WM CEO Jim Fish on sustainability in the waste, recycling, and landfill industry
Key Takeaways
Also: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Article Overview
Quick insights and key information
6 min read
Estimated completion
cryptocurrency
Article classification
August 6, 2025
09:06 AM
Fortune
Original publisher
s·CEO DailyWM CEO Jim Fish on sustainability in the waste, recycling, and landfill industryBy Diane BradyBy Diane BradyExecutive Editorial Director, Fortune Media and author of CEO DailyDiane BradyExecutive Editorial Director, Fortune Media and author of CEO DailyDiane Brady is an award-winning journalist and author who has interviewed newsmakers worldwide and often speaks the global landscape
As executive editorial director of the Fortune CEO Initiative, she brings together a growing community of global leaders through conversations, content, and connections
She is also executive editorial director of Fortune Media and interviews newsmakers for the magazine and the CEO Daily .SEE FULL BIO Jim Fish, CEO WM.Courtesy of WMIn today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to WM CEO Jim Fish
The big story: Trump wants tariffs on buyers of Russian oil
The : Broadly up this morning
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune
Summer in the city is a great time to talk trash
The sanitation strikes that cut deep this time of year and the smells emanating from open-air trash cans remind us that the U.S. is one of the world’s largest ducers of waste, with Americans generating 951 kilograms (2,100 pounds) of municipal solid waste per person each year
The company that handles a third of that trash is WM, the $24 billion-a-year giant otherwise known as Waste Management
It’s the dominant player operating transfer stations, landfill sites, recycling plants and landfill gas jects
In this week’s episode of Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast, CEO Jim Fish talks aligning the brand around sustainability. “It’s fitable for us,” he says, noting that decomposing trash duces the natural gas that powers WM’s garbage trucks, among other things
He also talks the transformative role of nology in creating safer trucks, and ergo, fewer people are needed in roles that can have 50% turnover rates. “I was back there one time when it was below zero on the back of a truck, climbing over snowdrifts
Your hands are cold; it’s a hard job,” he says. “The most dangerous place around those trucks is when you’re outside them.” While Fish says his philosophy is to put employees first—“If they feel good, they will make the customer feel good
And if the customer is happy, then ultimately your holders are happy”—he feels a particular responsibility to the environment. “I get plenty of calls from customers saying, ‘Hey, what happened to my recycling pickup last week?’ The environment doesn’t call me.” On that front, he points to gress
Coming to New York as a kid, he says, “I looked at the East River and thought, ‘my gosh look how horrible that is.’” (WM doesn’t handle garbage collection here.) Now? “New York has done a lot
It’s not Tokyo but it’s done a nice job of imving … Are we there? No, but are we better than we were?” You can listen to our full conversation on Spotify or Apple
CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.comTop newsTrump threatens more tariffs for Russian oil buyers“We settled on 25% but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” Trump said of countries that do with Moscow. “They’re fueling the war machine
And if they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy.”He also wants a 250% tariff on pharmaceuticalsTrump previously threatened a 200% tariff on drugs, but no tariffs emerged in his deal with the E.U., a major pharma ducer.Berkshire Hathaway s fall after Buffet’s exitThe company's Class A s are down 14% since Buffet retired in favor of new chief Greg Abel
In the same period, the S&P is up 11%, the FT reports.RFK Jr pulls vaccine fundingThe health secretary said, “We're shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.” Moderna’s re on H5N1 bird flu will be among the re jects affected.Anthropic will offer its AI to the government for $1Federal agencies can now access Claude through the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule, the company announced
Prices for access will vary but will start as low as $1, the company told Axios.BP beats earnings estimatesBP announced second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, beating Wall Street’s expectations as it pivots away from renewable energy and back to fossil fuels
The oil giant posted net fits of $1.65 billion.UBS warns of “stall speed” in the economyUBS Global Re warned in a weekly note that the U.S. economy has hit "stall speed” as demand and job growth weaken, threatened by new tariffs and higher inflation.Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful People in This list measures power and influence—and though net worth is a factor, we’re more concerned with a leader’s ability to shape the thoughts and actions of those around them
Billionaires no longer active in , unit leaders, politicians and regulators, as well as loud voices who don’t run substantive es, do not qualify
Here are the 100 people who are running the world today—and shaping what it looks tomorrow.DOGE staffer attacked by mob in DCThe 19-year-old former DOGE staffer nicknamed “Big Balls” was beaten and injured by a group of 10 youths as he foiled an attempted carjacking, the NY Post reports
Edward Coristine is now recovering from a broken nose, concussion, and a black eye
Police made two arrests.The S&P 500 futures were up 0.36% this morning, premarket, after the index closed down 0.49% yesterday
STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.21% in early trading
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.18% in early trading
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.6%
China’s CSI 300 was up 0.24%
The South Korea KOSPI was flat
India’s Nifty 50 was down 0.23%
Bitcoin sank to $113.9K.Around the watercoolerFormer Trump advisor criticizes Trump’s timing on ousting America’s data czar: ‘ firing the referee’ by Eva RoytburgDid DOGE contribute to the BLS jobs report that Trump hated? Economist Mark Zandi thinks so by Sheryl EstradaOpenAI launches its first open model in years so it can stop being on the ‘wrong side of history’—while still keeping its most valuable IP under wraps by Sharon GoldmanFigma’s CEO is now worth $5 billion after IPO— Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Bill Gates, he’s another college-dropout billionaire by Preston ForeCEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards
This is the web version of CEO Daily, a of must-read global insights from CEOs and industry leaders. to get it dered free to your inbox.
Related Articles
More insights from FinancialBooklet