New Technologies Reshape North American Waste & Recycling M&A Landscape
The Waste & Recycling sector saw a notable shift in inorganic growth focus in North American waste management services, providing significant opportunities for future merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. Companies increasingly sought roll-up acquisitions that possess synergistic geographic route coverage and of late, innovative technologies that help enhance capabilities that operators can pass on to their customer base.
M&A Activity Gains Momentum as Acquisition Strategies Evolve
Waste & Recycling sector M&A rose year-over-year (YOY), with 178 deals announced or completed through 2025, a 5.3% increase. Financial buyers dominated sector M&A in 2025 as the group looked to add to their geographic footprint expansion goals. Private equity (PE) add-on transactions saw an 18.8% increase through 2025 compared to the prior year, representing 42.7% of total deals and a bright spot in the current M&A environment. This growth was also supported by a six deal YOY increase in PE platforms, which is expected to favor the continued deployment of buy-and-build strategics. Private and public strategics continued to play a significant role in the market.
Private strategic share of M&A slipped to 26.4% in 2025 compared to 36.1% in the prior year. Public strategics accounted for 21.3% of deals, up from 19.5% in 2024, due to a 15.2% increase in deal volume YOY. Multiples within the Waste & Recycling sector remained healthy despite some pullback in the last few years. From 2018 through 2021, average EBITDA multiples were high, showing companies’ willingness to deploy capital. Recently, between 2022 and 2025, EV/EBITDA multiples regressed by nearly three turns. This signaled a clear trend as a businesses shifted focus to smaller, more strategic acquisitions. This trend suggests that investors assign higher valuations to companies that possess innovative technology offering and expanded geographic reach.
Innovative Technologies Improve Operations in the Waste & Recycling Market
The Waste & Recycling sector experienced a meaningful expansion in technology offerings in 2025, particularly those that improve operations for companies in the space and their customer base. These technologies include pneumatic waste pipes, solar-powered compactors, fleet electrification, and waste-sorting robots. Technology developers such as Ganiga Innovation, an Italy-based waste management company, capitalized on these innovation tailwinds.
The company released its AI-enabled automated waste bin in 2024 after piloting a protype in 2022, a launch supported by ~USD 1.8 million in pre-seed funding, according to an October 2025 TechCrunch article. The timing of these innovations has been critical, as the sector faced mounting pressures to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance load management capabilities. Global waste generation is projected to nearly double from 2.1 billion tons in 2020 to 3.8 billion tons by 2050, according to DevelopmentAid. This projected increase further supports the need and accelerated adoption of these tools, prompting organizational investments in solutions capable of streamlining processes and mitigating the strain of rising waste flows.
The above is an excerpt from Capstone Partners – IMAP USA’s Waste & Recycling Market Update – Operational Technology Adoption Buoys Waste & Recycling Market. For more than 20 years, Capstone Partners has been a trusted advisor to leading middle-market companies, offering a fully integrated range of investment banking and financial advisory services uniquely tailored to help owners, investors, and creditors through each stage of the company's lifecycle. For more information, visit www.capstonepartners.com.
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