Covanta

Covanta is proud to be a forward-thinking partner for a sustainable future.

Our Mission

To build a safer, cleaner, more prosperous world by ensuring no waste is ever wasted.

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Our Role

To help a wide range of federal, municipal and commercial clients recover, recycle and re-imagine the byproducts of our daily lives through innovative waste and energy solutions.

We help clients minimize their environmental footprint and maximize their value as they work toward a circular economy.

Houston skyscrapers within a circle looking up, representing society and the circular economy

Our Commitment

To advance our mission by:

Continually improving our operational, environmental and safety performance

Supporting our clients with unmatched, tailored services

Investing in our employees through competitive salaries, benefits and development programs

Making positive differences within our communities by volunteering, educating and inspiring our neighbors and the next generation of Protectors of Tomorrow.

Powering Today. Protecting Tomorrow.

At Covanta, the work we do is more than just a job. It’s a commitment to something greater, and it has been from the beginning.

In the early ‘80s, before Covanta was Covanta, we entered the waste business as Ogden Corporation, aiming to modernize the industry and help build a cleaner world through a pledge of responsible disposal and the technology sophisticated enough to realize it—Waste-to-Energy. But we didn’t get our start purely from aspirational thinking.

Electrical-TowersAt the time, there was an immediate and very real need. In the energy sector, the crisis of the ‘70s awakened Americans to the danger of relying on limited, foreign fuel sources, spurring domestic investments in renewable energy technologies. Then, just a few years later in the waste world, new regulations forced the shutdowns of antiquated incinerators and local dumps, leaving a gaping space in community infrastructure as the economy demanded growth without having a viable outlet for its waste.

So, we got to work.

Teaming up with municipalities to meet their needs and drive our vision, we opened our first facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1986. Its success in delivering reliable, environmentally friendly disposal services at competitive prices led us to a period of heavy growth, and by 1993, we operated 21 plants with several more projects on the way.

Since then, we have more than doubled the communities we serve, continuing to grow and improve our sites and systems for recycling, reusing incineration ash and advancing emission controls—a pursuit that has made us the world’s largest Waste-to-Energy provider in the process. And although we have always operated well within standards, we hold fast to our original goal of refining all that we do to better face today’s greatest waste and environmental challenges.

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EWaste

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To help other businesses do the same, we’ve extended into commercial offerings through our subsidiary, Covanta Environmental Solutions, to deliver world-class enterprise waste services that protect brands, reduce their disposal costs and inspire sustainable change within their operations and the circular economy.

In late 2021, we moved into the private sector after being acquired by the EQT Infrastructure V fund, a global investment organization that specializes in sustainable growth. Together, we’re continuing to improve and invest in our mission by building upon our portfolio of assets, furthering our growth opportunities, expanding our efforts in environmental stewardship and enhancing our company’s value and relationship with industrial peers and community members.

We're working to do something that is truly transformational—something that makes concrete, near-term and lasting changes for the better in pursuit of our goal to become the most sustainable provider of waste solutions.

And while we are excited as to what lies ahead, we have not lost sight of our roots. Our commitment remains strong to the people we serve and the places we call home. To further support them, we volunteer our time and resources to local groups and initiatives we feel passionate about, fostering environmental justice programs, fighting climate change, educating our neighbors and helping our peers to do the same.

At Covanta, the work we do is more than just a job. It’s striving to make a positive, significant difference not only for our industry, but for the people we serve, planet we share and future we hold.

It’s what “Protecting Tomorrow” is all about.

Operations

Covanta develops and operates facilities that burn trash to produce electricity, recover metals from the waste stream for recycling, and provide other industrial waste management services. As of 2013, about 60% of Covanta's revenue came from selling trash disposal services and 25% from selling electricity produced by burning trash. The remainder of its revenue was from metal recycling, construction, and other services.

As of 2018, Covanta operated more than 40 waste-to-energy plants in North America, China, and Europe. Most of Covanta's revenue came from long-term contracts with local governments or utility providers. It also benefits from tax incentives for green energy projects.

As of 2018, the company burned 20 million tons of trash annually and recycled 550,000 tons of metal.A majority of the trash is organic substances. It also burns a smaller amount of pharmaceutical byproducts, like expired medicines. Each ton of garbage contains about 50 pounds of metal that is removed with magnets, then sold for recycling.

At its plants, Covanta feeds trash into a furnace burning at 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.The furnace produces steam that rotates a turbine, powering a generator. The remaining ash is rapidly cooled to prevent the formation of toxic compounds, then goes through additional processing. Government agencies regulate and monitor Covanta emission stacks for harmful toxins. Filters and other equipment are in place to remove most of the harmful particulates, and activated carbon removes most of the mercury. Steam is then released into the atmosphere.

Environmental and social impact

Covanta supporters say burning trash to produce energy is an environmentally-friendly way to produce power and dispose of garbage that would otherwise fill landfills. Environmental critics are concerned about mercury, lead, and other toxins produced from burning garbage. Covanta has simultaneously received awards for its positive impact on the environment, while being sued and seeing protests for its environmental impacts.

A 2008 study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that waste-to-energy plants were better for the environment than landfills, in part because they reduced the methane garbage produced in landfills and reduced reliance on other fuels like coal. A study by Columbia University said if waste-to-energy was as popular in the United States as it is in Europe, the U.S. would reduce carbon emissions by 264 million tons annually.However, many environmentalists are skeptical about Covanta's claim that the steam emitted from a plant's furnace does not contain excess toxins.Some environmentalist distrust government monitoring of Covanta's emission stacks, and have lobbied for more regulation.

Additionally, Covanta has been cited numerous times for exceeding air pollution standards.For example, one Covanta plant in Newark was cited for violating emission standards; in 2010, a related lawsuit was settled for $875,000, which was used for a local green space program. Similar problems have led to fines and settlements for mercury emissions in Florida, dioxin in Connecticut,and for hydrated lime in Dublin, Ireland.

An academic from Columbia University has said most energy-from-waste emission criticisms are related to dated technology or misinformation. Covanta said its facilities are compliant with emission standards 99.9% of the time.

Covanta works with local governments to safely dispose of prescription drugs. In 2014, there was a controversy about whether an Oregon Covanta facility was burning aborted fetuses and other human body parts as part of its medical waste. Covanta said its plant never received aborted fetuses as fuel.