Casella Waste Systems, Inc. Expands Its Clean Energy Platform: Opens 4.8 Megawatt Gas-to-Energy Facility at Hyland Landfill

RUTLAND, VT, Oct 06, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- CWST | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling and resource management services company, announced today that it is operating its Hyland landfill gas-to-energy plant, producing clean energy from landfill methane gas, ahead of schedule. This facility is the company's fourth landfill gas-to-energy project.

The new landfill gas-to-energy plant, located at the company's Hyland landfill in Angelica, NY, is expected to produce 4.8 megawatts per hour of clean energy, or enough renewable electricity to power over 5,000 households. Casella deployed its low-emission landfill model at the Hyland site with a state-of-the-art gas collection system collecting landfill gases, which are then scrubbed and used to power Caterpillar generators.

Beyond producing clean energy, the facility will reduce carbon dioxide equivalents -- "greenhouse gases" -- by eliminating landfill methane emissions and displacing the use of fossil fuel with renewable energy. In total, the emissions savings are equivalent to taking approximately 40,000 cars off the roads each year. The Hyland facility is expected to produce clean energy for well over 25 years.

"Our team did an outstanding job working to bring the Hyland facility on-line ahead of our fiscal year plan," John W. Casella, chairman and chief executive officer of Casella Waste Systems, said. "The Hyland facility is now another strong example of how we're working to leverage our existing assets as well as traditional waste streams to create incremental revenues through a resource transformation business strategy. By producing clean energy at this site we are creating additional economic value from the waste stream, long after we were paid to haul and safely dispose of the material."

"We believe that waste is no longer just a throw-away, but is instead a raw material for manufacturing new products and a resource for producing clean energy," said Casella. "We are positioning the company to take advantage of significant economic, environmental policy and cultural shifts by pursuing opportunities that create both economic and environmental value from waste."

Casella and its partners are now producing roughly 20 megawatts per hour of clean energy at four of the company's landfills. This clean energy is powering roughly 20,000 homes and the emissions savings are equivalent to taking approximately 165,000 cars off the roads each year. The company expects to begin producing clean energy at its Clinton County landfill gas-to-energy facility during the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 and at its Southbridge landfill gas-to-energy facility during the first half of fiscal year 2010. When these two new facilities come on-line, the company and its partners will be producing approximately 28 megawatts per hour of clean electricity at six landfill gas-to-energy facilities.

About Casella Waste Systems, Inc.

Casella Waste Systems is an integrated solid waste and resource management company headquartered in Rutland, Vermont. In addition to providing traditional solid waste collection, transfer and disposal services, in the fiscal year ended April 30, 2008, the company renewed the life-cycle of over 3.8 billion pounds of recyclable material (the equivalent of a line of fully loaded garbage trucks stretching from New York City to Omaha, Nebraska) and produced over 100,000 MWh of clean, renewable energy from landfill gas-to-energy facilities (enough energy to power 11,000 homes). It is the only solid waste services company participating in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program to reduce greenhouse gases. For further information, investors should contact Ned Coletta, director of investor relations at (802) 772-2239; media should contact Joseph Fusco, vice president at (802) 772-2247; or visit the company's website at http://www.casella.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain matters discussed in this press release are "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such by the context of the statements, including words such as the company "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "may," "will," "would," "intends," "estimates" and other similar expressions, whether in the negative or affirmative. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industry and markets in which we operate and management's beliefs and assumptions. We cannot guarantee that we actually will achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements made. Such forward-looking statements, and all phases of our operations, involve a number of risks and uncertainties, any one or more of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include or relate to, among other things: our landfill gas-to-energy facility might not perform as expected; we may be unable to reduce costs or increase revenues sufficiently to achieve estimated EBITDA and other targets; landfill operations and permit status may be affected by factors outside our control, continuing weakness in general economic conditions and poor weather conditions may affect our revenues; we may be required to incur capital expenditures in excess of our estimates; and fluctuations in the commodity pricing of our recyclables may make it more difficult for us to predict our results of operations or meet our estimates. There are a number of other important risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These additional risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, those detailed in Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2008. We do not necessarily intend to update publicly any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contact: Investors Ned Coletta Director of Investor Relations (802) 772-2239 Media Joseph Fusco Vice President (802) 772-2247 http://www.casella.com

SOURCE: Casella Waste Systems, Inc.

http://www.casella.com

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