ACCOUNTING CHANGES (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Accounting Changes and Error Corrections [Abstract]

Basis of Accounting

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (“Parent”), and its consolidated subsidiaries (collectively, “we”, “us” or “our”), is a regional, vertically integrated solid waste services company that provides collection, transfer, disposal, landfill, landfill gas-to-energy, recycling and organics services in the northeastern United States. We market recyclable metals, aluminum, plastics, paper, and corrugated cardboard, which have been processed at our recycling facilities, as well as recyclables purchased from third-parties. Effective January 1, 2020, we reorganized our operations to consist of a single resource-renewal focused operation by combining our larger-scale recycling and commodity brokerage operations along with our organics services and major account and industrial services into our Resource Solutions segment. We continue to manage our solid waste operations on a geographic basis through two regional operating segments, the Eastern and Western regions, each of which provides a full range of solid waste services. Legal, tax, information technology, human resources, certain finance and accounting and other administrative functions are included in our Corporate Entities segment. Segment information reported in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019 and as of December 31, 2019 has been reclassified to conform with the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 and as of September 30, 2020 presentation.

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements, which include the accounts of the Parent and our wholly-owned subsidiaries, have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). All significant intercompany accounts and transactions are eliminated in consolidation. Investments in entities in which we do not have a controlling financial interest are accounted for under either the equity method or the cost method of accounting, as appropriate. Our significant accounting policies are more fully discussed in Item 8 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the SEC on February 21, 2020.

Use of Estimates

Preparation of our consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP requires management to make certain estimates and assumptions. These estimates and assumptions affect the accounting for and recognition and disclosure of assets, liabilities, equity, revenues and expenses. We must make these estimates and assumptions because certain information that we use is dependent on future events, cannot be calculated with a high degree of precision given the available data, or simply cannot be readily calculated. In the opinion of management, these consolidated financial statements include all adjustments, which include normal recurring and nonrecurring adjustments, necessary for a fair presentation of the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented. The results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 may not be indicative of the results for any other interim period or the entire fiscal year.

Subsequent Events

We have evaluated subsequent events or transactions that have occurred after the consolidated balance sheet date of September 30, 2020 through the date of filing of the consolidated financial statements with the SEC on this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. We have determined that, except as disclosed, there are no subsequent events that require disclosure in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Accounting Standards that are Adopted and Pending Adoption

Standard	Description	Effect on the Financial Statements or Other Significant Matters
Accounting standards adopted effective January 1, 2020
ASU No. 2016-13, as amended through March 2020: Financial Instrument Credit Losses (Topic 326)	Requires that an entity measures all of its expected credit losses for financial assets held based on historical experience, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts.	We adopted this guidance effective January 1, 2020 using the required modified-retrospective approach. We recognized a cumulative effect adjustment of $(189) to retained earnings upon implementation. This guidance replaces the incurred loss methodology with an expected loss methodology that is referred to as the current expected credit loss ("CECL") methodology. CECL requires consideration of past events, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts about the future to assess credit loss estimates and will generally result in the earlier recognition of an allowance for credit losses. We have updated our business processes and systems and controls to support recognition and disclosure under the new guidance. See Note 5, Accounts Receivable, Net of Allowance for Credit Losses for additional disclosure.

A table providing a brief description of recent ASUs to the ASC issued by the FASB that are pending adoption and deemed to have a possible material impact on our consolidated financial statements based on current account balances and activity follows:

Standard	Description	Effect on the Financial Statements or Other Significant Matters
Accounting standards issued pending adoption
ASU No. 2020-04: Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848)	Provides temporary optional guidance to ease the potential burden in applying GAAP to contract modifications and hedging relationships, subject to meeting certain criteria, that reference LIBOR or another reference rate expected to be discontinued.	We are currently assessing the provisions of this guidance and do not expect that its adoption will have an impact on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. This guidance will be in effect from March 12, 2020 through December 31, 2022.
ASU No. 2019-12: Income Taxes (Topic 740)	Reduces the complexity over accounting for income taxes by removing certain exceptions and amending guidance to improve consistent application of accounting over income taxes.	We are currently assessing the provisions of this guidance to determine whether or not its adoption will have an impact on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. This guidance is effective January 1, 2021 with early adoption permitted.

Leases

We lease vehicles, equipment, property and other non-core equipment in the ordinary course of our business. Leases are classified as either operating leases or finance leases, as appropriate. Our leases have varying terms and may include renewal or purchase options, escalation clauses, restrictions, lease concessions, capital project funding, penalties or other obligations that we considered historically in determining minimum rental payments. We recognize lease expense for operating leases on a straight-line basis over the lease term. We recognize depreciation expense for finance leases over either the useful life of the asset or the lease term based on the terms of the lease agreement.We are also party to three landfill operation and management agreements. These agreements are long-term landfill operating contracts with government bodies whereby we receive tipping revenue, pay normal operating expenses and assume future final capping, closure and post-closure obligations. The government bodies retain ownership of each landfill. There are no bargain purchase options and title to each of the properties does not pass to us at the end of the respective lease terms. We allocate the consideration paid to the landfill airspace rights and underlying land lease based on the relative fair values. In addition to up-front or one-time payments, the landfill operating agreements may require us to make future minimum rental payments, including success or expansion fees, other direct costs and final capping, closure and post-closure costs. The value of all future minimum rental payments is amortized and charged to cost of operations over the life of the contract. We amortize the consideration allocated to airspace rights as airspace is utilized on a units-of-consumption basis and such amortization is charged to cost of operations as airspace is consumed (e.g., as tons are placed into the landfill). The underlying value of any land lease is amortized to cost of operations on a straight-line basis over the estimated life of the respective operating agreement.

Accrued Final Capping, Closure and Post Closure

Accrued final capping, closure and post-closure costs include the current and non-current portion of costs associated with obligations for final capping, closure and post-closure of our landfills. We estimate our future final capping, closure and post-closure costs in order to determine the final capping, closure and post-closure expense per ton of waste placed into each landfill. The anticipated time frame for paying these costs varies based on the remaining useful life of each landfill as well as the duration of the post-closure monitoring period.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

We use a three-tier fair value hierarchy to classify and disclose all assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis, as well as assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a non-recurring basis, in periods subsequent to their initial measurement. These tiers include: Level 1, defined as quoted market prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities; Level 2, defined as inputs other than Level 1 that are observable, either directly or indirectly, such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; and Level 3, defined as unobservable inputs that are not corroborated by market data.

We use valuation techniques that maximize the use of market prices and observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs. In measuring the fair value of our financial assets and liabilities, we rely on market data or assumptions that we believe market participants would use in pricing an asset or a liability.

Assets and Liabilities Accounted for at Fair Value

Our financial instruments include cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, restricted investment securities held in trust on deposit with various banks as collateral for our obligations relative to our landfill final capping, closure and post-closure costs, interest rate swaps, trade payables and long-term debt. The carrying values of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable and trade payables approximate their respective fair values due to their short-term nature. The fair value of restricted investment securities held in trust, which are valued using quoted market prices, are included as restricted assets in the Level 1 tier below. The fair value of the interest rate swaps included in the Level 2 tier below is calculated using discounted cash flow valuation methodologies based upon the one-month LIBOR yield curves that are observable at commonly quoted intervals for the full term of the swaps.

Segment Reporting

We report selected information about our reportable operating segments in a manner consistent with that used for internal management reporting. We classify our solid waste operations on a geographic basis through regional operating segments, our Western and Eastern regions. Revenues associated with our solid waste operations are derived mainly from solid waste collection and disposal, landfill, landfill gas-to-energy, transfer and recycling services in the northeastern United States. We classify our resource-renewal services by service in our Resource Solutions segment. Revenues associated with our resource renewal operations are derived from organics services, major account and industrial services, as well as recycling services generated from both municipalities and customers in the form of processing fees, tipping fees and commodity sales. Legal, tax, information technology, human resources, certain finance and accounting and other administrative functions are included in our Corporate Entities segment.