text: landÑll and other solid waste facilities. Many of the smaller participants in our industry have found these 
  costs diÇcult, if not impossible, to bear. Large publicly-owned companies, like our company, have greater 
  access to, and a lower cost of, the capital necessary to Ñnance such increased capital expenditures and 
  costs relative to many of the privately-owned companies in the industry. Additionally, the required 
  permits for landÑll development, expansion or construction have become more diÇcult, time-consuming 
  and costly to acquire. Consequently, many smaller, independent operators have decided to either close 
  their operations or sell them to larger operators that have greater access to capital. 
  
  *Integration of Solid Waste Businesses.*By being able to control the waste stream in a market 
  through the collection, transfer and disposal process, integrated solid waste companies gain a further 
  competitive advantage over non-integrated operators. The ability of the integrated companies to both 
  collect and dispose of solid waste, coupled with access to signiÑcant capital resources necessary for 
  acquisitions, has created an environment in which large publicly-owned, integrated companies can 
  operate more cost eÅectively and competitively than non-integrated operators. 
  
  *Municipal Privatization.*The trend toward consolidation in the solid waste services industry is 
  further supported by the increasing tendency of a number of municipalities to privatize their waste 
  disposal operations. Privatization of municipal waste operations is often an attractive alternative to 
  funding the changes required by Subtitle D. 