Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012 site	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Required Period to Maintain and Monitor Landfill Sites	30-year
Inflation rate	2.50%	2.50%	2.50%
Credit adjusted, risk free discount rate applicable to asset retirement obligations, lower range	4.50%
Credit adjusted, risk free discount rate applicable to asset retirement obligations, upper range	8.00%
Expected credit adjusted, risk free discount rate applied to liabilities incurred	4.25%
Description of sites with expansion	Of the 32 landfill sites with expansions at December 31, 2012, 10 landfills required the Chief Financial Officer to approve the inclusion of the unpermitted airspace. Six of these landfills required approval by our Chief Financial Officer because of community or political opposition that could impede the expansion process. The remaining four landfills required approval due to local zoning restrictions or because the permit application processes do not meet the one- or five-year requirements.
Number of landfills sites with expansion	32
Number of landfill sites with expansions that require the principal financial officer to approve the inclusion of the unpermitted airspace	10
Number of landfill sites with expansions that require the principal financial officer to approve the inclusion of the unpermitted airspace because of community or political opposition	6
Number of landfill sites with expansions that require the principal financial officer to approve the inclusion of the unpermitted airspace due to permit application processes	4
Requirements for permit application processes	One- or five-year
Environmental remediation reasonably possible additional losses high estimate	$ 140
Aggregate potential remediation liability	253
Environmental remediation liabilities that have never been subject to inflation or discounting	32	48
Increase (decrease) in environmental remediation liabilities due to the impacts of inflation and discounting	11	8
Capitalized software costs, net of accumulated depreciation	123	112
Other intangible assets, amortization method	150% declining balance approach or a straight-line basis
Restricted trust and escrow accounts	138	152
Total interest costs	509	503	490
Total capitalized interest costs	21	22	17
Non-cash proceeds from tax-exempt borrowings, net of principal payments		100
Increase in non-cash debt obligations of notes payable			215
Customer contracts and customer lists [Member]
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Amortizable period of the intangible assets	10 years
Non-compete covenant [Member] | Minimum [Member]
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Amortizable period of the intangible assets	2 years
Non-compete covenant [Member] | Maximum [Member]
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Amortizable period of the intangible assets	5 years
Solid Waste [Member]
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Change due to restructuring	22
Change due to restructuring	17
Landfill airspace [Member]
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Net credit adjustments to landfill airspace amortization expenses due to changes in our expectations for timing and cost of future final capping, closure and post-closure of fully utilized airspace	3	11	13
Furniture, fixtures and office equipment [Member]
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Capitalized software costs, net of accumulated depreciation	36	27
Landfills [Member]
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Number of certain landfills in two jurisdictions which have ceased accepting waste	3
Net recorded capitalized asset cost of certain landfills in the Midwest which have ceased accepting waste	$ 493
Concentration of Credit Risk [Member]
Significant Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Maximum accounts receivable from single customer in percentage to total accounts receivable	5.00%	5.00%