TacticScaleWhat Clean Harbors Does & How It Makes Money (CLH)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Clean Harbors's latest reported financials
North American hazardous waste disposal and industrial cleaning services provider. It charges industrial, commercial and automotive customers fees to collect, treat and dispose of their waste and to provide on-site industrial and field services.
How Clean Harbors makes money
It charges industrial, commercial and automotive customers fees to collect, treat and dispose of their waste and to provide on-site industrial and field services. It also earns revenue from recurring parts-washer, solvent and vacuum services, and from selling the lubricants and other products it makes.
What Clean Harbors does
Clean Harbors, Inc. is a provider of environmental and industrial services in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1980 and is based in Norwell, Massachusetts. Its Environmental Services segment handles hazardous and non-hazardous waste from start to finish: collection, transport, treatment, recycling and disposal, using incineration, landfills, physical treatment, wastewater treatment and explosives management. It also runs CleanPack services for lab chemicals and household hazardous waste, and it provides industrial maintenance, specialty industrial services and field services. The Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions segment serves auto repair shops, dealers, fleet maintenance operations, metal fabricators and other manufacturers. It provides containerized waste pickup, parts-washer servicing with fresh solvent or aqueous fluids, and vacuum removal of oily water, sludge and other waste fluids. This segment also makes, formulates and packages lubricants and other products.
Products & services
- Hazardous waste incineration and landfill disposal
- CleanPack lab chemical and household hazardous waste services
- Industrial maintenance and field services
- Safety-Kleen parts-washer and solvent services
- Vacuum and containerized waste collection services
- Lubricants and related products
What is Clean Harbors worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Clean Harbors's most-likely value is about $223 versus a recent price near $317 (29% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$105) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
Related companies
Waste Management (WM) · Republic Services (RSG) · Healthcare Services (HCSG) · Ecolab (ECL) · Ultra Clean (UCTT)