Introduction to Sociology

Introduction to Waste Management In this essay I will discuss Waste Management Inc. Scandal. I will identify what type of company Waste Management is, when they became a company, how and why the scandal took place, who was involved, how they were caught, the shareholders losses, the overall outcome and the status of Waste Management Inc. today. Waste Management is a waste collection and recycling company that was founded in 1894 in Houston, Texas. Garbage generally was collected by municipalities or small private haulers such as Ace Scavenger, WMI 's immediate forerunner, a Chicago-area company with 12 trucks and 1956 revenue of about $750,000. In that year, Ace Scavenger 's founder died, and management of the company was turned over to his 24-year-old son-in-law, Dean L. Buntrock. Buntrock already had experience running a family farm-implement business in his native South Dakota, and his in-laws felt that although young he was the best family member to take over their refuse company. Ace was a prosperous, well-established firm, and Buntrock was able to take command with little difficulty. It was an exceedingly good time to join the waste-treatment industry. Not only was the national economy at the peak of its postwar prosperity, the U.S. consumer was just then beginning to be inundated with a wave of new packaging and convenience items designed to be used once and thrown away. The nation 's production of garbage was growing much faster even than its population, and companies such as Ace Scavenger found themselves in great demand. Throughout its early stages the company started to aggressively purchase smaller companies which were in the same industry around the country to expand. The business was going well revenues were increasing going into the 1990’s. In 1971, Waste Management went public, and by 1972, the company had made 133 acquisitions with $82M in revenue. It had 60,000 commercial and industrial accounts and 600,000

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