我們現在開始接受提問。

(Operator Instructions) Sabahat Khan, RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）Sabahat Khan，RBC Capital Markets。

Just maybe starting with sort of the top line guidance. Can you maybe give us some perspective on the industrial activity has been weak for some time. There's some views just broadly out there that the economy picks up this year. Maybe just what you've embedded in terms of the macro backdrop. Obviously, we see the sort of the directional volume and pricing commentary. But if you can just delve into what you're seeing in some of your local markets? And is the industrial C&D type market picking up at all?

或許可以先從給予一些最基本的指導意見開始。您能否就工業活動疲軟持續一段時間這一問題提供一些見解？普遍認為，今年經濟將會好轉。或許只是你所嵌入的宏觀背景而已。顯然，我們可以看到成交量和價格走勢的各種評論。但如果你能深入研究一下你在當地一些市場中看到的情況呢？工業建築拆除類市場是否有所回升？

Yes. Regarding kind of the macro economy, I would say that we've said for the last few quarters that we're cautiously optimistic, and I think that we stay with that. I might even remove the word cautiously. I think we're optimistic about the macro economy. When we look at our own internal figures, and you mentioned the industrial line of business, that's a line of business that has been pretty soft over the last couple of years. I think we've been down 3% or 4% in volume each of the last probably seven or eight quarters. And that business actually has bounced back to almost flat. So that's an encouraging sign for us.

是的。關於宏觀經濟情勢，我想說，過去幾季我們一直持謹慎樂觀態度，我認為我們將繼續保持這種態度。我甚至可能會謹慎地刪掉這個詞。我認為我們對宏觀經濟持樂觀態度。當我們查看我們自己的內部數據時，您提到了工業業務線，該業務線在過去幾年裡相當疲軟。我認為在過去的七、八個季度裡，我們的銷量每季都下降了3%到4%。而這項業務實際上已經反彈至幾乎持平的水平。這對我們來說是個令人鼓舞的跡象。

I think similarly, as John mentioned in his remarks about the residential line of business, that's been negative for some time. That's been much more by design. But he also mentioned that that is starting to come back to more of a normalized number. And we think by the time we get to kind of the back half, I think, John, of 2026, we should see that down maybe half.

我認為情況也類似，正如約翰在談到住宅業務時所提到的那樣，住宅業務一段時間以來一直處於負面狀態。這更多是事先計劃好的。但他也提到，這個數字正在逐漸恢復到正常水準。我們認為，到 2026 年下半年，約翰，我們應該會看到這個數字下降一半左右。

Yes, half (inaudible). Yes.

是的，一半（聽不清楚）是的。

So all of those are encouraging signs. If you look at the landfill line of business, that's been a source of strength for us for a number of reasons, special waste, as John mentioned in his remarks as well, has been good. So all of that would tell me that the economy is on pretty firm footing.

所以這些都是令人鼓舞的跡象。如果你看看垃圾掩埋場業務，你會發現它一直是我們的優勢來源，原因有很多，正如約翰在他的演講中提到的，特殊廢物處理情況也很好。所以，所有這些都表明，經濟基礎相當穩固。

Great. And then just a follow-up on the healthcare side a little bit. Can you talk about -- it sounds like the integration is largely there, but can you just talk about for '26, what you're sort of thinking on the pricing front, maybe some of the larger initiatives on the cost refinement, getting that percentage more to where you want it to be on the SG&A side. So maybe you can delve into some of the commentary shared earlier on the initiatives for this year on the healthcare side? And what could those margins look like sort of over the next 12, 24 months?

偉大的。然後，再簡單跟進一下醫療保健方面的狀況。您能否談談—聽起來整合工作基本上已經完成，但您能否談談 2026 年的定價策略，以及在成本優化方面有哪些更大的舉措，例如如何使銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 的百分比更接近您的預期？那麼，或許您可以深入研究一下先前分享的關於今年醫療保健方面各項舉措的評論？那麼，未來 12 到 24 個月內，這些利潤率可能會是什麼樣子呢？

Yes. So a lot with Healthcare Solutions. We've made a ton of progress just in the last quarter. There's a lot going on between Q3 and Q4, even if you look at Q3 to Q4, there was -- we talked about some lost accounts last quarter that would carry forward into this quarter and carry forward into 2026. And so that did, in fact, happen. But as I said in my remarks, we've made a ton of progress on our customer service -- the customer service side of our business. In fact, the metrics that you use to measure those have actually jumped above our Legacy Business, which is very, very encouraging.

是的。所以，醫療保健解決方案方面有很多值得關注的地方。我們在上個季度取得了巨大的進步。第三季度到第四季度之間發生了很多事情，即使你只看第三季度到第四季度，我們也討論過上個季度的一些流失客戶，這些客戶會延續到本季度，甚至延續到 2026 年。而這件事也確實發生了。但正如我在演講中所說，我們在客戶服務方面取得了巨大的進步——也就是我們業務的客戶服務方面。事實上，你們用來衡量這些指標的指標已經超過了我們的傳統業務，這非常令人鼓舞。

Similarly, from Q3 to Q4, we saw credit memos, we think they peaked in Q4. And so as you know, those credit memos have been used to, in part, take care of some of these past due accounts that we've had. I think what I would say is we've really kind of built a wall now between all that is continuing to go on, on the back-office side of that business and the customer themselves. And that's a real positive. And the result of that, as we think about 2026 is going to be, I think, better price realization.

同樣，從第三季到第四季度，我們看到了貸項通知單，我們認為它們在第四季度達到了頂峰。如您所知，這些貸項通知單已用於部分處理我們的一些逾期帳款。我想說的是，我們現在真的在公司後台運營的所有事情和客戶本身之間築起了一道牆。那真是個好消息。我認為，展望 2026 年，其結果將是更好的價格實現。

We've been getting price all along, but we just haven't realized as much of it. And a lot of that has been these credit memos that we've been giving that has offset some of that price. I think when you get into 2026, we're expecting 4.2% price in 2026. Top line is going to be 3%, and that is a reflection of those lost accounts that will anniversary for the most part in the back half of '26. So that's the reason why it looks like all of our growth is coming from price. It is, in fact, coming from price, and it's due to those lost accounts.

我們一直都在關注價格，只是之前沒有充分意識到這一點。其中很大一部分是透過我們開出的貸項通知單抵消的。我認為到了 2026 年，我們預計價格將上漲 4.2%。營收將達到 3%，這反映了那些流失的客戶大多將在 2026 年下半年迎來週年紀念日。所以這就是為什麼看起來我們所有的成長都來自價格的原因。事實上，這是價格因素造成的，也是因為那些流失的客戶所造成的。

And then when you think about the expense side of the business, John mentioned that we've rolled that in. And I think Rafa last quarter talked about how we've rolled that business into our areas. And so we're seeing the real benefits of that. We're seeing that what we've honed on the Legacy Business over the last probably 10 years, some of it through technology, some of it through process, all of that gets brought to this routing and logistics business, which is WM Healthcare Solutions. So we're really encouraged about what we're seeing as we roll the business into the areas.

然後，當你考慮到業務的支出方面時，約翰提到我們已經把這部分也考慮進去了。我認為拉法上個季度談到了我們如何將這項業務融入我們的各個領域。因此，我們正在看到它帶來的真正好處。我們看到，過去 10 年左右我們在傳統業務中不斷完善的經驗，一部分是透過技術，一部分是透過流程，所有這些都被應用到了 WM Healthcare Solutions 的路線規劃和物流業務。因此，隨著業務拓展到這些地區，我們所看到的景象讓我們感到非常鼓舞。

I guess the last thing I'll mention here is that cross-selling, which we put $50 million of cross-selling in the EBITDA synergy number back in June of last year. And I would tell you that if I were a betting man that I would take the over on that because in talking to our area leaders last week, almost to a person, they were very encouraged by what they're seeing from their sales folks.

最後我想提一下的是交叉銷售，我們在去年 6 月的 EBITDA 綜效數字中計入了 5,000 萬美元的交叉銷售收入。如果我是個喜歡打賭的人，我會告訴你，我會押大，因為上週我和我們地區的領導者交談時，幾乎每個人都對他們銷售人員的表現感到非常鼓舞。

In terms of cross-selling, I think it's important to keep in mind that some of that cross-selling benefit though, does show up in the collection and disposal line of business. Not all of it shows up necessarily in the Healthcare Solutions business.

就交叉銷售而言，我認為需要記住的是，部分交叉銷售的好處確實體現在收集和處置業務中。並非所有這些都會體現在醫療保健解決方案業務中。

Bryan Burgmeier, Citi.

Bryan Burgmeier，花旗銀行。

I appreciate all the detail in the press release. It was really helpful. I thought that Footnote h seemed to say that maybe discussion on the 2027 financial targets would be put on hold for a little while. I'm not sure if I'm sort of interpreting that correctly. And if I am, maybe from a high level, can you help us understand sort of what went into that decision? I guess there have been sort of some accounting changes. It's a pretty dynamic macro environment, but just kind of hearing in your own words would be really helpful.

我非常欣賞新聞稿中提供的所有細節。真的很有幫助。我認為註腳 h 似乎在說，關於 2027 年財務目標的討論可能會暫時擱置一段時間。我不太確定我的理解是否正確。如果我是高層人士，您能否幫助我們了解做出這個決定的原因？我猜想會計方面可能會有一些變化。這是一個相當動態的宏觀環境，但如果能聽到你自己的描述，那就真的很有幫助了。

We did debate, [Tony], whether we would get a question on Footnote h. So Heather is the winner on this one. But here's what I would say about the 2027 number. On Investor Day, we gave some high-level estimates. I would -- what I would say about those is that they weren't detailed guidance as we're giving today for 2026. And we will give detailed guidance on 2027 a year from now.

托尼，我們確實討論過是否會就腳註 h 提出問題。所以，希瑟是這場較量的贏家。但對於 2027 年這個數字，我想說的是：在投資人日上，我們給了一些高層次的預測。我想說的是，那些指導意見不像我們今天針對 2026 年提供的指導意見那麼詳細。我們將於一年後就 2027 年的情況給予詳細指引。

So I would tell you that those were estimates. They're kind of the best estimates we can make at the time. I mean our business typically about as far out as we can look is 12 months. It's hard to look at things like commodity prices 18 to 24 months out. So those estimates, I wouldn't rely on those as guidance. I would rely on them as what they were intended, which is estimates.

所以我會告訴你，那些都只是估計值。這些算是我們當時能做出的最佳估算了。我的意思是，我們公司通常能預見的未來只有 12 個月。很難預測未來 18 到 24 個月的大宗商品價格。所以，我不會把這些估算當作指導依據。我會按照它們原本的用途——估算值——來看待它們。

But I will tell you this about '27 that we don't see anything on the horizon that's concerning for us. And I would also say that if there's one thing you know about us over the last number of years, the consistency of our performance has been one of our strong suits, and I think that continues going forward.

但我可以告訴你們，關於 2027 年，我們目前沒有看到任何令人擔憂的事情發生。我還想說，如果你對我們過去幾年的表現有所了解，就會知道我們表現的穩定性一直是我們的優勢之一，我認為這種穩定性會繼續保持下去。

Got it. Got it. It's really helpful. And then maybe just digging into the guidance for '26 a little bit more. Maybe, John, can you give us an idea of maybe the level of margin expansion that you're looking for in collection and disposal this year on sort of an apples-to-apples basis? I guess it's kind of noisy with the landfill accretion and the wildfire comps, but John, your thoughts on net price and maybe some key cost buckets could be quite helpful.

知道了。知道了。這真的很有幫助。然後或許可以更深入地研究一下 2026 年的指導方針。約翰，或許你可以大致估算一下，今年在回收和處置方面，你希望實現的利潤率擴張幅度是多少（在同等條件下）？我想，由於垃圾掩埋場堆積和野火的影響，情況可能會比較複雜，但約翰，你對淨價以及一些關鍵成本類別的看法可能會很有幫助。

Yes, Bryan, you saw the guidance we gave in terms of yield and core price. And what we've really been focused on and was really shown up well in Q4 and this year, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, is sort of the -- is the spread between price and cost, and we're continuing to expand margins. So we're really pleased. Directly to your question, there is a little bit of noise in there. We talked about the wildfires being one of those things that really showed up in Q2, but 50 basis points on a same-store sales basis is kind of what we're targeting from a margin improvement standpoint across the portfolio.

是的，布萊恩，你看到了我們針對收益率和核心價格的指導。正如我在準備好的演講稿中提到的，我們一直關注的重點，也是第四季和今年的顯著成果，是價格和成本之間的差距，我們正在繼續擴大利潤率。所以我們真的很高興。直接回答你的問題，裡面確實有一些噪音。我們討論過，野火是第二季真正顯現出來的因素之一，但從提高整個產品組合的利潤率角度來看，我們的目標是同店銷售額提高 50 個基點。

Don't grade me down by calling the wrong name. I think I called you Tony.

不要因為叫錯名字而降低我的評價。我想我叫你托尼了。

Trevor Romeo, William Blair.

特雷弗·羅密歐，威廉·布萊爾。

First one I had was maybe on the 2026 outlook for Healthcare Solutions, particularly on EBITDA because I know you did give kind of a revenue outlook. You talked about kind of continuing to optimize the business. I was hoping maybe you could level set how much cost synergy capture you realized in 2025 and then how much is baked in for incremental in 2026? And then along with that, how much sort of underlying growth and margin expansion you expect from the business ex synergies?

我第一個問題可能是關於 2026 年醫療保健解決方案的展望，特別是 EBITDA，因為我知道你們確實給出了收入展望。你剛才提到要繼續優化業務。我希望您能先估算一下您在 2025 年實現了多少成本綜效，然後再估算一下 2026 年的增量收益中有多少？此外，您預計在不考慮綜效的情況下，業務能帶來多少潛在成長和利潤率擴張？

Yes. There's probably a couple of us could take this one, but I'll start and then maybe David or John can jump in. But first of all, as far as '25 goes, we did say, at least on the SG&A synergies, we gave a range initially of $80 million to $100 million, and we finished above the top end of that. So we're encouraged by that, and that ends up being a benefit -- a carryover benefit for us. Some of it is -- well, it all carries over, but some of it's happened ratably throughout 2025. So that ends up being a carryover benefit for us as we come into 2026.

是的。我們當中可能有幾個人可以做這件事，但我先開始，然後也許大衛或約翰可以加入。但首先，就 2025 年而言，我們確實說過，至少在銷售、一般及行政費用協同效應方面，我們最初給出的範圍是 8000 萬美元到 1 億美元，而我們最終超過了上限。所以，我們對此感到鼓舞，這最終對我們來說是一個好處——一個持續的好處。有些事情——嗯，所有事情都會延續下去，但有些事情在 2025 年已經逐漸發生了。因此，這最終會為我們帶來延續到 2026 年的好處。

We -- the original synergy goal of $300 million, and that, of course, mentioned the $50 million that's included in that for cross-selling, we feel very comfortable with that. I think there's a little bit of a scrambled egg happening here with these businesses because some of this, and I mentioned in cross-selling, some of that ends up showing up in collection and disposal.

我們——最初的綜效目標是 3 億美元，當然，其中也包括 5,000 萬美元的交叉銷售收入，我們對此感到非常滿意。我認為這些企業現在的情況有點混亂，因為其中一些問題，就像我在交叉銷售中提到的那樣，最終會出現在回收和處置環節。

The same thing happens on the cost side, particularly operating cost, but also SG&A. I will say this about SG&A, which is kind of the long pole in the tent here that David mentioned it in his remarks. But as you look at SG&A pre-acquisition, and that's been something that Devina and I spent a ton of time -- all of us, but Devina and I, in particular, were very focused on getting SG&A down. And that number pre-acquisition had gotten down to, I think, the third quarter of last year was -- or of 2024 was 8.9%.

成本方面也出現了同樣的情況，特別是營運成本，以及銷售、一般及行政費用。關於銷售、一般及行政費用（SG&A），我想說的是，這是大衛在演講中提到的關鍵問題。但當你審視收購前的銷售、一般及行政費用時，你會發現，我和德維娜花了大量時間研究這個問題——我們所有人都在研究這個問題，但我和德維娜尤其專注於降低銷售、一般及行政費用。收購前，這個數字已經下降到，我認為，去年第三季是——或者說，2024 年是 8.9%。

And as for a year, I believe 2024 was 9.4%. And then that jumped up after the acquisition to a high of 11% in Q1 of last year, 2025. We have, through the synergy capture, have really kind of chopped away at that. It ended the year at, I believe, 10.3%.

至於年份，我認為 2024 年是 9.4%。收購完成後，這一比例在去年第一季（2025 年）飆升至 11% 的高點。我們透過協同效應的獲取，已經有效地減少了這種情況。我記得，它最終的年終率為 10.3%。

But as David said, there's a near-term pathway to getting that -- continuing to get that thing down as a corporation, that includes Healthcare Solutions down to below 10%. And as we've said many times, that business was running at a much higher SG&A. I think it was as high as 25% when we bought it. It has come down to 20%. I think the number that was in our synergy capture was 17%. And then Devina said a number of times, look, we think that there's no reason we couldn't expect that number to be down close to our own number, which is kind of 9%. And as it gets down there, you could expect to see that SG&A number continue to come down.

但正如大衛所說，近期內有一條途徑可以實現這一目標——繼續將公司層面的醫療保健解決方案成本降低到 10% 以下。正如我們多次說過的那樣，該業務的銷售、一般及行政費用要高得多。我記得我們買的時候利率高達25%。已經降到20%了。我認為我們綜效的實現比例是 17%。然後德維娜多次表示，我們認為沒有理由不期待這個數字會接近我們自己的數字，也就是 9%。隨著股價下跌，預計銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）數字將持續下降。

And then maybe, John, on the operating side?

然後，約翰，或許可以考慮營運方面？

Yes, I would say from a synergy perspective, cross-selling and internalization, those avenues are going very well. And as Jim mentioned, Trevor, we're seeing a good bit of the benefit right now showing up sort of in the core solid waste business. I commented on our roll-off volume last quarter being a portion of it, about 60 basis points being driven by simply taking that work and putting on WM trucks. That's not something that's going to show per se in the Healthcare segment. And like I said, in terms of internalization and other synergies we're getting out of the business, that's all going extremely well.

是的，從綜效、交叉銷售和內部化的角度來看，這些途徑都進展得非常順利。正如吉姆所提到的，特雷弗，我們現在看到許多好處都體現在核心固體廢棄物業務中。我曾評論說，上個季度我們的滾裝運輸量是其中的一部分，大約 60 個基點的增長僅僅是因為承接了這項工作並交給 WM 卡車運輸。這本身並不會反映在醫療保健領域。正如我所說，就內部化以及我們從業務中獲得的其他協同效應而言，一切都進展得非常順利。

Yes. Makes sense. Okay. And then I did want to follow up on the RNG business. I don't know if maybe Tara is on the call, but I appreciate the, I guess, the 60% of volumes contracted for 2026. That's encouraging.

是的。有道理。好的。然後，我確實想跟進 RNG 業務。我不知道塔拉是否參加了電話會議，但我很欣賞2026年60%的銷量已簽約。這令人鼓舞。

For the 40% of the uncontracted volumes, I think the comment in the press release was an expectation for $24.50 per MMBtu on the pricing side. I think if you use today's spot prices, that would imply something -- a decent amount higher than that, let's say. So maybe you could just talk about that a bit. Is that kind of where you see the voluntary market right now? Or is there some conservatism built in there? Or just thoughts on pricing?

對於未簽訂合約的 40% 的銷量，我認為新聞稿中的評論是預期定價為每百萬英熱單位 24.50 美元。我認為，如果使用今天的現貨價格，那就意味著──比如說，比現在的價格高出不少。所以或許你可以稍微談談這個話題。你覺得目前自願市場的情況是這樣嗎？或者說，其中是否蘊含著某種保守主義？或者您對定價有什麼想法？

Yes. So I'm here, and we're really pleased with the progress that we've made on selling a portion of our volume, a pretty significant portion, and it's a testament to how we've been managing the risk that's in this business. On the 40% that remains unsold, this is going to be the first year. If you look at it, our volume is doubling year-over-year from about [40 million] MMBtus to now 21 to 22 plus. So we're going to have a portion that is not allocated to our fleet that will be sold in the voluntary market, and that's what you're seeing in there. From a RIN pricing perspective, we're anticipating RIN pricing to hold steady in that [$2.30 to $2.40] range. So that's what it's all based on.

是的。所以，我在這裡，我們對銷售部分銷售（相當大一部分）所取得的進展感到非常滿意，這證明了我們是如何管理這個行業中的風險的。剩餘未售出的 40% 的房產，今年將是第一年出售。你看，我們的產量每年都在翻倍成長，從大約 4,000 萬 MMBtu 成長到現在的 2,100 萬到 2,200 萬 MMBtu 以上。因此，我們將有一部分不分配給我們自己的車隊，這部分將在自願市場上出售，這就是你在這裡看到的。從 RIN 定價的角度來看，我們預計 RIN 價格將穩定在 [2.30 美元至 2.40 美元] 範圍內。這就是一切的基礎。

Tyler Brown, Raymond James.

泰勒布朗，雷蒙德詹姆斯。

I'll reiterate lots of good detail was in the release. But David or Tara, I just wanted to unpack the comments about the approaching $1 billion in sustainability EBITDA by '27. So I think in the release, you provided a baseline now. So I think that baseline is $300 million. And I just want to make sure that I have it right, but are you basically expecting the investments to yield, call it, slightly less than $700 million of incremental EBITDA over the time frame? And can we comp that to the $760 million to $800 million that you laid out at the Analyst Day? And if so, can we just talk about what's driving that delta?

我再次重申，這次發布包含了許多有用的細節。但是，David 或 Tara，我只是想解讀一下關於到 2027 年可持續發展 EBITDA 接近 10 億美元的評論。所以我認為，在這次發布中，你們已經提供了一個基準。所以我認為基準線是3億美元。我只是想確認一下我的理解是否正確，您基本上是預期這些投資在預期時間內能帶來略低於 7 億美元的增量 EBITDA 嗎？我們能否將此與您在分析師日上提出的 7.6 億美元至 8 億美元進行比較？如果是這樣，我們能不能討論一下造成這種差異的原因是什麼？

So you absolutely have the parts right. And let me just take a step back on two key points. First, we're incredibly pleased with the progress on the recycling and the renewable energy investments. It bears repeating what was in Jim's script with 18% lower commodity prices and delivering 22% higher EBITDA on the recycling business. That's a testament to what we're delivering in labor savings, in premium savings, and we've had strong volume growth, which has a halo effect with our customers.

所以你完全掌握了正確的零件。讓我先回顧一下兩個關鍵點。首先，我們對回收和再生能源投資的進展感到非常滿意。值得重申的是，吉姆的劇本中提到，大宗商品價格下降了 18%，而回收業務的 EBITDA 提高了 22%。這證明了我們在節省人力成本和保費方面所取得的成就，而且我們的銷售也實現了強勁增長，這對我們的客戶產生了積極的影響。

And then likewise, really having a lot of momentum on the RNG business. I mentioned before that we're going to be doubling our output. What you can bridge from the $700 million to the $760 million is really just in two buckets. The first is a difference in recycled commodity prices. What was in our Investor Day materials was $125 a ton and now what is in the number is $70, which we do view as a low point. So you can consider that there could be some upside if and when commodity prices come back. And that's over half of it.

同樣，RNG業務也發展勢頭強勁。我之前提到過，我們會把產量翻一番。從 7 億美元到 7.6 億美元之間的差距，實際上只體現在兩個方面。首先是再生商品價格的差異。我們在投資者日資料中提到的價格是每噸 125 美元，而現在的數字是每噸 70 美元，我們認為這是一個低點。所以你可以認為，如果大宗商品價格回升，可能會有一些上漲空間。這已經超過一半了。

The other piece is, if you go back to 2023, when we had come out with this broader platform, we've learned a lot. And one of the things that we've learned is that there have been some differences in operating costs, primarily related to electricity costs, which is a bit of a headwind, but also in the medium and long term, a potential tailwind for us because we do have a robust landfill gas-to-electricity platform, and that is something that we can lean into as we look at whether or not we expand those types of facilities on our landfill.

另一方面，回顧 2023 年，當我們推出這個更廣泛的平台時，我們已經學到了很多。我們發現，營運成本方面存在一些差異，主要與電力成本有關，這算是一個不利因素，但從中長期來看，這對我們來說也是一個潛在的有利因素，因為我們擁有一個強大的垃圾掩埋氣發電平台，我們可以利用這一點來考慮是否在我們的垃圾掩埋場上擴大這類設施。

Tyler, this is kind of case in point to my earlier comment about trying to predict things in our business way out. And that Investor Day was the 2025 Investor Day, and you can go all the way back to the 2023 Investor Day about sustainability, just really difficult. So we're kind of dealing with what we have at the time.

泰勒，這正好印證了我之前關於試圖提前預測我們產業發展趨勢的評論。而那次投資者日是 2025 年的投資者日，你甚至可以追溯到 2023 年的投資者日，討論永續發展問題，這真的很難。所以我們只能盡力應付眼下的情況。

And so yes, commodity prices have dipped and hence, the $700 million. But I think it kind of makes the point for us that, a, as Tara said, I mean, these businesses are incredibly good investments and the paybacks on them, particularly the renewable natural gas plants. Well, I think we originally said they were [2.5 to 3], now they may be [3 to 4], but still incredibly good paybacks. But this -- if anything that's commodity related, as you can imagine, it's just really hard to predict that far out.

所以，是的，大宗商品價格下跌了，因此才有了這7億美元。但我認為這恰恰說明了，正如塔拉所說，這些企業都是非常好的投資，而且它們的回報也相當可觀，尤其是再生天然氣發電廠。嗯，我想我們最初說的是[2.5到3]，現在可能是[3到4]，但仍然是非常好的回報。但是，如果有什麼事情與大宗商品有關，正如你所想，預測那麼長遠的事情真的很難。

Yes. No. I just was trying to get the delta. That was extremely, extremely helpful.

是的。不。我只是想計算一下差值。那真的非常非常有幫助。

John Morris, a question for you. So if I look at the normal course CapEx, it looks like that CapEx number is running at less than 9.5% of sales. It just feels maybe a bit light. I realize that Stericycle is less capital intensive, so that's part of it. But is this kind of a good, call it, forward capital plan? Is there something unique in '26 that keeps the budget down? I think you and Jim mentioned the lower fleet age, but I just want to just try to level set on where that CapEx will run longer term.

約翰‧莫里斯，我有個問題想問你。所以，如果我看一下正常的資本支出，看起來資本支出數字佔銷售額的比例不到 9.5%。感覺好像有點輕。我知道 Stericycle 的資本密集度較低，這也是原因之一。但這算是一個好的、前瞻性的資本規劃嗎？26 年的這部電影有什麼獨特之處，使得預算得以控制？我想你和吉姆都提到了船隊年齡偏小的問題，但我只是想弄清楚從長遠來看，資本支出會如何發展。

I think probably a little higher than that, Tyler, probably the 10%-ish off the cuff. There's a few things to mention. One, 1,500 trucks is what we said is probably normal run rate for the traditional solid waste business. And as Jim mentioned, we've been obviously catching up and advancing some of those investments, which, by the way, are clearly paying off.

我覺得可能比這還要高一點，泰勒，大概10%左右吧。有幾件事需要說明。第一，我們說過，1500輛卡車可能是傳統固體廢棄物處理業務的正常運作速度。正如吉姆所提到的那樣，我們顯然一直在追趕並推進一些投資，順便說一句，這些投資顯然正在獲得回報。

As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we got -- we do have some work to do on the fleet with the healthcare -- on the healthcare side is because they leased virtually every one of their vehicles. So we are systematically unwinding that where it makes sense and when it makes sense, right? So there's a timing aspect to when we peel back some of those leases.

正如我在準備好的演講稿中提到的，我們在醫療保健車隊方面確實還有一些工作要做——醫療保健方面的問題是，他們幾乎租賃了所有的車輛。所以，我們會在適當的地方、適當的時間，有條不紊地逐步解除這種狀態，對吧？所以，何時解除部分租賃合約也是一個需要考慮的因素。

And then lastly, obviously, the sustainability investments, as you saw in the release and the remarks here is coming down by roughly $400 million to $200 million. So there's some puts and takes. But back to where we started, I think that 10%-ish range is probably a good mile marker in terms of go-forward capital.

最後，很顯然，正如你在新聞稿和這裡的演講中所看到的，永續發展投資正在減少約 4 億美元，降至 2 億美元。所以，這其中既有買入也有賣出。但回到我們最初的問題，我認為 10% 左右的幅度可能是未來資金的一個好里程碑。

Toni Kaplan, Morgan Stanley.

東尼卡普蘭，摩根士丹利。

I also wanted to ask about the Healthcare business. You talked about the 3% growth next year, the 4.2% pricing. It sounds like you're still having some of the issues with the Stericycle customers. You mentioned the credit memos. Do you expect all this to be resolved this year? And how are you thinking about growth in this segment for future years?

我還想了解一下醫療保健產業的情況。你提到了明年3%的成長，以及4.2%的價格。聽起來你仍然遇到一些與 Stericycle 客戶相關的問題。你提到了貸項通知單。你認為所有這些問題都能在今年解決嗎？您如何看待該領域未來幾年的成長？

And just maybe if you could talk about market conditions within the medical waste space and if that's proceeding how you sort of saw when the deal was launched or when you announced the transaction where you were talking about sort of a higher market growth for the health space?

或許您可以談談醫療廢棄物領域的市場狀況，以及您在啟動交易或宣布交易時，對醫療領域更高市場成長的預期，目前該領域的發展情況如何？

Yes. So fair question here. And one thing I would maybe correct you a little bit is the customer -- that's why I wanted to make sure I mentioned that we're getting to, and I would argue we're there where the customer is getting a good invoice, they're getting a payable invoice. There's a lot going on behind the scenes for that, especially for the larger customers.

是的。問得好。還有一點我可能要稍微糾正一下，那就是客戶——這就是為什麼我想確保我提到我們正在達到，而且我認為我們已經達到了，客戶會收到一張好的發票，一張可支付的發票。這背後有很多工作要做，尤其是對於大客戶而言。

By the way, there is a lot going on behind the scenes for our larger customers in the Legacy Business, too, and our national accounts. There's a lot of manual effort that is ongoing there. But our intention was to really kind of build a wall between the back-office work that is ongoing and will be ongoing through '26 and what the customer sees. And that's why in my remarks, I talked about the improvement in our customer service stats to levels above our Legacy Business. That is all super encouraging and tells us -- and I think I mentioned that one of our customers recognized us for really improving our invoicing. That was a big customer. I didn't name the customer, but a big customer. So all of that tells me that we've done an effective job of putting that kind of wall in place.

順便說一句，對於我們的傳統業務中的大客戶和全國客戶來說，幕後也有很多事情正在發生。那裡需要持續進行大量的人工操作。但我們的目的是在正在進行並將持續到 2026 年的後台工作與客戶所看到的內容之間真正建立起一道屏障。因此，我在演講中談到了我們的客戶服務統計數據已提升到高於我們傳統業務的水平。這一切都非常令人鼓舞，也告訴我們——我想我之前提到過——我們的一位客戶認可了我們在發票方面所做的改進。那是一位大客戶。我沒有透露客戶姓名，但一位大客戶。所以所有這些都表明，我們已經有效地完成了建造這種牆的工作。

So the customers, they really don't care what goes on in the background as long as they're getting good service and good invoice. And then we will take care of the system issues, we'll take care of the process issues, all of that. And that is all -- we're making big progress on that. It's all ongoing. So all that's part of the ERP that we've talked about many times. It also gives us the ability to, as I mentioned, and you asked about kind of the growth of this business.

所以，只要能得到良好的服務和合理的帳單，客戶們其實並不關心幕後發生了什麼事。然後我們會處理系統問題，我們會處理流程問題，所有這些問題都會解決。就是這樣——我們在這方面取得了重大進展。一切都在進行中。所以，所有這些都是我們多次討論過的ERP系統的一部分。正如我剛才提到的，它也賦予了我們實現這一目標的能力，而你也問到了這項業務的成長情況。

Look, I would tell you this, I think we said 5% to 6%. And really, as you think about what we gave for 2026, 4.2% price, but only 3% top line. And that negative volume piece, as I mentioned, is largely related to these accounts that we've lost. And we knew we had lost them, and we knew that it was going to have an impact on Q4, and we know it's going to have an impact on the first half of 2026. As we get to the back half of 2026, that actually turns into potentially a tailwind for us on a year-over-year basis.

我告訴你，我們之前說過 5% 到 6%。仔細想想，我們為 2026 年設定的目標價為 4.2%，但總收入只有 3%。正如我之前提到的，負交易量主要與我們失去的這些帳戶有關。我們知道我們失去了他們，我們也知道這將對第四季度產生影響，我們也知道這將對 2026 年上半年產生影響。到了 2026 年下半年，這實際上可能會成為我們同比的一個有利因素。

And then the last thing I'll mention about this -- so I guess to finish that point, we do feel very good about the strategic business case for this. I know there's been some skepticism out there about, well, is this business not going to grow at the 5% to 6%. You take out those lost accounts and you're almost there right now. So when we get to the back half of next year and into 2027, when you look at that -- the pricing power that we have across the entire organization and when you look at the fact that this business demographically, I mean, if I were to ask you what business should you be in over the next 20 years, I would think that healthcare is one of those with this aging population in the US and in Canada and the UK. So that has to be a beneficiary of it.

最後我想提一點——我想總結一下，我們對這項策略的商業理由感到非常滿意。我知道有些人對此表示懷疑，認為這個行業無法以 5% 到 6% 的速度成長。把那些損失的帳戶剔除掉，你現在就幾乎成功了。所以，當我們進入明年下半年和 2027 年時，當你考慮到我們在整個組織中擁有的定價權，以及從人口統計學角度來看，如果你問我未來 20 年你應該從事哪個行業，我會認為醫療保健是美國、加拿大和英國人口老化加劇的行業之一。所以它必然是受益者之一。

So I think my long answer is, yes, we're very confident in the growth trajectory for the business. And we're also very pleased with the progress we've made, not done yet, but we've built this wall, and the customer is now seeing a good invoice and a good service level.

所以，我的詳細回答是，是的，我們對公司的發展前景非常有信心。我們對所取得的進展也感到非常滿意，雖然還沒有完全完成，但我們已經築起了這堵牆，客戶現在可以看到合理的帳單和良好的服務水平。

Great. And just moving to -- you mentioned some technology and automation improvements that you've made. When you think about 2026, which areas are you most focused on for efficiency or technology? Just anything that to highlight with level of automation that you're able to continue to do and which areas have the most runway for that?

偉大的。接下來——您提到了一些您在技術和自動化方面所做的改進。展望 2026 年，您最關注哪些領域的效率或技術發展？您想重點介紹您在自動化方面能夠繼續保持的水平，以及哪些領域在這方面最有發展空間？

Maybe I'll start with, and Tara can chime in. On the recycling side, I think you've seen the benefits. Tara commented in some of her answers about the progress we've made from the investments we've made in recycling. A lot of that has driven sort of the middle of the P&L. And that's where technology enablement and AI are paying off already, and we've made a lot of progress there.

或許我可以先說，然後塔拉可以插話。在回收方面，我想你已經看到了它的好處。塔拉在一些回答中提到了我們在回收方面的投資所取得的進展。其中許多因素都對損益表的中段產生了影響。而這正是技術賦能和人工智慧開始發揮作用的地方，我們在這方面取得了巨大進展。

When you think about the 15,000 refuse vehicles we run and now another -- call it, another 4,500 on the healthcare side, building out technology enablement as a logistics service is where you -- I think that's paying off too. When you look at the margins and the OpEx in particular and the momentum that we've built in '24 into '25 and into Q4, I think you're going to see that continue to carry forward into 2026.

想想我們運營的 15,000 輛垃圾車，現在又增加了——姑且稱之為醫療保健方面的 4,500 輛——將技術賦能發展成為物流服務，我認為這也是值得的。當你觀察利潤率，特別是營運支出，以及我們在 2024 年至 2025 年第四季所建立的勢頭時，我認為你會看到這種勢頭繼續延續到 2026 年。

And then lastly, on the post-collection side, we've talked a lot about the value of our network and having strategically placed assets in the post-collection side, whether it's transfer facilities, recycling facilities, landfill facilities. We're taking kind of an IoT approach at our landfills, too, by embedding technology in those facilities that's going to give us visibility to the operation in a much more efficient manner than we traditionally have done. And those are complex operations, as you know. So we still see a lot of opportunity on the post-collection side, particularly landfills to embed technology to really drive down operating costs there as well.

最後，在收集後的環節，我們已經談了很多關於我們網路價值以及在收集後環節策略性地部署資產（無論是轉運設施、回收設施還是垃圾掩埋場）的重要性。我們在垃圾掩埋場也採用了一種物聯網方法，透過在這些設施中嵌入技術，使我們能夠以比傳統方式更有效率的方式了解營運情況。如你所知，這些都是複雜的操作。因此，我們仍然看到在垃圾收集後的環節，特別是垃圾掩埋場，有很多機會可以應用技術來真正降低營運成本。

Faiza Alwy, Deutsche Bank.

Faiza Alwy，德意志銀行。

I wanted to ask about just volumes in the collection and disposal business in the fourth quarter. I thought they came in a little bit light relative to what we've seen. And I know we've had some -- obviously, special waste volumes. And I know earlier in the call, you talked about sort of the industrial business and the macro environment there and that you're optimistic. So I'm just curious, is there anything more to consider as it relates to collection and disposal volumes in the quarter relative to trend other than just special waste?

我想詢問一下第四季度收集和處置業務的規模。我覺得他們這次帶來的數量比我們之前看到的少。我知道我們有一些——顯然，是特殊的廢物量。我知道在之前的通話中，您談到了工業業務和宏觀環境，並且您對此持樂觀態度。所以我很好奇，除了特殊廢棄物之外，與本季收集和處置量相關的趨勢還有其他需要考慮的因素嗎？

Yes. Look, we don't talk much about weather just because we choose to make it up. I would tell you that weather impacted us in December and likely is going to impact us this week when we get to first quarter results. But we make that up. I mean we don't let our area folks say, well, weather impacts me, therefore, I'm going to be coming in under my budget. But it did impact volume a bit. As you see with the numbers, it didn't impact the overall numbers. So we made it up on the EBITDA line.

是的。你看，我們不怎麼談論天氣，只是因為我們選擇編造天氣而已。我想說的是，天氣在 12 月對我們造成了影響，而且很可能在本週我們公佈第一季業績時也會對我們造成影響。但那是我們編造的。我的意思是，我們不能讓本地居民說，天氣會影響我的預算，所以我的預算就不能超支。但銷量確實受到了一些影響。從數據上可以看出，這並沒有影響整體數據。所以我們透過 EBITDA 指標彌補了損失。

But when you think about volume, it did have a bit of an impact on volume. MSW was a bit soft and much of that was a result of -- the two lines of business that are most impacted negatively by weather are MSW and the industrial line of business. And -- so those were clearly impacted by the weather in early December. I suspect that they'll be impacted this week, too. So that would be my answer that may have caused a little bit of softness there, but it doesn't impact the EBITDA line.

但從銷量來看，它確實對銷量產生了一定的影響。城市固體廢物處理業務略顯疲軟，這主要是由於——受天氣影響最大的兩條業務線是城市固體廢物處理業務和工業業務。因此，這些顯然受到了 12 月初天氣的影響。我懷疑他們本周也會受到影響。所以，我的答案是，這可能會導致數據略微疲軟，但不會影響 EBITDA 指標。

The only thing I'd add on there, Jim, is residential is the one that sticks out. It's been negative for a number of quarters. And I would tell you, while we see that starting to turn into more of a growth engine in 2026, when you look at 2025, we finished the year at high teens on the EBITDA margin side and over 20% for the quarter on residential, which has always been a high watermark for us. So I kind of look at the volume attrition there a little bit different than I would the other pieces of volume. But again, I think it's important we see that -- we see the teams pivoting from using that as shrinking the greatness to now growing to even better margins as we go forward in that particular line of business.

吉姆，我唯一要補充的是，住宅是其中最突出的一個面向。已經連續幾季為負成長。我想告訴大家，雖然我們看到它在 2026 年開始轉變為更大的成長引擎，但回顧 2025 年，我們的 EBITDA 利潤率在 10% 以上，住宅業務的季度利潤率超過 20%，這始終是我們的一項高成就。所以，我對那裡的銷售損耗的看法與其他銷量損耗的看法略有不同。但我認為，重要的是我們要看到──我們看到各個團隊正在轉變思路，不再把這種做法視為縮小自身規模的手段，而是隨著我們在這個特定業務領域的發展，逐步實現更高的利潤率。

Well, I think it's been mentioned today, Faiza, but also if it hasn't, we should reiterate the fact that on the volume line, when you look at 2026, we have 50 basis points headwind on volume from that fire volume that we got last year on the West Coast.

嗯，我想今天已經有人提到過了，Faiza，但如果還沒有，我們應該重申一下，從銷量來看，到 2026 年，由於去年西海岸的火災，銷量將面臨 50 個基點的不利影響。

The tough part about that is that we don't -- look, unfortunately, natural disasters seem to be happening fairly regularly, but we don't forecast them for obvious reasons. So right now, we don't have anything built in. We have asked our field operations to figure out how to make up that. That's a tough makeup because it was a pretty big headwind on volume, also a big headwind on EBITDA, $82 million was the number from last year on the EBITDA line. So when you look at -- whether you look at volume, whether you look at EBITDA, you may say, well, gosh, a lot of the reports were saying a bit soft on guidance.

棘手之處在於我們無法——你看，不幸的是，自然災害似乎經常發生，但出於顯而易見的原因，我們無法預測它們。所以目前我們還沒有任何內建功能。我們已要求現場作業人員想辦法彌補這項損失。這很難彌補，因為銷售量受到了相當大的不利影響，EBITDA 也受到了很大的不利影響，去年的 EBITDA 為 8,200 萬美元。所以，當你查看——無論是銷售還是 EBITDA，你可能會說，哎呀，很多報告都對業績指引給出了略顯保守的預期。

Keep in mind that, that's why I pointed out that 7.4% EBITDA growth, if you take out that onetime impact from the fires. Unfortunately, these things do happen. So something else may happen. It may not be as big. Hopefully, it's not. Hopefully, we don't have anything this year. But if we do, we have the assets, the geographic coverage, the people, we have all of that to take care of our customers.

請記住這一點，所以我才指出，如果剔除火災帶來的一次性影響，EBITDA 成長率將達到 7.4%。不幸的是，這種事情確實會發生。所以可能還會發生其他事情。它可能沒那麼大。希望不是這樣。希望今年什麼事都不會發生。但如果我們這樣做，我們擁有資產、地域覆蓋範圍、人員，我們擁有照顧客戶所需的一切。

Yes. Understood. Makes sense. And then I was going to ask about just the margin guide for next year. And I was hoping there are a few moving pieces, in particular, with the wildfires and also, I guess, the roll-in of the sustainability projects. So maybe you can help us a little bit around the quarterly cadence of margins at a high level and how to think about that.

是的。明白了。有道理。然後我還想問問明年的頁邊距指南。我希望有一些進展，特別是關於野火以及永續發展計畫的推進。所以，或許您能幫我們從宏觀層面解釋一下季度利潤率的變化規律以及如何看待這個問題。

Sure. I'll give you some of the components. This is David. I'd be remiss if I didn't talk just about the records that was mentioned previously, both in the quarter of 31.3% and for the full year of 30.1%, which I do think is a testament to how our team members focus and dedicate on this throughout the year. But as we look to 2026, we're calling for our fourth consecutive year of EBITDA margin expansion of 30 basis points at the midpoint.

當然。我會給你一些組件。這是大衛。如果我不談談之前提到的記錄，那就是我的失職了，無論是季度記錄的 31.3% 還是全年記錄的 30.1%，我認為這證明了我們團隊成員在一年中是如何專注於此並全身心投入的。但展望 2026 年，我們預期 EBITDA 利潤率將連續第四年成長，中位數為 30 個基點。

But as Jim just alluded to, 50 basis points on an adjusted basis. The biggest contributor to that is going to be from our collection and disposal business. So as we execute our pricing programs, while continuing our strategies around operational excellence and leveraging our network, that's a big piece. We also have some business mix, as we've alluded to, continued shedding of some lower-margin residential business relative to our volume growth in the landfill line of business.

但正如吉姆剛才所提到的，調整後為 50 個基點。其中最大的貢獻者將是我們的收集和處置業務。因此，在我們執行定價方案的同時，繼續推動卓越營運策略並充分利用我們的網絡，這至關重要。正如我們之前提到的，我們的業務組合也發生了一些變化，相對於垃圾掩埋場業務的銷售成長，我們繼續剝離一些利潤率較低的住宅業務。

And then on sustainability, there's about 30 basis points collectively of benefit in '26 in terms of the bridge as we bring new plants online. We've got four recycling facilities and six RNG facilities coming online in 2026. There is a modest decline in recycling commodity prices year-over-year that will have a minimal impact on margin.

再說可持續性方面，隨著新工廠投入運營，到 2026 年，橋樑建設方面總共會有大約 30 個基點的收益。我們有四座回收設施和六座再生天然氣設施將於 2026 年投入使用。回收商品價格較去年同期略有下降，對利潤率的影響微乎其微。

And then Healthcare Solutions, as we've been discussing, will contribute to margin expansion overall for the year as we capitalize on our value capture opportunities, execute our pricing plan, continue our cross-sell efforts, even though that will show up most likely in the C&D business and then continue our progress on lowering our cost structure. And then in terms of cadence throughout the year, it's, call it, 47% in the first half, 53% on the back half in terms of mix, but that's in line with our historical averages.

正如我們一直在討論的那樣，醫療保健解決方案將有助於全年整體利潤率的擴張，因為我們將抓住價值獲取機會，執行定價計劃，繼續交叉銷售，儘管這很可能體現在建築與設計業務中，然後我們將繼續推進降低成本結構。從全年節奏來看，上半年佔比 47%，下半年佔比 53%，但這與我們的歷史平均值一致。

Adam Bubes, Goldman Sachs.

Adam Bubes，高盛集團。

Just had one more follow-up on margins, really impressive in the quarter. And I think if you just compare your 4Q margin prior exit rates to where you typically ended the next year, it would sort of imply that this 4Q exit rate points to potential for better than 30 basis points of margin expansion in 2026. So just wondering out of the 230 basis points of margin expansion in this fourth quarter, how much of that expansion was maybe more one-off? I know you called out the outsized RIN sales that were going to happen this quarter.

剛剛又跟進了一次利潤率的情況，本季利潤率真的非常出色。我認為，如果你將第四季的利潤率（之前的退出率）與第二年年底的利潤率進行比較，你會發現，第四季的退出率預示著2026年利潤率有可能擴張30個基點以上。所以我想知道，在第四季 230 個基點的利潤率擴張中，有多少是一次性因素造成的？我知道你曾預言本季 RIN 的銷售額將會非常驚人。

I think for the most part, these are sustained initiatives that we've been executing on, and it just highlights our focus on disciplined cost management. And so we're just seeing it come to fruition. I think as Jim alluded to, with the volume, some of it which we can't control, like just the ability of the business to flex accordingly in the environment that we're operating in, it allows us to maintain and sustain that margin going forward. So for most of it, I think we can carry that forward versus a number of one-offs that was idiosyncratic to the quarter.

我認為，這些基本上都是我們一直在執行的持續性舉措，這也凸顯了我們對嚴格成本管理的重視。所以我們現在正看到它一步步實現。我認為正如吉姆所暗示的那樣，銷售中有些因素是我們無法控制的，例如企業在當前環境下靈活調整的能力，這使我們能夠在未來保持並維持這一利潤率。所以，我認為大部分情況我們可以延續下去，而不是像某些季度特有的個別情況。

So I'm probably going to make his point for him here, but one thing we haven't really talked too much about is the fact that if you look at our core price for next year, 5.6%, it's a 250 basis point delta, and we typically have gotten this question, so we haven't gotten yet today, but a 250 basis point delta to our forecasted cost inflation. I don't know how that measures up historically, but it's got to be one of the bigger ones for us. So I'm kind of making your point for you. But still, we do think that 30 basis points is reasonable considering the 20 basis points of headwind from the fire volumes. So that's where we came out.

所以我可能要替他把話說清楚了，但我們還沒有真正過多討論的一點是，如果你看一下我們明年的核心價格，5.6%，這是一個 250 個基點的差額，我們通常會被問到這個問題，雖然今天還沒有被問到，但我們預測的成本通脹率有 250 個基點的差額。我不知道從歷史角度來看，這算是件大事，但對我們來說，這肯定是件大事之一。所以，我其實是在幫你闡明你的觀點。但是，考慮到火災數量帶來的 20 個基點的不利影響，我們認為 30 個基點是合理的。所以，我們最後就到了那裡。

Terrific. And then on the landfill gas side, can you just update us on voluntary offtake discussions? I think eventually 50% of your production will go into voluntary markets. So what's your confidence level that, that 50% will be absorbed by those markets? And how are those discussions going?

了不起。那麼，關於垃圾掩埋氣方面，您能否向我們介紹自願承購協議的討論進展？我認為最終你們50%的產品都會進入自願市場。那麼，你對這50%的需求會被這些市場吸收的信心有多大？這些討論進展如何？

We're confident that we'll be able to absorb that in the voluntary market. While the US market right now is a bit softer than it had been, there are other markets that are strong. If you look at Canada, the UK and some other international markets, we're able to tap into those as well. And then still in dialogue with some larger utility companies across the US as their public utility commissions pass their rule-making that, that should free up more of the voluntary market in the future.

我們有信心能夠在自願市場中消化這些資金。雖然目前美國市場比之前略顯疲軟，但其他一些市場表現強勁。如果你看看加拿大、英國和其他一些國際市場，我們也能打入這些市場。然後，我們仍在與美國一些大型公用事業公司進行對話，因為他們的公共事業委員會正在通過相關規則制定程序，這應該會在未來釋放更多自願市場。

Noah Kaye, Oppenheimer.

諾亞凱，奧本海默。

I'm sorry to beat the margin math, hopefully not to death here, but just I'm a little confused. So the walk here is 50 bps on an adjusted basis ex wildfires. But I think you said that sustainability was maybe 30 bps benefit in the bridge. And then I think just with the synergies capture on healthcare and the pricing, there has to be another 10, 20 bps or so, at least. So what am I missing here? Because it seems like collection and disposal is going to be positive based off of what Jim and Dave just said. Just trying to understand what moving pieces there are that we're not accounting for.

很抱歉我在這裡糾結於利潤率的計算，希望不會把事情搞砸，但我確實有點困惑。因此，經調整後（不包括野火影響），這裡的步行距離為 50 個基點。但我記得你說過，永續性在橋樑建設中可能帶來了 30 個基點的利益。而且我認為，僅僅考慮到醫療保健和定價方面的協同效應，至少還需要再提高 10 到 20 個基點左右。那我到底錯過了什麼？根據吉姆和戴夫剛才所說的話，收集和處置工作似乎會取得積極進展。我只是想弄清楚還有哪些我們沒有考慮到的變數。

Yes. There's some normalization of certain expenses in corporate and other that we've baked into the guide. Those may or may not materialize, but just we felt prudent just based on how we finished the year to adjust for that. There's also some technology costs that show up in there that are for the benefit of other parts of the organization. And so that's offsetting some of the points that you're highlighting.

是的。指南中已經納入了一些企業和其他方面的費用正常化措施。這些情況可能會發生，也可能不會發生，但根據我們今年的收官情況來看，我們覺得謹慎起見，應該要做出相應的調整。其中也包含一些技術成本，這些成本是為了造福組織的其他部門。所以這在某種程度上抵消了你強調的一些觀點。

Okay. That's helpful. And then just a quick one on the recycling outlook. The basket was $62 a ton in 4Q, and I think we're kind of maybe at or slightly below that. Maybe you can update us. But just the thought around the $70 per ton outlook for '26, can you help us understand that?

好的。那很有幫助。最後簡單談談回收利用的前景。第四季籃子價格為每噸 62 美元，我認為我們現在的價格可能差不多在這個水平，或略低於這個水平。或許您可以提供我們一些最新消息。但是，關於 2026 年每噸 70 美元的預期價格，您能幫我們理解嗎？

So 2026, the way to look at it is the first half, second half story. And so exiting 2025 at $62 a ton, what we're anticipating for the first half is in that $60 to $65 range and then ramping in the back half of the year. Why is that? Well, what we're starting to see is a little bit of green shoots on the fiber side. The headlines previously were that a lot of capacity had been taken out of the US market, which is true. That was more inefficient mill capacity. But the larger mills that remain are going to be looking for material, some of the cloud around tariffs has been lifted. So we're anticipating that OCC prices should bounce back a bit in the back half of the year. We're not expecting any material movement on plastic pricing moving forward.

所以，看待 2026 年的方式，應該把它看作是故事的前半部和後半部。因此，到 2025 年底，油價將達到每噸 62 美元，我們預計上半年油價將在每噸 60 至 65 美元之間，然後在下半年逐步上漲。這是為什麼？嗯，我們開始看到纖維產業出現了一些復甦的跡象。之前的新聞標題是大量產能退出了美國市場，這沒錯。那是效率較低的工廠產能。但剩下的規模較大的鋼廠將會尋找原料，關稅方面的部分陰雲已經散去。因此，我們預計下半年 OCC 價格應該會有所回升。我們預計未來塑膠價格不會出現任何實質變化。

James Schumm, TD Cowen.

James Schumm，TD Cowen。

For WM Healthcare, can you give us the revenue split between document destruction and medical waste? And then maybe give some color on document destruction profitability and whether you see this as a core business for you going forward?

WM Healthcare能否提供文件銷毀和醫療廢棄物處理之間的收入比例？然後或許可以談談文件銷毀的獲利情況，以及您是否認為這將是您未來的核心業務？

So James, I think the answer to your question is about 2/3, 1/3 between healthcare and the document destruction business. And then sorry, could you repeat the second part of the question?

所以 James，我認為你問題的答案是醫療保健行業和文件銷毀行業各佔三分之二到三分之一。不好意思，您能重複問題的第二部分嗎？

Yes, sure. Just in terms of like the profitability in document destruction, any color there? I think you talked about in the past that maybe you had an advantage here with your recycling business, maybe you got better paper pricing. But do you see this as a core business going forward?

當然可以。就文件銷毀的獲利能力而言，有什麼情況嗎？我想你之前說過，你的回收業務可能在這方面有優勢，也許你可以拿到更好的紙張價格。但您認為這會成為未來的核心業務嗎？

Yes. I mean, first, to start on the recycling side. I mean, it's interesting. Both of those businesses are collection, disposal and/or processing businesses, right? And I think you heard some of that commentary from us earlier. So from that perspective, it lays nicely over whether it's on the [SID side] or on the healthcare side to what we see as some of our core competencies.

是的。我的意思是，首先，要從回收方面著手。我的意思是，這很有意思。這兩家企業都是收集、處置和/或加工企業，對嗎？我想你們之前也從我們這裡聽到了一些類似的說法。所以從這個角度來看，無論是在[SID方面]還是在醫療保健方面，它都能很好地體現出我們認為的一些核心競爭力。

The commodity side of it, I mean, Tara spoke to what we're going to see from a commodity side and probably some more green shoots on the fiber side into '26, which certainly benefit that business. And then when you look at the healthcare side, it is a collection and disposal and processing business. And Jim gave a good bit of commentary on where we're at.

就商品方面而言，我的意思是，塔拉談到了我們將在商品方面看到的情況，而且到 2026 年纖維方面可能會出現一些新的增長點，這肯定會有利於該業務的發展。然後，當你從醫療保健方面來看，它就是一個收集、處置和處理業務。吉姆對我們目前的處境發表了不少評論。

I would tell you that the integration into the areas, which has just occurred over the last, call it, 120 days, I think it's going to be a great platform for us to continue to drive some real expansion in margins now that our field leadership teams have sort of a full purview of the business at the local level, which not dissimilar to the WM core business, there's a lot of elements of this from an operating perspective that are local. So we're excited about what we're hearing from the teams. And Jim mentioned, we just had our quarterly business reviews last week and got a lot of good commentary and a lot of positive commentary on where that business is going.

我想說的是，在過去大約 120 天裡，我們已經完成了這些地區的整合。我認為這將是一個很好的平台，讓我們能夠繼續推動利潤率的真正擴張。現在，我們的現場領導團隊對當地業務有了全面的了解，這與 WM 的核心業務類似，從營運的角度來看，其中有許多因素是本地化的。所以，我們對從各隊聽到的消息感到非常興奮。吉姆提到，我們上週剛進行了季度業務回顧，收到了很多很好的評論，也收到了很多關於公司未來發展方向的正面評價。

Okay. Great. And then Jim kind of touched on this, but collection and disposal core price in 2026 is expected to be like 5.6% at the midpoint, which seems very conservative off of 2025 6.3% level. So just curious like what was the customer churn number in Q4? And what do you see is the right number for churn? What do you (inaudible)

好的。偉大的。然後吉姆也稍微提到了這一點，但預計 2026 年的收集和處置核心價格中位數為 5.6%，這似乎比 2025 年的 6.3% 水平保守得多。所以我很好奇，第四季的客戶流失率是多少？你認為合適的客戶流失率是多少？你是什​​麼（聽不清楚）

Yes, we see that obviously bounce around a little bit quarter-to-quarter for a litany of different reasons, but we've talked about churn being in and around that 10% range, and we're still bouncing around in that range, although it varies from quarter-to-quarter. And you've heard us comment at times, it's been as low as 8% and change. It's been a little bit as high as 11%.

是的，我們看到由於各種不同的原因，這個數字顯然每個季度都會略有波動，但我們已經討論過客戶流失率在 10% 左右，我們仍然在這個範圍內波動，儘管每個季度都會有所不同。你們也曾聽我們說過，有時這個數字會低至 8% 多一點。這個數字最高曾經達到 11%。

But when you stretch the tape out, that 10%-ish churn number is kind of what we anchor on. In terms of the price side, when we think about core price and yield and the conversion, obviously, that number has bounced around. It's been the high 50s to high 60s. But I think what I would point to is when we break it down by line of business and the margin profile of those businesses, what you're seeing is our operating expense under 59% in Q4, under 60% for the full year. So that's showing that we're making progress on the middle of the P&L.

但從長遠來看，10%左右的客戶流失率正是我們所依據的。就價格方面而言，當我們考慮核心價格、收益率和轉換率時，顯然，這個數字一直在波動。氣溫一直在50多度到60多度之間。但我認為，當我們按業務線和這些業務的利潤率進行細分時，你會發現，我們第四季的營運費用低於 59%，全年低於 60%。這表明我們在損益表的中部取得了進展。

And then we look at that relative to customer lifetime value and what's the long-term perspective on pricing that we should take with each of those individual customer segments. And I think you're seeing it translate to all-time high margins. I mean the collection and disposal business was 39%, which I think that's an all-time high as well.

然後，我們會將其與客戶終身價值連結起來，並思考我們應該對每個客戶群採取怎樣的長期定價策略。我認為你已經看到這轉化為歷史最高利潤率。我的意思是，收集和處置業務佔 39%，我認為這也是歷史最高水準。

Maybe one last point here on pricing, James. As you mentioned that you thought maybe 5%, 6% kind of conservative. Keep in mind that as CPI or some of these indexes come down, we've talked about this many times, but there is a lag in those index-based price increases that we can take largely on the resi side of the business, but sometimes on other lines of business as well. And so that lag can be up to six months. And so we do expect that as CPI has come down throughout 2025 that we will see a bit of a lag there that will negatively impact 2026 pricing. So hence, the 5.6% as opposed to something in the 6s for 2025. But as John just said, look, we're certainly making up for that on the margin line.

詹姆斯，關於定價，或許還有最後一點需要說明。如你所說，你認為 5% 或 6% 算是比較保守的估計。請記住，隨著 CPI 或其中一些指數下降（我們已經多次討論過這一點），基於指數的價格上漲存在滯後性，這主要體現在住宅業務方面，但有時也體現在其他業務方面。因此，這種滯後時間可能長達六個月。因此，我們預期隨著 2025 年 CPI 的下降，價格將會出現一定的滯後，這將對 2026 年的價格產生負面影響。所以，2025 年的成長率是 5.6%，而不是 6% 左右。但正如約翰剛才所說，你看，我們肯定會在利潤線上彌補這一點。

Jerry Revich, Wells Fargo Securities.

傑瑞·雷維奇，富國證券。

John, I'm wondering if we could just go back to your prepared remarks. You mentioned some benefits from connected trucks and other tech. Can you just give us an update? Are you folks seeing an acceleration in terms of the savings that you're seeing from logistics management? And obviously, you had the session with Caterpillar at the Consumer Electronics Show. Is -- are the returns from your tech investments accelerating as we head into this year?

約翰，我想問我們能不能直接回到你準備好的演講稿。您提到了連網卡車和其他技術帶來的一些好處。能否提供我們最新進展？你們是否也感受到物流管理帶來的成本節約正在加速成長？顯然，你還在消費電子展上與卡特彼勒公司進行了交流。隨著我們進入今年，您的科技投資回報是否正在加速成長？

Yes. I think, Jerry, starting with connected truck, we've had that technology on all our commercial fleet for some time now. We've actually expanded that to the automated components of our residential business. So we still see that there's runway there. So we'll continue to build on that.

是的。傑瑞，我認為，從連網卡車開始，我們所有的商用車隊已經應用這項技術一段時間了。我們實際上已經將這種模式擴展到了我們住宅業務的自動化組件中。所以我們仍然可以看到那裡有跑道。所以我們會繼續在此基礎上發展。

And I think to your point about the -- I mentioned connected landfill and in particular, the heavy equipment side, we see plenty of opportunity that we're starting to unpack with this connected landfill. There was a good bit of detail laid out at Investor Day about what that pathway looked like going forward. So if you think sort of late middle innings on some of the connected truck elements that you mentioned, I'd say we're in the early innings on the post-collection side and see a lot of opportunity to drive cost out of that part of the business as well.

關於您所提到的—我剛才提到了連通式垃圾掩埋場，特別是重型設備方面，我們看到了很多機會，我們正在開始利用這種連通式垃圾掩埋場來挖掘這些機會。在投資者日上，詳細闡述了未來發展路徑的大致方向。所以，如果你考慮到你提到的某些與卡車相關的要素已經發展到中後期，我認為我們在後續收集方面還處於早期階段，並且看到了很多降低這部分業務成本的機會。

Okay. Super. And then from a margin standpoint, just really impressive performance over the course of '25 even as recycling commodity prices got worse over the course of the year. David, I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything heading into the first quarter because normal seasonality and the accounting change implies that you're going to be at roughly, I don't know, 30.5% margins in the first quarter, which is typically your seasonally weakest margin quarter. So I just want to make sure there are no moving pieces off of the really strong run rate that you folks have achieved as the year unfolded last year.

好的。極好的。從利潤率的角度來看，儘管2025年回收商品價格在一年內不斷惡化，但該公司在2025年的表現仍然非常出色。大衛，我只是想確保在第一季到來之前我沒有遺漏任何事情，因為正常的季節性因素和會計變更意味著你第一季的利潤率大約會達到，我不知道，30.5%，而第一季通常是你利潤率最低的季度。所以我想確保你們去年取得的強勁成績不會受到任何影響。

Yes. I'm kind of thinking accretion aside, Jerry, to keep this kind of same-store sales. But you're right, Q1 is usually one of our softer quarters. And I don't know off the top of my head whether that's the right number or not. It feels a little bit high to me. I think it's a little lower than that, but we could circle back with you to confirm.

是的。傑瑞，我暫且不考慮成長因素，而是考慮如何維持這種同店銷售。但你說得對，第一季通常是我們業績比較淡的季度之一。我一時也不知道這個數字是否正確。我覺得有點高。我認為實際價格可能比這略低一些，但我們可以稍後再與您確認。

Well, nice performance with the margin revisions consistently in '25.

嗯，2025 年利潤率調整持續進行，表現不錯。

Konark Gupta, Scotiabank.

科納克·古普塔，加拿大豐業銀行。

Just maybe one question on the top line. For the full year, I guess, you guys are expecting about 5% at the midpoint. Just looking at the puts and takes on the quarterly side, you have probably Stericycle is more like a second half story, Jim, I think you said. And then second quarter, you're expecting or seeing maybe tough comps from the wildfire last year. How should we think about the growth cadence for the year by quarter? I mean, especially in terms of how the volumes kind of shake out on the C&D side.

或許只需要問一個關於第一行的問題。我猜你們預計全年收益率中位數在 5% 左右。僅從季度方面的買賣情況來看，Stericycle 可能更像是後半段的故事，吉姆，我想你之前是這麼說的。然後第二季度，你可能會看到由於去年山火的影響，同比數據可能比較高。我們該如何看待按季度劃分的年度成長節奏？我的意思是，尤其是在 C&D 方面，銷售最終是如何分配的。

Yes. I mean it's pretty balanced over the year, but you do see more of a pickup in the second half of the year. So call it, kind of below -- 5% or below in the first half and then above that in the second half in terms of the revenue bridge across the year. And the Q2, to your point, is the toughest comp with the wildfire volumes.

是的。我的意思是，全年整體比較均衡，但下半年確實會有明顯的成長。所以可以這樣說，上半年營收成長低於 5%，下半年則高於這個數值，這是全年營收成長的趨勢。正如你所說，第二季度由於疫情爆發導致數據量激增，競爭最為激烈。

And then volumes, do you expect that to be more evenly spread out throughout the year? Or it's going to be more skewed to the second half too?

那麼銷量方面，您預計銷量會在全年更加均勻分佈嗎？或者說，下半場的情況也會更明顯？

I think the one area that will stick out as we mentioned, our residential volume has been negative 4%-plus [print], and we see that ratably declining. And by the end of the year, we should be right around 2%, maybe a little bit south of that in Q4. So that will be a clear tailwind to volume in the second half of the year.

我認為最突出的一個領域是，正如我們之前提到的，我們的住宅銷量下降了 4% 以上（印刷版），而且我們看到這種情況還在持續下降。到年底，我們應該能達到 2% 左右，第四季可能會略低於這個數字。因此，這將明顯利好下半年的交易量。

Seth Weber, BNP Paribas.

Seth Weber，法國巴黎銀行。

Just wanted to go back to the healthcare cross-selling opportunity. I think on the third quarter call, you guys mentioned that it's largely been focused on small and medium-sized customers. I wanted to see if that's still the case or if you're getting any better traction with the large hospital networks at this point.

我只是想再談談醫療保健交叉銷售的機會。我認為在第三季財報電話會議上，你們提到公司主要關注的是中小客戶。我想看看情況是否仍然如此，或者你目前與大型醫院網路的合作是否取得了更好的進展。

I think this ultimately is going to end up being more of a large customer opportunity for us. We -- what we've heard from our folks on the sales side is when they're going out and talking to the decision-makers at these customers, typically these large customers, it ends up being the same decision-maker on solid waste as it is on healthcare waste. So that's a positive for us. And the fact that we feel very good about the services that we have now on both sides, that ends up being good for us. I do think it's going to be more of our -- we've stratified our customers, the As through Fs, by size. And so you can imagine the As, Bs, and Cs are the bigger ones. I think this is going to be more of an A,B,C thing than it is a D,E,F thing.

我認為這最終會為我們帶來一個更大的客戶機會。我們從銷售部門的同事那裡了解到，當他們外出與這些客戶（通常是大型客戶）的決策者交談時，最終發現固體廢物和醫療廢物的決策者是同一個人。這對我們來說是個好消息。我們對雙方目前提供的服務都非常滿意，這最終對我們有利。我確實認為這將更多地體現我們的——我們已經按規模將客戶分為 A 到 F 等等級。所以你可以想像，A、B、C 是比較重要的等級。我認為這更像是一個 A、B、C 類的問題，而不是一個 D、E、F 類的問題。

Got it. Okay. And then kind of related question, just can you update us on your national accounts business just across the whole company? It's been sort of low double-digit CAGR for the last few years. Is that still kind of running at that -- improving at that same level in 2025?

知道了。好的。還有一個相關的問題，能否請您介紹一下貴公司全國客戶業務的最新情況？過去幾年，其複合年增長率一直保持在兩位數的低點。到 2025 年，這個目標還能維持目前的提升水準嗎？

I mean, look, I would tell you, national accounts has been one of our real success stories. And both on the volume side, but also on the price side. I think we've done well with getting price increases based on really differentiated service and differentiated data and analytics that we provide our customers. So we're really pleased with the results of national accounts. I mean, gosh, I would tell you a decade ago, national accounts was kind of a mess for us. And today, it is one of our success stories.

我的意思是，你看，我可以告訴你，全國性客戶是我們真正成功的案例之一。無論是在銷量方面，還是在價格方面。我認為我們透過為客戶提供真正差異化的服務、差異化的數據和分析，成功地實現了價格上漲。我們對國民經濟核算的結果非常滿意。我的意思是，哎呀，十年前，我們的全國客戶帳戶簡直一團糟。而如今，這已成為我們的成功案例之一。

Shlomo Rosenbaum, Stifel.

Shlomo Rosenbaum，Stifel。

I want to jump back to what you started kind of the questionings with -- on the call just in terms of the healthy economy, and you said that it's -- things are looking, you say, not cautiously optimistic, just optimistic. Can you give us -- just delve in a little bit more into some of the -- like the metrics on that, the service interval trends, what are you seeing on scale report on some of the mature routes? And then on residential also, scale reports on the trucks that are coming through, how is the temp roll-off activity doing and prices and pulls? If you can just go through some of that, then I have one follow-up.

我想回到你一開始提出的問題——在電話會議上，你談到了健康的經濟狀況，你說——情況看起來，你說，不是謹慎樂觀，而是樂觀。您能否更深入地介紹一下這方面的指標、服務間隔趨勢，以及您在一些成熟航線的規模報告中看到了什麼？此外，在住宅區方面，也要報告進出的貨車數量，臨時垃圾箱的投放情況、價格和投放量如何？如果你能先看完這些，那我還有一個後續問題。

Yes. So as we look at what might be considered leading indicators because we are kind of at the back end of the cycle, so -- of the business cycle. But we do have some business that tends to be leading indicators. I would argue that the special waste stream is kind of a leading indicator for us because while those jobs have to be done, companies have some discretion as to when they have to be done.

是的。因此，當我們審視一些可能被認為是領先指標的因素時，因為我們正處於商業週期的尾聲。但我們確實有一些業務往往具有領先指標的作用。我認為特殊廢棄物流對我們來說是一個領先指標，因為雖然這些工作必須完成，但公司在何時完成這些工作方面有一定的自由裁量權。

And the pipeline, as we talk to our sales team, is good on the special waste stream. So that's a bit of a leading indicator for us that -- and what we're hearing from them is that those jobs, and we heard it from our area folks last week that those jobs are starting to manifest themselves. So that is one of the indicators that we do look at.

正如我們與銷售團隊溝通後所得知的那樣，該管道在特殊廢物流方面運作良好。所以這對我們來說是一個重要的先行指標——我們從他們那裡聽到的消息是，這些工作機會，以及我們上週從當地居民那裡聽到的消息，都表明這些工作機會正在逐漸顯現。所以這是我們關注的指標之一。

The roll-off line of business as well, although a portion of roll-off, the permanent roll-off is kind of more analogous to our commercial business. So I'm not sure that's so much a leading as a lagging indicator. But you mentioned temp roll-off and temp roll-off has been pretty good for us.

雖然滾裝業務也屬於滾裝業務的一部分，但永久性滾裝業務與我們的商業業務更為相似。所以我不太確定這與其說是領先指標，不如說是落後指標。但你提到了溫度下降，而溫度下降對我們來說效果相當不錯。

The C&D business, if I look at C&D, and that's been one that has been -- has really bounced around over the years. And C&D for the year was -- what's that, 3.4%. And if I looked at last year, for the year last year, it was a negative number last year. It was bounced around in '23 and '22 as well for some reasons related to the pandemic. But I think C&D is somewhat of a leading indicator as well if you think about the -- about homebuilding. So it's a tough one because I'm trying to read some of the tea leaves that are kind of macro.

就建築與拆除（C&D）產業而言，如果我看一下 C&D 產業，就會發現它這些年來一直起伏不定。該年度的建築和設計成本佔比是多少？ 3.4%。如果我看去年，去年的數據顯示為負數。由於與疫情相關的一些原因，該法案在 2023 年和 2022 年也曾幾經修改。但我認為，如果你考慮到房屋建造的情況，C&D 也算是領先指標。所以這很難，因為我試著解讀一些比較宏觀的跡象。

And as I look at GDP, it looks like it could be strengthening. I don't know. I guess what I would tell you is the business performs well, whether in good times or in bad. And I'm feeling, I guess, a bit more optimistic than maybe I have in the past.

從GDP來看，它似乎正在走強。我不知道。我想告訴你的是，無論經濟好壞，這家公司都經營得很好。我感覺自己比以前更樂觀了一些。

Okay. Great. And then just I wanted to follow up a little bit more just on a question that was -- excuse me, the comment that was made last quarter in terms of suspending kind of the pricing initiatives in the Healthcare Solutions area that would be expected to be done by the end of the first quarter of this year. Are you still on track for that? I mean, obviously, from your commentary, it looks like pricing is going to pick up this year based on your discussion of 4.2%. But is it a matter of like really hitting that end of the first quarter, we're done with those issues that we're having that was preventing the pricing? Or is that going to extend a little bit further? Or have you already started it?

好的。偉大的。然後，我還想就上個季度提出的關於暫停醫療保健解決方案領域定價計劃的評論再追問一下，該計劃原計劃於今年第一季末完成。你目前還在照計畫進行嗎？我的意思是，很明顯，從你的評論來看，根據你提到的 4.2% 的漲幅，今年的價格似乎會上漲。但問題是否真的在於，到了第一季末，我們是否已經解決了那些阻礙定價的問題？或者說，這種情況還會進一步擴大一些？還是你已經開始了？

Yes. So here's what I would say about last quarter's comment. I mean that was not a universal comment. I mean, some customers, yes, we had -- some customers we had suspended price increases. But the large majority of our customers are getting price increases. But as I said earlier, it was really being diluted by these credit memos. And so we believe that those credit memos, which are really just a tool to try and clean up some of these past due receivables, those credit memos, we believe, peaked this quarter or last quarter, I should say, Q4. And those start on a nice downward trend, which ends up being a tailwind for us as we think about the whole year of 2026 versus 2025.

是的。所以，對於上個季度的評論，我想說的是：我的意思是，這並非普遍的看法。我的意思是，是的，我們確實暫停了一些客戶的漲價。但我們絕大多數客戶都面臨價格上漲。但正如我之前所說，這些貸項通知單確實稀釋了它的價值。因此，我們認為這些貸項通知單實際上只是清理一些逾期應收帳款的工具，我們認為這些貸項通知單在本季度或上個季度（應該說是第四季度）達到了頂峰。而這些數字都呈現出良好的下降趨勢，最終將成為我們展望 2026 年與 2025 年全年時的有利因素。

So pricing, look, we have, I think, a fantastic price team, and they are definitely looking at the opportunities that are in front of us. But a lot of those opportunities are not so much a price execution as it is just less dilution to the overall gross number.

所以，在定價方面，我認為我們擁有一支非常優秀的定價團隊，他們肯定在關注眼前的各種機會。但很多時候，這些機會與其說是價格上的執行，不如說是減少了整體毛利的稀釋。

Tobey Sommer, Truist.

Tobey Sommer，Truist。

From a capital deployment perspective, are you shifting broadly to share repurchase? Or as you look into '27, '28 sort of a longer period of time, you're supposed to take in about -- produce about $12 billion in free cash over that three-year period. How do you see it shaking out between acquisitions in the core, acquisitions and investments outside the core and repurchase?

從資本部署的角度來看，你們是否正在大幅轉向股票回購？或者，如果你把目光投向 2027 年、2028 年這樣更長的時期，你應該在這三年期間獲得大約 120 億美元的自由現金流。您認為核心業務收購、核心業務以外的收購與投資、回購之間，最終會如何分配？

Sure, sure. Yes. I mean as we alluded to in the last quarter and also with our December announcement on some of our shareholder returns, we do view 2026 as a year of harvest and a balanced capital allocation program. But to your point, the beauty of our business is that it does generate a lot of excess cash flow. And you can expect a pretty balanced approach going forward.

當然，當然。是的。我的意思是，正如我們在上個季度以及 12 月份關於部分股東回報的公告中所提到的那樣，我們確實將 2026 年視為收穫之年和平衡資本配置計劃之年。但正如您所說，我們業務的優勢在於它確實能產生大量剩餘現金流。未來可以預期，我們將採取相當平衡的方式。

We do want to continue to return capital to shareholders. So you should expect that our share repurchase program is not a onetime event in 2026. We'll continue it going forward, but it's going to be governed by kind of what opportunities we have in terms of investment opportunities, both organically and also inorganically. But the key word here, I think, is balanced from a shareholder perspective, and that's what you should expect.

我們確實希望繼續向股東返還資本。因此，您應該預料到，我們的股票回購計畫不會是 2026 年的一次性事件。我們將繼續推進這項工作，但具體情況將取決於我們有哪些投資機會，包括內部成長和非內部成長。但我認為，關鍵在於從股東角度來看要保持平衡，而這正是你該期待的。

And then I'm curious what you're hearing from healthcare customers about their sort of tolerance for price increase, particularly this year given various declines in federal funding ranging from the exchange subsidies to Medicaid cuts that may come in a year that could pressure hospital margins?

那麼，我很好奇您從醫療保健客戶那裡聽到了什麼關於他們對價格上漲的容忍度方面的反饋，尤其是在今年，由於聯邦資金的各種減少，從交易所補貼到醫療補助削減，可能會給醫院利潤帶來壓力？

I guess I would just say I haven't heard anybody say there's an intolerance for price increases. So if that's a good sign, then -- that's what I've heard.

我想說的是，我還沒聽說有人說不能容忍價格上漲。所以如果這是個好兆頭的話——我聽到的就是這樣。

I think with the handful of customers I've visited with, I would tell you that I think what's encouraging is the fact that when you combine what were WM kind of core services with the ability to integrate those with the additional healthcare services, I think the value proposition is something that's really resonating with the customers, especially the ones that Jim was referring to earlier. These big hospital networks, we sit here in Houston, obviously, one of the centers of the universe, if you will, on that front. And when you walk in the door with a comprehensive set of capabilities that these combined organizations have now, I think there's a value proposition that is not going to be matched out there.

就我拜訪過的少數客戶而言，我認為令人鼓舞的是，當你將 WM 的核心服務與將這些服務與額外的醫療保健服務整合起來的能力結合起來時，我認為這種價值主張真的引起了客戶的共鳴，尤其是 Jim 之前提到的那些客戶。這些大型醫院網絡，我們身處休士頓，顯然，休士頓是這方面的世界中心之一。當你帶著這些合併後的組織現在所擁有的一系列全面能力走進大門時，我認為其中蘊含的價值主張是其他任何組織都無法比擬的。

Yes. I think these As and Bs that we've talked about As and even Cs, this is going to end up looking like they're similar in so many respects to our big national accounts on the legacy side. So it's going to be -- it's a negotiation that they have a contract. It's going to be a negotiation on price, what's the price increase going to be. And a lot of that ends up on how much they appreciate the differentiated service offering. So I think that's -- going forward, I don't think it will look much different than what we see with other big national accounts.

是的。我認為我們之前討論過的 A 級和 B 級客戶，甚至 C 級客戶，最終在許多方面都會與我們傳統業務中的大型全國性客戶非常相似。所以這將是一場談判，他們之間有一份合約。接下來需要就價格進行談判，價格會上漲多少。而最終，這很大程度取決於他們對差異化服務的認可程度。所以我認為——展望未來，我認為情況不會與其他大型全國性客戶有太大不同。

Appreciate that. What are you seeing in the hazardous waste business? Is that industrial optimism that you kind of mentioned already comparable?

謝謝。您在危險廢棄物處理產業看到了什麼？你之前提到的那種工業樂觀情緒是否具有可比性？

I think probably our special waste line that we've all commented on is probably a good spot to look. And we've said our pipeline is strong. Our results would demonstrate that through 2025. And I think going into 2026, we haven't seen any indications that that's going to solve. And that's probably the one barometer that I would point to that's probably most closely aligned with your question.

我認為，我們之前都提到的特殊腰線可能是一個不錯的查找點。我們已經說過，我們的人才儲備充足。我們的研究結果表明，到 2025 年，情況將是如此。我認為，進入 2026 年，我們還沒有看到任何跡象表明這個問題會得到解決。而這大概是我認為最能回答你問題的指標了。

William Grippin, Barclays.

威廉·格里平，巴克萊銀行。

I just wanted to come back to some of the incremental disclosure you gave on the sustainability business. So you gave us the parts to kind of get to sort of your $700 million implied sustainability growth EBITDA in '27. Obviously, a little below the target you gave at prior Analyst Days. But if I adjust for this sort of lower recycled commodity price environment based on your sensitivity, it implies that was maybe $150 million EBITDA headwind. And so sort of ex out the commodity headwind, it feels like maybe this business is actually performing well ahead of your initial expectations. Is that a fair characterization?

我只是想再談談您之前在永續發展業務方面披露的一些額外資訊。所以你給了我們實現 2027 年隱含永續成長 EBITDA 7 億美元目標所需的要素。顯然，這比您在先前的分析師日上給出的目標略低一些。但如果我根據你的敏感度調整這種較低的再生商品價格環境，這意味著可能會造成 1.5 億美元的 EBITDA 不利影響。因此，在克服了大宗商品價格逆風之後，感覺這家公司的實際業績可能遠遠超出了你最初的預期。這種描述是否恰當？

We're really pleased with how the recycling business is performing, absolutely. I think the number that you rattled off was really more for the aggregate of our recycling business versus the $700 million number relates to the growth projects of recycling and renewable energy. But the comment still stands. We've been very pleased with the investments that we've made in automation and everything that we expected and then some is being delivered coming out of those automation investments, whether it's higher throughput at those facilities, whether it's higher price points on the commodities that we sell, whether it's labor, which was huge for us and has been over a 30% improvement. So really pleased with those investments.

我們對回收業務的業績非常滿意，絕對是如此。我認為你剛才提到的那個數字實際上更多的是指我們回收業務的總和，而7億美元的數字則與回收和可再生能源的成長項目有關。但這評論仍然有效。我們對在自動化方面的投資非常滿意，所有預期目標都已實現，甚至超出了預期，無論是工廠的產量提高，還是我們銷售的商品價格上漲，亦或是勞動力成本的降低（這對我們來說意義重大，提高了 30% 以上）。對這些投資非常滿意。

Appreciate that. And just the follow-up here. You gave the sustainability growth EBITDA breakout or contribution for the 2026 guide, I think, $235 million to $255 million. Have you broken that out between recycling and RNG?

謝謝。這裡還有後續。我認為，您在 2026 年的指導方針中給出了可持續發展增長 EBITDA 細分或貢獻，為 2.35 億美元至 2.55 億美元。你是否已經將回收和隨機數產生器區分開來？

We have not. But the way to think about it, including the royalty, it's about 60% renewable energy, 40% recycling.

我們沒有。但從這個角度來看，包括版稅在內，大約 60% 是再生能源，40% 是回收。

Tami Zakaria, J.P. Morgan.

塔米·扎卡里亞，摩根大通。

So the sustainability EBITDA growth of $235 million to $255 million, can you help us with the cadence of this as we think about 1Q versus the rest of the year?

因此，永續發展EBITDA成長2.35億美元至2.55億美元，您能否幫我們分析一下這一成長的節奏，以便我們更能理解第一季與今年其他季度之間的關係？

You're going to -- a similar story, the way to think about it first half, second half. So you're going to have more of a ramp in the second half than the first half when you have the carryover effect of what we brought online in the back half of 2025, and then we're bringing new projects online, three in the first half of 2026. So you'll see a bigger impact in the second half than the first half.

你將會－一個類似的故事，思考方式可以分為前半部和後半部。因此，由於我們在 2025 年下半年推出的項目會產生延續效應，而且我們在 2026 年上半年還將推出三個新項目，所以下半年的成長速度會比上半年更快。所以你會看到下半場的影響比上半場更大。

So for modeling purposes, is 40-60 first half versus back half is a good proxy?

那麼，就建模而言，上半場 40-60 分與下半場 40-60 分的比率是否是一個好的替代指標？

I think Ed can get back to you on that -- on some of the modeling questions.

我認為 Ed 可以就一些建模問題回覆你。

Kevin Chiang, CIBC.

Kevin Chiang，加拿大帝國商業銀行。

It's Alexander on for Kevin here. So I believe the EPA is set to finalize the renewal fuel blending rules in Q1. I was wondering if you could share any thoughts or insights into potential changes they could make to the volume obligations from their original proposal.

現在由亞歷山大替補凱文上場。所以我認為美國環保署將在第一季最終確定燃料混合規則的更新方案。我想知道您是否可以分享一些關於他們可能會對最初提案中的銷售義務做出哪些潛在改變的想法或見解。

Sure. Yes. We had -- we're hoping that they issue it in Q1. We were hoping it would come out in late Q4, but the government shutdown delayed that a bit. What we've seen is pretty much the market has priced in the current RVO. And if anything, we're cautiously optimistic, maybe there might be some changes around the edges that could be constructive for pricing. But we're not anticipating anything dramatic coming out of the RVO. I think that's the most important point. And we've really seen stability in RIN pricing, which is the most important thing for our business, and our team has done a great job in navigating selling our RINs ratably over time.

當然。是的。我們希望他們能在第一季發布。我們原本希望它能在第四季末發布，但政府停擺導致發佈時間有所延遲。我們看到的情況是，市場已經基本消化了目前的RVO（參考價值）。如果有什麼變化的話，我們持謹慎樂觀態度，或許一些細微的變化會對定價產生正面影響。但我們預計RVO不會帶來任何重大影響。我認為這是最重要的一點。我們已經看到 RIN 定價的穩定性，這對我們的業務來說是最重要的，我們的團隊在隨著時間的推移，合理銷售 RIN 方面做得非常出色。

Stephanie Moore, Jefferies.

Stephanie Moore，傑富瑞集團。

I wanted to follow up on a prior question that was just asked on capital allocation priorities. I mean I appreciate the commentary regarding keeping a balanced approach. But I also think as we think about 2027 and 2028, just the shared cash flow that's going to be kind of spun off from this business, especially with the RNG investments coming through, you should be back to your targeted leverage this year. So as you think about that balance and maybe looking specifically at the M&A component, you're going to have, again, a lot of optionality. So as you think about that optionality, any areas that are particularly interesting as you think about the next couple of years?

我想就之前提出的關於資本配置優先事項的問題進行後續討論。我的意思是，我很欣賞關於保持平衡態度的評論。但我認為，展望 2027 年和 2028 年，考慮到這項業務將產生的共享現金流，特別是隨著 RNG 投資的到位，今年的槓桿率應該能夠恢復到目標水準。所以，當你考慮這種平衡，特別是考慮到併購部分時，你將再次擁有很多選擇權。那麼，在考慮這些選擇時，您認為未來幾年有哪些領域特別值得關注呢？

I mean I think as far as M&A goes, and then David can comment more on the capital allocation piece or the share repurchase and dividend, but those are kind of dividends kind of set. But M&A, look, I guess what I would say, and John can reiterate here, there's still plenty of good strategic acquisition opportunities out there. I wouldn't expect to see us kind of stray outside of that. We have used typically $100 million to $200 million as our estimate for acquisitions throughout the year, and that's the number we have baked in for this year, that range. So it could be at the high end of that range. But I think for the next few years, that's the number I would -- if I were modeling, that's the number I would use is kind of $100 million to $200 million in acquisitions. And then, David, dividend, hard to say what the increase is going to be, but dividends and capital allocation are going to make up the rest because really, the balance sheet, I think, you would say is in good shape.

我的意思是，就併購而言，David 可以就資本配置、股票回購和股息等方面發表更多評論，但這些股息已經基本確定了。但是，關於併購，我想說的是，約翰也可以重申，目前仍然有很多不錯的策略性收購機會。我不認為我們會偏離這個軌道。我們通常將全年的收購預算定在 1 億美元到 2 億美元之間，這也是我們今年預算的範圍。所以它可能處於該範圍的高端。但我認為，在接下來的幾年裡，如果我要進行建模，我會使用的數字是 1 億到 2 億美元的收購額。然後，David，關於股息，很難說會增長多少，但股息和資本配置將彌補其餘部分，因為實際上，我認為，資產負債表狀況良好。

Yes. The balance sheet is in great shape. I think the one thing just to your point about now that we have the share repurchase program is going to start back up this quarter. Obviously, we look at acquiring our own shares versus if we're looking at larger opportunities, we have a very biased view on kind of what the value of our company is. And so that's -- I think you're going to see us to continue our share repurchase program just from that point alone. But we're very disciplined in terms of our pricing approach to acquisitions.

是的。資產負債表狀況良好。我認為，正如您所說，我們現在有了股票回購計劃，該計劃將在本季重新啟動。顯然，我們更傾向於收購自己的股份，如果是更大的投資機會，我們對公司價值的看法就會有強烈的偏見。所以，我認為僅從這一點開始，你們就會看到我們繼續推行股票回購計畫。但我們在收購定價方面非常嚴謹。

And I'm showing no further questions in the queue. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Jim Fish, WM CEO, for any closing remarks.

隊列中不再顯示其他問題。現在我將把電話轉回給 WM 執行長 Jim Fish 先生，請他作總結發言。

All right. We had a 15-minute closing remark plan. But in light of time, I'll just say thank you all for your great questions today, and we will talk to you next quarter.

好的。我們原本打算用15分鐘時間做總結發言。但鑑於時間有限，我只想感謝大家今天提出的精彩問題，我們下季再見。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接了。