By Jaime Gollotto, President of IWS
Stepping into 2026, I wanted to pause and reflect on how 2025 was a truly defining year for IWS. It was a year shaped by meaningful progress, continued momentum, and a deep commitment to delivering reliable, high-quality service to the customers and communities we serve.
Throughout 2025, one principle remained clear: we did not simply grow, we grew the right way. Our core values of Do the Right Thing, Refuse to Fail, Be a Great Team, Say What You Mean, Do What You Say, and Make a Difference Every Day guided our decisions, shaped our culture, and anchored us through a year of significant change.
2025 was marked by meaningful growth and transformation. Through disciplined, strategic acquisitions, we expanded our footprint and strengthened our capabilities. We reached a major milestone with the launch of our first CWZ zone, an important step forward in modernizing how we operate, collaborate, and serve our customers in New York City. Change at this scale requires focus, resilience, and trust, and the execution throughout this journey was exceptional.
While our values guide us, our results matter. We delivered record safety performance, we achieved strong acquisition driven growth and expanded our IWS family with more than 1,400 new employees, all while maintaining a strong focus on integration, safety, and service.
We also realized strong organic growth, generating new commercial hauling revenue, and successfully renewing numerous municipal contracts. To support this growth, we expanded and modernized critical infrastructure through enhanced landfill and rail capabilities, the opening of the North Arlington MRF, and the launch of the Lyndhurst container maintenance facility.
At the same time, we continued to invest deeply in our people and leaders. We reduced total turnover, conducted an engagement survey with results in the top quartile, and launched a leadership development program that 360 leaders have already completed. We also successfully incorporated more than 50,000 customers into the IWS billing platform while testing and deploying new technology, systems, and processes that will define our future operating model.
We made important progress strengthening our foundation as well. We advanced enterprise-wide transformation efforts by piloting new operating models in NYC and Northern New Jersey while also scoping our initial customer facing Ease of Doing Business initiative. We accomplished all of this while reinforcing a culture of accountability, teamwork, and high standards.
What I am most proud of, however, is not any single metric or milestone. It is the consistency with which IWS continued to raise the bar on talent, processes, and performance while staying true to who we are. That discipline and integrity are what position IWS for sustained, long term success.
As we look ahead to 2026, our focus is clear: build on our momentum. We will continue to integrate recent acquisitions, fully leverage the systems and tools we have put in place, and accelerate operational excellence and the customer experience across the enterprise. We will continue investing in leadership development, collaboration, and execution as we strengthen IWS and support the communities and customers we proudly serve.
The opportunities in front of us are significant, and I am confident in our ability to capture them. We will continue delivering for our customers, supporting our communities, and creating long-term value for all stakeholders.
Here’s to 2026!