Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2022

Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

2.    Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

Liabilities for landfill and environmental remediation costs are presented in the table below (in millions):

	June 30, 2022						December 31, 2021
			Environmental						Environmental
	Landfill		Remediation		Total		Landfill		Remediation		Total
Current (in accrued liabilities)	$	135	$	29	$	164	$	137	$	29	$	166
Long-term		2,244		182		2,426		2,189		184		2,373
	$	2,379	$	211	$	2,590	$	2,326	$	213	$	2,539

The changes to landfill and environmental remediation liabilities for the six months ended June 30, 2022 are reflected in the table below (in millions):

			Environmental
	Landfill		Remediation
December 31, 2021	$	2,326	$	213
Obligations incurred and capitalized		56		—
Obligations settled		(43)		(12)
Interest accretion		54		1
Revisions in estimates and interest rate assumptions (a) (b)		(13)		9
Acquisitions, divestitures and other adjustments		(1)		—
June 30, 2022	$	2,379	$	211

(a) The amount reported for our landfill liabilities includes decreases related to revisions in estimated costs and timing of capping, closure and post-closure liabilities.

(b) The amount reported for our environmental remediation liabilities includes a $17 million charge in our Corporate and Other segment to adjust an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary’s estimated potential share of the liability for a proposed environmental remediation plan at a closed site, as discussed in Note 6. Partially offsetting this charge was a decrease of $11 million due to an increase from 1.50% at December 31, 2021 to 3.00% at June 30, 2022 in the risk-free discount rate used to measure these liabilities.

At several of our landfills, we provide financial assurance by depositing cash into restricted trust funds accounts for purposes of settling final capping, closure, post-closure and environmental remediation obligations. Generally, these trust funds are established to comply with statutory requirements and operating agreements. See Note 12 for additional information related to these trusts.