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ACCOUNTING CHANGES (Policies)
 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2024
Accounting Changes and Error Corrections [Abstract]  
Basis of Accounting
Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (“Parent”) and its subsidiaries (collectively, “we”, “us” or “our”), is a regional, vertically integrated solid waste services company. We provide resource management expertise and services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional and industrial customers, primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling and organics services.
We provide integrated solid waste services in ten states: Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, with our headquarters located in Rutland, Vermont. We manage our solid waste operations on a geographic basis through regional operating segments, the Eastern, Western and Mid-Atlantic regions, each of which provides a comprehensive range of non-hazardous solid waste services. We manage our resource renewal operations through the Resource Solutions operating segment, which leverages our core competencies in materials processing, industrial recycling, organics and resource management service offerings to deliver a comprehensive solution for our larger commercial, municipal, institutional and industrial customers that have more diverse waste and recycling needs. Legal, tax, information technology, human resources, certain finance and accounting and other administrative functions are included in our Corporate Entities segment.
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. “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 (“fiscal year 2023”), which was filed with the SEC on February 16, 2024 (“2023 Form 10-K”).
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, including normal recurring and nonrecurring adjustments, as applicable, necessary for a fair statement of the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented. The results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2024 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 June 30, 2024 through the date of filing of the consolidated financial statements with the SEC on this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Except as disclosed, no material subsequent events have occurred since June 30, 2024 through the date of this filing that would require recognition or adjustments to our disclosures in our consolidated financial statements.
Accounting Standards Adopted and Pending Adoption
The following table provides a brief description of Accounting Standards Updates (“ASU”) to the Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) and deemed to have a possible material impact on our consolidated financial statements based on current account balances and activity:
StandardDescriptionEffect on the Financial Statements or Other
Significant Matters
Accounting standards issued pending adoption
ASU No. 2023-07: Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures (Topic 280)
Requires entities to provide additional disclosure related to the chief operating decision maker (“CODM”) and reportable operating segments, including providing more detailed information about reportable operating segment's significant expenses and how that information is used by the CODM.
We do not expect the adoption of this guidance to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements, however, the adoption of this guidance will have an impact on reportable operating segment disclosures within the accompanying notes to our consolidated financial statements. This guidance does not change how we identify our operating segments, aggregate them or apply quantitative thresholds to determine our reportable segments. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption permitted.
ASU No. 2023-09: Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures (Topic 740)
Requires entities to provide additional disclosure related to the transparency and decision usefulness of income tax disclosures, including additional disclosure around the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid.
We do not expect the adoption of this guidance to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements, however, the adoption of this guidance will have an impact on income tax disclosures within the accompanying notes to our consolidated financial statements. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption permitted.
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, cash equivalents and restricted cash, 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 derivatives, trade payables and debt. The carrying values of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, 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 derivatives included in the Level 2 tier below is calculated using discounted cash flow valuation methodologies based upon Term SOFR yield curves that are observable at commonly quoted intervals for the full term of the swaps. We recognize all derivatives accounted for on the balance sheet at fair value.
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 Eastern, Western and Mid-Atlantic regions. Revenues associated with our solid waste operations are derived mainly from solid waste collection and disposal services, including landfill, transfer station and transportation services, landfill gas-to-energy services, and processing services in the eastern United States. Our Resource Solutions operating segment leverages our core competencies in materials processing, industrial recycling, organics and resource management service offerings to deliver a comprehensive solution for our larger commercial, municipal, institutional and industrial customers that have more diverse waste and recycling needs. Revenues associated with our Resource Solutions operations are comprised of processing services and non-processing services, which we refer to as our National Accounts business. Revenues from processing services are derived from customers in the form of processing fees, tipping fees, commodity sales, and organic material sales. Revenues from our National Accounts business are derived from brokerage services and overall resource management services providing a wide range of environmental services and resource management solutions to large and complex organizations, as well as traditional collection, disposal and recycling services provided to large account multi-site customers. Legal, tax, information technology, human resources, certain finance and accounting and other administrative functions are included in our Corporate Entities segment, which is not a reportable operating segment. Corporate Entities results reflect those costs not allocated to our reportable operating segments.