BASIS OF PRESENTATION

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

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.

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. The consolidated financial statements presented herein should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

Recent Events

With the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) and the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, the U.S. Government and all of the states in which we operate have declared the waste services industry as an essential services provider and as a result we are committed to continue to operate and provide our full breadth of services. We have prioritized the safety and well-being of our employees by strictly adhering to recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as executive orders of the states in which we operate.

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused, and is likely to continue to cause, economic disruption across our geographic footprint and has adversely affected, and is expected to continue to adversely affect, our business. COVID-19 negatively impacted our revenues starting at the end of the quarter ended March 31, 2020 as many small business and construction collection customers required service level changes and volumes into our landfills declined due to lower economic activity. We did experience improved demand for services in the quarter ended June 30, 2020 as local economies started to reopen as allowed by State Governments. This positive trend continued through September 30, 2020, as additional small business collection customers increased service levels, construction activity continued to rebound, and overall higher economic activity across the northeast led to higher landfill volumes. Despite these positive trends, our collection and disposal operations remain negatively impacted by lower volumes attributable to COVID-19.

We continue to experience increased costs associated with the protection of our employees, including costs for additional safety equipment, hygiene products and enhanced facility cleaning. These costs are expected to continue throughout the remainder of the year. In early September 2020, we paid a special bonus to all our hourly employees (both frontline and administrative) to recognize their hard work and commitment to safety, environmental compliance and high customer service standards as essential service providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have taken measures to reduce costs in other areas and

preserve liquidity during this period of uncertainty. As of the date of this filing, we are unable to determine or predict the nature, duration or scope of the overall impact that COVID-19 will have on our business, results of operations, liquidity and capital resources.

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.