Clean Harbors CLH

NYSE CLH

$315.49 -1.64 (-0.52%)

As of: Sep 9, 2026 · 3:59 PM EDT

Key Stats

Market Cap16.65 Bn

P/E37.91

P/S2.67

Div. Yield0.00

Total Debt (Qtr)2.77 Bn

Revenue Growth (1y) (Qtr)11.95

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About

Clean Harbors, Inc. is a leading provider of environmental and industrial services throughout North America. The company collects transports treats recycles and disposes of hazardous and non hazardous waste through a network of over 100 facilities including incinerators landfills treatment storage and disposal facilities wastewater treatment sites and solvent recycling centers. It also provides emergency response services industrial maintenance specialty services parts…

Revenue is generated from fees for waste collection transportation treatment disposal recycling and emergency response services. Additional income comes from leasing and servicing parts washers from industrial maintenance contracts and from the sale of re refined base oil lubricants and related automotive products. The company also earns fees for collecting used oil used oil filters and other automotive fluids.

The company operates through the following segments: Environmental Services and Safety Kleen Sustainability Solutions.

Environmental Services collects transports treats recycles and disposes of hazardous and non hazardous waste operates over 100 waste disposal facilities including incinerators landfills treatment storage and disposal facilities wastewater treatment sites and solvent recycling centers provides emergency response industrial maintenance and specialty services offers parts washer and vacuum services to small quantity generators and delivers PFAS solutions covering testing filtration remediation and disposal.
Safety Kleen Sustainability Solutions collects used oil used oil filters and other automotive fluids refines the collected oil into base oil and lubricants sells these products to commercial fleets government agencies automotive shops and industrial plants also offers recycled antifreeze solvents windshield washer fluid degreasers and absorbents operates re refineries in multiple locations across North America.

Clean Harbors, Inc. holds a leading position in the North American environmental services industry as the largest provider of parts cleaning and the largest re refiner of used oil. The company differentiates itself through an extensive network of owned facilities a large fleet of more than 20000 vehicles a strong safety and compliance record and integrated technology platforms. Key competitors include Veolia North America Enviri Corporation Republic Services Waste Management GFL Environmental and Crystal Clean. These advantages enable the company to win contracts from industrial municipalities and government customers seeking environmentally responsible service providers.

The company serves a diverse customer base that includes small quantity generators mid size manufacturers Fortune 500 companies and government entities across sectors such as manufacturing chemicals refining automotive utilities transportation oil and gas retail and municipalities. Specific customer names are not disclosed in the filing but the revenue mix shows contributions from general manufacturing chemicals refineries automotive utilities transportation government oil and gas and retail industries.

Investment Thesis

▲ Bull case

Clean Harbors is positioned for sustained earnings acceleration due to a structural shift in PFAS remediation demand, with management highlighting an accelerated pipeline growing at 25% to 35% annually, driven by explicit endorsements from the Department of Defense and EPA that validate the company's end-to-end incineration and landfill solutions as the industry standard; unlike temporary project work, this regulatory momentum creates multi-year visibility as government agencies and industrial clients adopt permanent compliance frameworks, and the company's exclusive scalable model—reinforced by its Kimball incinerator ramp-up exceeding EBITDA expectations and contributing $10–$15 million incremental EBITDA in 2026—ensures it captures disproportionate share of a market where competitors lack integrated capabilities, turning what the market views as volatile project-based revenue into a durable, high-margin growth engine. The Safety-Kleen Sustainable Solutions (SKSS) segment is poised for margin expansion beyond current guidance, as the charge-for-oil (CFO) business model—now with rates more than doubled year-over-year—creates a self-reinforcing profitability loop where higher base oil prices directly increase CFO revenue without volume dependency, and management's late-quarter base oil price surge in Q1 2026, which drove a 320 basis point margin improvement and 17% EBITDA growth, is expected to persist through Q2 and Q3 due to geopolitical supply constraints, with the $165 million 2026 EBITDA guidance midpoint already reflecting conservative oil price assumptions, leaving significant upside if current pricing levels endure, especially as the company retains 53 million gallons of waste oil collected for re-refining efficiency, ensuring optimal utilization of its infrastructure regardless of short-term price fluctuations. Strategic M&A activity is underappreciated as a catalyst for network-wide margin expansion, with the recent $225 million Terra Nova Solutions acquisition—expected to generate $45–$50 million in annual revenue and $15 million in Adjusted EBITDA with $4 million in synergies—providing immediate access to high-margin wastewater treatment and solidification streams in the Carolinas that align seamlessly with Technical Services and Field Services, enabling cross-selling opportunities that management described as incremental but did not quantify, while the pipeline of smaller tuck-in deals in Environmental Services, combined with the DCI acquisition closed at quarter-end, reinforces a disciplined capital allocation strategy that enhances geographic density and service breadth without overleveraging, as evidenced by the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of approximately 2.0x and blended interest rate of 5.2%, leaving ample liquidity ($670 million in cash and short-term securities) to fund both internal growth projects and accretive acquisitions that drive long-term EBITDA accretion. Artificial intelligence deployment is delivering tangible, under-the-radar financial returns that management acknowledged as "meaningful" but did not quantify, with applications in waste classification, invoice audit, document processing, and logistics already improving productivity and compliance, and the company's disciplined, human-in-the-loop approach—rooted in decades of technological innovation since 2017—ensuring scalability without excessive spend, positioning AI as a quiet margin driver that reduces SG&A pressure over time, particularly as the company targets a full-year SG&A-as-revenue ratio in the high 12% range (down from Q1's 14.2%), transforming what the market sees as a cost headwind into a structural efficiency gain that compounds across segments.

Clean Harbors is positioned for sustained earnings acceleration due to a structural shift in PFAS remediation demand, with management highlighting an accelerated pipeline growing at 25% to 35% annually, driven by explicit endorsements from the Department of Defense and EPA that validate the company's end-to-end incineration and landfill solutions as the industry standard; unlike temporary project work, this regulatory momentum creates multi-year visibility as government agencies and industrial clients adopt permanent compliance frameworks, and the company's exclusive scalable model—reinforced by its Kimball incinerator ramp-up exceeding EBITDA expectations and contributing $10–$15 million incremental EBITDA in 2026—ensures it captures disproportionate share of a market where competitors lack integrated capabilities, turning what the market views as volatile project-based revenue into a durable, high-margin growth engine. The Safety-Kleen Sustainable Solutions (SKSS) segment is poised for margin expansion beyond current guidance, as the charge-for-oil (CFO) business model—now with rates more than doubled year-over-year—creates a self-reinforcing profitability loop where higher base oil prices directly increase CFO revenue without volume dependency, and management's late-quarter base oil price surge in Q1 2026, which drove a 320 basis point margin improvement and 17% EBITDA growth, is expected to persist through Q2 and Q3 due to geopolitical supply constraints, with the $165 million 2026 EBITDA guidance midpoint already reflecting conservative oil price assumptions, leaving significant upside if current pricing levels endure, especially as the company retains 53 million gallons of waste oil collected for re-refining efficiency, ensuring optimal utilization of its infrastructure regardless of short-term price fluctuations. Strategic M&A activity is underappreciated as a catalyst for network-wide margin expansion, with the recent $225 million Terra Nova Solutions acquisition—expected to generate $45–$50 million in annual revenue and $15 million in Adjusted EBITDA with $4 million in synergies—providing immediate access to high-margin wastewater treatment and solidification streams in the Carolinas that align seamlessly with Technical Services and Field Services, enabling cross-selling opportunities that management described as incremental but did not quantify, while the pipeline of smaller tuck-in deals in Environmental Services, combined with the DCI acquisition closed at quarter-end, reinforces a disciplined capital allocation strategy that enhances geographic density and service breadth without overleveraging, as evidenced by the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of approximately 2.0x and blended interest rate of 5.2%, leaving ample liquidity ($670 million in cash and short-term securities) to fund both internal growth projects and accretive acquisitions that drive long-term EBITDA accretion. Artificial intelligence deployment is delivering tangible, under-the-radar financial returns that management acknowledged as "meaningful" but did not quantify, with applications in waste classification, invoice audit, document processing, and logistics already improving productivity and compliance, and the company's disciplined, human-in-the-loop approach—rooted in decades of technological innovation since 2017—ensuring scalability without excessive spend, positioning AI as a quiet margin driver that reduces SG&A pressure over time, particularly as the company targets a full-year SG&A-as-revenue ratio in the high 12% range (down from Q1's 14.2%), transforming what the market sees as a cost headwind into a structural efficiency gain that compounds across segments.

▼ Bear case

Clean Harbors faces significant near-term margin pressure from rising SG&A expenses, which increased to 14.2% of revenue in Q1 2026 due to higher incentive compensation and insurance costs, and while management expects this ratio to decline to the high 12% range for the full year, this guidance assumes a reversal of trends that have persisted for multiple quarters, with no clear explanation of how incentive costs will normalize despite strong performance driving higher payouts, and insurance costs—exacerbated by the company's role in high-liability emergency response and hazardous waste handling—remain structurally elevated, creating a persistent drag on profitability that could offset margin gains from pricing and volume growth in Environmental Services and SKSS if cost discipline falters. The company's reliance on base oil price volatility in the SKSS segment introduces substantial earnings uncertainty, as the 20% EBITDA growth guidance for 2026 is contingent on sustained elevated base oil prices driven by geopolitical conflict, yet management explicitly acknowledged significant uncertainty around the duration of the overseas conflict and its impact on petroleum-derived products, with the $165 million EBITDA midpoint reflecting a conservative assumption amid wide-ranging potential outcomes, meaning any reversal in base oil prices—already showing signs of cooling from Q1 peaks—would directly undermine the segment's profitability, especially since the charge-for-oil model, while protective, still depends on consistent waste oil collection volumes that could decline if customers shift to alternative disposal methods during price downturns. Industrial Services segment weakness is being underestimated as a structural headwind, with management characterizing performance as "flattish year-on-year" due to customers shortening turnaround durations into pit-stop-like events to maximize fuel and diesel output amid favorable refining spreads, a trend that reduces revenue per job and limits upside despite stable customer counts, and while management hopes for a back-half rebound, the absence of large turnaround activity in the current guidance—coupled with the segment's sensitivity to refinery utilization patterns that prioritize production over maintenance—suggests this weakness may persist beyond cyclical factors, eroding a traditional earnings stabilizer for the Environmental Services segment during periods of softness in project or PFAS-related work. The PFAS growth narrative, while supported by regulatory guidance, risks overstatement as the EPA and Department of Defense endorsements remain advisory rather than mandatory, with management itself acknowledging that the guidance does not establish actual requirements, leaving adoption dependent on voluntary customer and agency action, and while the company cites an accelerated pipeline growing at 25% to 35%, this range is based on early-year activity with no long-term contract visibility, making it vulnerable to delays in funding, shifting regulatory priorities, or customer hesitation due to cost concerns, particularly as PFAS remediation projects often require multi-year capital commitments that may not materialize without enforceable standards, turning what is framed as a durable tailwind into a speculative, execution-dependent opportunity.

Clean Harbors faces significant near-term margin pressure from rising SG&A expenses, which increased to 14.2% of revenue in Q1 2026 due to higher incentive compensation and insurance costs, and while management expects this ratio to decline to the high 12% range for the full year, this guidance assumes a reversal of trends that have persisted for multiple quarters, with no clear explanation of how incentive costs will normalize despite strong performance driving higher payouts, and insurance costs—exacerbated by the company's role in high-liability emergency response and hazardous waste handling—remain structurally elevated, creating a persistent drag on profitability that could offset margin gains from pricing and volume growth in Environmental Services and SKSS if cost discipline falters. The company's reliance on base oil price volatility in the SKSS segment introduces substantial earnings uncertainty, as the 20% EBITDA growth guidance for 2026 is contingent on sustained elevated base oil prices driven by geopolitical conflict, yet management explicitly acknowledged significant uncertainty around the duration of the overseas conflict and its impact on petroleum-derived products, with the $165 million EBITDA midpoint reflecting a conservative assumption amid wide-ranging potential outcomes, meaning any reversal in base oil prices—already showing signs of cooling from Q1 peaks—would directly undermine the segment's profitability, especially since the charge-for-oil model, while protective, still depends on consistent waste oil collection volumes that could decline if customers shift to alternative disposal methods during price downturns. Industrial Services segment weakness is being underestimated as a structural headwind, with management characterizing performance as "flattish year-on-year" due to customers shortening turnaround durations into pit-stop-like events to maximize fuel and diesel output amid favorable refining spreads, a trend that reduces revenue per job and limits upside despite stable customer counts, and while management hopes for a back-half rebound, the absence of large turnaround activity in the current guidance—coupled with the segment's sensitivity to refinery utilization patterns that prioritize production over maintenance—suggests this weakness may persist beyond cyclical factors, eroding a traditional earnings stabilizer for the Environmental Services segment during periods of softness in project or PFAS-related work. The PFAS growth narrative, while supported by regulatory guidance, risks overstatement as the EPA and Department of Defense endorsements remain advisory rather than mandatory, with management itself acknowledging that the guidance does not establish actual requirements, leaving adoption dependent on voluntary customer and agency action, and while the company cites an accelerated pipeline growing at 25% to 35%, this range is based on early-year activity with no long-term contract visibility, making it vulnerable to delays in funding, shifting regulatory priorities, or customer hesitation due to cost concerns, particularly as PFAS remediation projects often require multi-year capital commitments that may not materialize without enforceable standards, turning what is framed as a durable tailwind into a speculative, execution-dependent opportunity.

Geographical Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Peer group

Peer Comparison

Companies in the Hazardous Waste

S.No.	Ticker	Company	match	Market Cap	P/E	P/S	Total Debt (Qtr)
1	CLH	Clean Harbors Inc	primary	16.65 Bn	37.91	2.67	2.77 Bn
2	PESI	Perma Fix Environmental Services Inc	primary	0.37 Bn	-17.45	6.46	0.00 Bn
3	DBHL	Deep Isolation Nuclear, Inc.	primary	0.22 Bn	-17.55	20.43	-
4	OIO	OIO Group	primary	0.02 Bn	-1.47	4.26	0.02 Bn
5	FSTJ	First America Resources Corp	primary	0.00 Bn	5.36	0.13	0.00 Bn
6	MPC	Marathon Petroleum Corp	secondary	115.80 Bn	11.23	0.74	32.82 Bn
7	VLO	Valero Energy Corp/Tx	secondary	114.38 Bn	14.99	0.82	11.35 Bn
8	CNQ	CANADIAN NATURAL RESOURCES Ltd	secondary	107.37 Bn	12.05	3.32	12.39 Bn

Clean Harbors CLH

About

Investment Thesis

Segments Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Geographical Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Peer Comparison

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