A pair of waste companies involved in plastics recycling are merging in a deal that creates a $4.1 billion company covering much of the United States and Canada.
Waste Connections Inc. shareholders will end up with 70 percent of the combined company, and Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. shareholders will hold the other 30 percent.
News of the Jan. 19 deal comes a couple of weeks after Progressive Waste put itself in play, indicating it was exploring strategic alternatives.
The transaction will create the third-largest waste and recycling company behind Waste Management Inc. and Republic Services Inc.
The combined company will operate dozens of material recovery facilities, where plastic and other recyclables are sorted and baled before being shipped off to processors.
"Combining Progressive Waste and Waste Connections makes compelling strategic and financial sense, and the all-stock nature of the transaction provides Progressive Waste shareholders with the opportunity to participate in the significant near- and long-term upside potential of the combination," Progressive Waste CEO Joseph Quarin said in a statement.
Waste Connections is based in The Woodlands, Texas, but previously was headquartered in California. The company, according to its website recycles more than 50 percent of its waste volumes on the West Coast, and in some locations more than 70 percent.
Waste Connections owns or operates about 40 MRFs, while Vaughn, Ontario-based Progressive Waste also owns or operates 40 such facilities, according to the companies' websites.