Houston-based Waste Management posted a net income of $186 million on $3.1 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2011. During the first three months of 2010, the firm posted a net income of $182 million on $2.94 billion in revenue.

“Our revenue continued the recent trend of year-over-year growth, increasing over 5 percent compared with the first quarter of 2010, primarily because of strong yield in our collection and disposal business, higher commodity prices, and improving recycling volumes,” said David Steiner, CEO of Waste Management, in a statement. “Our solid waste business continued to perform well, with both pricing and volumes improved from the fourth quarter.”

In an earnings conference call with industry analysts, Steiner predicted that the company’s solid waste volumes in 2011 will be close to flat when compared with 2010, which would be an improvement over the last couple of years. “Of course, it's difficult to extrapolate first quarter volumes to the rest of the year, particularly due to severe weather effects in the first quarter, so we'll have more clarity about our volume projections after we see second quarter volumes,” he said during the call.

RELATED MATERIALS:

• Waste Management's First-Quarter 2011 Earnings Press Release

• SeekingAlpha.com's Transcript of Waste Management's First-Quarter 2011 Earnings Conference Call