Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

2.    Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

Liabilities for landfill and environmental remediation costs are presented in the table below (in millions):

	September 30, 2021						December 31, 2020
			Environmental						Environmental
	Landfill		Remediation		Total		Landfill		Remediation		Total
Current (in accrued liabilities)	$	135	$	26	$	161	$	138	$	26	$	164
Long-term		2,155		190		2,345		2,018		204		2,222
	$	2,290	$	216	$	2,506	$	2,156	$	230	$	2,386

The changes to landfill and environmental remediation liabilities for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 are reflected in the table below (in millions):

			Environmental
	Landfill		Remediation
December 31, 2020	$	2,156	$	230
Obligations incurred and capitalized		88		—
Obligations settled		(72)		(14)
Interest accretion		80		2
Revisions in estimates and interest rate assumptions (a)		27		(2)
Acquisitions, divestitures and other adjustments (b)		11		—
September 30, 2021	$	2,290	$	216

(a) The amount reported for our landfill liabilities includes an increase of $15 million due to a business decision to accelerate the closure timing of a landfill in our Tier 3 segment, which resulted in the acceleration of the expected timing of capping, closure and post-closure activities.

(b) The amount reported for our landfill liabilities includes an increase of $13 million related to changes in the preliminary fair values assigned to certain acquired Advanced Disposal sites.

At several of our landfills, we provide financial assurance by depositing cash into restricted trust funds or escrow accounts for purposes of settling final capping, closure, post-closure and environmental remediation obligations. Generally, these trust funds are established to comply with statutory requirements and operating agreements. See Note 13 for additional information related to these trusts.