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   Kleinfelder (San Diego, CA) announced that it has acquired Corrigan Consulting, Inc. (CCI; Houston, TX), an 18-employee environmental consulting and engineering firm serving the Texas market. CCI provides a broad range of services, including regulatory compliance consulting in air quality and solid and hazardous waste, soil and groundwater assessment and remediation, and environmental planning and permitting. “After taking a close look at CCI’s operations, it quickly became apparent that they are a perfect fit to help Kleinfelder achieve our 2015 strategic direction,” said Donald Pomeroy, senior vice president at Kleinfelder. “CCI will bring additional environmental regulatory compliance services, as well as strong existing relationships with clients in the industrial, municipal, energy and transportation markets.”

   Waste Connections, Inc. (The Woodlands, TX), one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. solid waste management market, has an interest in Veolia ES Solid Waste Inc. (Milwaukee, WI), which is up for sale, and could pull off a deal depending on how it is structured, according to Waste Connections CEO Ron Mittelstaedt. “We could do up to a couple billion dollars right now, no problem, with our existing credit capacity,” Mittelstaedt told Waste & Recycling News on December 28. “There are certainly large pieces of it that are very attractive to us,” he remarked. “There are some that are not as consistent with our business model, so it depends on if they sell the whole thing. Do they sell it in geographic regions? What do they do?” Stock analysts have estimated that it would take $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion to acquire all of the Veolia ES Solid Waste operations outright

   Apex Companies, LLC (Rockville, MD), a portfolio environmental services firm of Tailwind Capital (New York, NY), has expanded into the Pacific Northwest through the acquisition of Ash Creek Associates, Inc. (Portland, OR), a privately held environmental and geotechnical services firm. Ash Creek Associates was founded in 2004 and employs more than 25 professionals. “Ash Creek represents an opportunity to expand our Pacific Northwest presence to better serve our existing client base and to add new blue-chip customers,” said Apex Chairman Peter Young. “Ash Creek’s clients, in turn, will benefit from Apex’s national footprint and broad service expertise. We are looking forward to realizing the potential of this combination.”

   Covanta Energy Corp. (Morristown, NJ) has signed contracts with the Connecticut municipalities of East Hartford, Guilford, Madison, and Newington under which Covanta will provide what the company is referring to as “sustainable waste management services” to the communities. The services that Covanta will provide encompass recycling and composting, as well as waste-to-energy and other waste disposal services. Covanta said that by bundling these services, the four communities will realize savings in the form of reduced disposal costs and rebates for recycling. “These towns did not want to landfill, and we heard them loud and clear,” said Steve Diaz, a vice president and regional business manager for Covanta. “Covanta’s infrastructure and strategic relationships in the region enable us to provide sustainable waste management solutions at affordable, stable rates.”

   The total volume and weight of “end-of-life” (EOL) electronic products, or “e-waste,” will more than double over the next 15 years, from 676 million cubic feet, or 6 million tons, in 2010 to 1,465 cubic feet, or 14.9 million tons, by 2025, according to a recent report by the market research firm Pike Research (Boulder, CO). Fortunately, says Pike, the e-waste management industry is growing apace to help deal with this increasing volume of waste. The report projects that EOL electronics recycling and reuse will increase from 122 million cubic feet per year, or 1.1 million tons, in 2010, to 789 million cubic feet, or 7.9 million tons, by 2025. “The growth in responsible disposition of obsolete electronics is being driven both by environmental legislation around the world as well as the sustainability and corporate social responsibility programs of leading electronics manufacturers and service providers,” said Pike analyst Bob Boggio. He noted, however, that EOL electronic equipment is still easily and inexpensively sent to landfills, and that trans-boundary shipments of e-waste to countries where the waste is not disposed of responsibly remains a big problem.