Company: CLH
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000822818-25-000007
Chunk: 4

Company: CLEAN HARBORS INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 4
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 tons of greenhouse gases (“GHG”). The magnitude of estimated GHG emission avoidance is equivalent to the carbon sequestered by growing 39 million trees for 10 years or removing 550,000 gasoline-powered passenger cars from the road for one year.

•Effective Cost Management - We have adopted effective cost management programs with the goal of maintaining or improving our overall margins in spite of inflation and other drivers of higher costs. Our significant scale allows us to lower costs through standardized compliance procedures and significant purchasing power. By harnessing our technological investments, optimizing logistics and transportation and using our internal resources, we aim to channel waste streams to the most efficient facilities. Throughout the Company, our support functions are highly leverageable, contributing to improved operating margins. Our SKSS segment results are significantly impacted by market pricing of oil products. To reduce this commodity exposure, we manage the pricing on our used oil collection services as a strategy to manage the re-refinery spreads inherent in our SKSS business. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we also took actions to idle production at our Newark, California re-refinery in order to reduce our fixed cost base in light of current market conditions for base oil.

•Large and Diversified Customer Base - Our customer portfolio ranges from small companies to Fortune 500 companies and includes public, private and government entities that span multiple industries and business types. This diversification opens opportunities for cross-selling our large portfolio of services and limits our credit exposure to any single customer and potential cyclicality in any one industry. As a percentage of our 2024 revenues, the top ten industries we serviced totaled approximately 77% of revenues and included chemical (15%), general manufacturing (14%), refineries (13%), automotive (8%), utilities (6%), base and blended oils (5%), oil and gas (5%), transportation (4%), government (4%) and retail (3%).

•Stable and Recurring Revenue Base - We have long-standing relationships with our large customers, some spanning decades. Our operations are often embedded in customer facilities, integrating Clean Harbors into our customers’ day-to-day operations. A significant portion of our revenues are derived from previously served customers with recurring needs for our services. Due to customers’ desire to audit disposal facilities before approving the sites and to limit the number of facilities to which their hazardous waste is shipped in order to reduce potential liability under United States and Canadian environmental laws and regulations, there can be a financial burden that accompanies switching hazardous waste disposal providers. We have been selected as an approved vendor by large and