TacticScaleWhat Republic Services Does & How It Makes Money (RSG)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Republic Services's latest reported financials
U.S. and Canadian waste collection, recycling, and disposal company. It earns most of its revenue from fees for collecting, transporting, and disposing of waste for residential, small-container, and large-container customers, plus landfill services and container and compactor rentals.
How Republic Services makes money
It earns most of its revenue from fees for collecting, transporting, and disposing of waste for residential, small-container, and large-container customers, plus landfill services and container and compactor rentals. It also earns money by selling recycled materials such as cardboard, newsprint, aluminum, and glass.
What Republic Services does
Republic Services is a U.S. environmental services company, with operations in Canada as well. It collects, processes, and disposes of solid, recyclable, industrial, and hazardous waste. Its customers are households on curbside routes, businesses that use small containers, and larger commercial and industrial accounts that use large containers. The company owns the assets along the whole chain: collection routes, transfer stations, recycling centers, organics processing, and landfills. Most of its revenue comes from recurring collection and disposal fees, and it adds income from renting containers and compactors. It also sells recovered materials such as old corrugated containers, old newsprint, aluminum, and glass. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
Products & services
- Residential curbside trash and recycling collection
- Commercial small- and large-container waste collection
- Landfill and transfer station services
- Recycling processing and sale of recovered commodities
- Industrial and hazardous waste transportation and disposal
- Container supply and compactor rentals
What is Republic Services worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Republic Services's most-likely value is about $168 versus a recent price near $217 (23% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$81) 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.
⚠ High leverage — net debt is 5.4× annual cash flow. Net debt is subtracted from this fair value, but refinancing at higher rates, principal timing, and share dilution aren’t modeled — the equity can be worth far less if cash flow weakens.
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 →
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