We are exposed to credit losses primarily from our trade receivables from waste disposal services, sale of electricity and/or steam and the sale of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

For our trade receivables, we assess each counterparty’s ability to pay for service by conducting a credit review. The credit review considers the counterparty’s established credit rating or our assessment of the counterparty’s creditworthiness based on our analysis of their financial statements when a credit rating is not available.

We monitor our ongoing credit exposure through active review of counterparty balances against contract terms and due dates. Our activities include timely account reconciliation, dispute resolution, payment confirmation and monitoring current economic conditions and future forecast of economic conditions, to the extent that they impact the credit loss determination and can be reasonably estimated.

Changes in the allowance for credit losses of our trade receivables for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 were as follows (in millions):


Balance as of December 31, 2019	$	9
Provision for expected credit losses	1
Write-offs charged against the allowance	(4)

Balance as of September 30, 2020	$	6

The Company held the following shareholder loans in connection with our equity method investments (in millions):


	September 30, 2020		December 31, 2019
Included in prepaid expenses and other assets	$	21	$	22
Included in other assets - long term	26		15
	$	47	$	37

We assess the collectability of the shareholder loans each reporting period through the impairment analysis procedures of our equity method investments which considers the loss history of the investments and the viability of the associated development projects. As of September 30, 2020 there were no expected credit losses associated with our shareholder loans.