Environmental & Waste Services

In brief: In 2026, an owner-managed regional waste management company in the DACH lower mid-market is valued at 4.0 to 9.0x EBITDA depending on the subsegment, with the core at 5.0 to 7.5x. There is no separate DUB row for waste management. The closest reference is business-related services (B2B) at 5.0-7.2x in the small-cap band (DUB KMU-Multiples Q3/2026). Buyers are strategics such as Remondis, PreZero and Veolia (EUWID, 18.06.2026; PreZero, 02.12.2025), regional family businesses and, since 2026, infrastructure capital as well. From the first approach to closing, six to nine months is realistic.

Market overview: environmental services in the DACH region

The German circular economy, with around 11,000 companies and more than 280,000 employees, generates about €80bn in revenue a year, and the waste management infrastructure comprises 14,500 facilities (BMUKN, Abfallwirtschaft in Deutschland 2025, as of October 2025). The BDE adds the water industry and arrives at around €105bn in annual revenue (BDE, 05.06.2025). Austria contributes €9.17bn, generated by around 31,000 employees in the waste and resources sector (IWI study commissioned by the public and private waste management industry, WKO/VÖA, 27.01.2025). Depending on the definition, the DACH region therefore comes to around €90 to 115bn.

This page covers waste management, recycling, hazardous waste, wastewater and environmental services with their own facilities or collection operations. Environmental reports, analytics and certification services without their own facilities belong rather under Business Services. Technical maintenance for industrial customers is covered under Industrial Services, building-related operator services under Facility Management.

The market structure is fragmented and shrinking at the edges. In 2024 Germany counted 12,920 waste disposal facilities, after 13,566 the year before, including 940 sorting plants (Destatis, as of 27.02.2026). The number of landfills fell from 1,131 in 2014 to 962, and the permitted remaining volume most recently stood at 457.6 million m³ (Destatis, as of 03.03.2026). An existing permit is therefore an asset that does not grow back.

Growth here is not across the board, only segment by segment. German waste volumes fell by 4.6% in 2024 to 362.7 million tonnes, the lowest level since 2009 (Destatis, no. 185 of 01.06.2026), and revenue from environmental protection goods fell by 1.9% to €117.5bn (Destatis, no. 251 of 16.07.2026). Running the other way, hazardous waste rose by 2.4% to 23.1 million tonnes, after 22.5 million tonnes the year before (Destatis, no. 260 of 22.07.2026). In plastics recycling, capacity is even shrinking: Europe has lost almost 1 million tonnes since 2023, and a further 300,000 tonnes or so are expected for 2026 (bvse citing Plastics Recyclers Europe, 27.08.2025; plastxnow.de, 2026).

Four sets of rules move the market in 2026, each with a hard date. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation PPWR (Regulation (EU) 2025/40) applies from 12.08.2026, with a declaration of conformity for each packaging and uniform labelling; minimum recycled content quotas follow in stages up to 2030 and 2040 (IHK Schleswig-Holstein, 2026). The Industrial Emissions Directive IED 2.0 had to be transposed by 01.07.2026 and requires existing facilities to have an environmental management system with a transformation plan by 01.07.2030 (BMUKN draft bill, 2026). The draft bill amending the Circular Economy Act (KrWG) of 26.06.2026 tightens separate collection (BMUKN, 26.06.2026). And since 01.01.2024, thermal recovery has carried a CO2 cost under the BEHG: €45 per tonne in 2024, €55 in 2025, and from 2026 auctioned within a corridor of €55 to €65 (BEHG; Veolia Deutschland, 2026).

Succession pressure hits the sector with full force, because it is family-run across the board. IfM Bonn expects around 186,000 family businesses due for handover in 2026 to 2030 (IfM Bonn, Daten und Fakten no. 37, 2025). IfM counts more narrowly than KfW, which shows around 109,000 intended successions a year for the same period (KfW Nachfolge-Monitoring Mittelstand, 2025). According to KfW Research, 57% of Mittelstand owners are at least 55 years old, and in summer 2025 the DIHK counted 9,600 companies ready for handover nationwide against only 4,000 interested parties (DIHK, 2025). How this is developing is shown in the succession statistics for the DACH region (in German), and the role of private equity in the article on private equity in Mittelstand succession (in German).

Who is buying right now

Between May and August 2026 alone, ten transactions were publicly announced in the DACH region, and the buyer side has become broader. Where the groups differ is set out in the comparison PE investor vs. strategic buyer.

• Remondis (Rethmann Group, Lünen): Germany's largest waste management company acquired 27.79% of the Austrian market leader Saubermacher through Remondis International, cleared only after an in-depth review by the Austrian Federal Competition Authority, with completion on 18.06.2026 (EUWID, 18.06.2026). Following clearance by the Bundeskartellamt, its subsidiary Eko-Punkt may also take over the system operator Recycling Dual from Smurfit Westrock (EUWID, 28.05.2026).
• PreZero (Schwarz Group): Took over key activities of Weisgerber Umweltservice from Wächtersbach as of 01.12.2025, focused on the sites in Hessisch-Lichtenau and Schwalmstadt together with contracts, assets and staff (PreZero, 02.12.2025).
• Veolia: Is integrating the acquired Hofmann Group step by step; K. Bonn Abfallwirtschaft was merged in as of 01.05.2026 (Veolia Holding Deutschland, 2026). At group level, Veolia is focusing on hazardous waste and bought Clean Earth for USD 3.0bn, equivalent to 9.8x the EBITDA expected for 2026 after synergies (Veolia, press release 2025/2026).
• Derichebourg Environnement: Completed the acquisition of 100% of the Scholz Recycling group on 31.07.2026, with around €1.6bn in revenue, around 180 sites and about 3,500 employees, at an enterprise value of €480m and thus 6.5x the average EBITDA of the last three years including expected synergies (Derichebourg, 31.07.2026).
• Paprec: Signed the acquisition of 80% of Brantner green solutions in Krems on 12.08.2026, with the remaining 20% staying with the Brantner family (EUWID, 12.08.2026; Paprec, 08/2026), and merged Paprec Swiss with the family business Metabader as of 08.07.2026 (presseportal.ch, 08.07.2026).
• Igneo Infrastructure Partners: Infrastructure investor with €25.9bn in assets under management as of 30.06.2026. On 11.08.2026 it agreed to take a majority in the Neumann Group in Burg, one of Europe's leading providers of incinerator bottom ash processing; completion is expected in the second half of 2026, and CEO and co-shareholder André Hartl stays invested (Igneo Infrastructure Partners, 11.08.2026). Investors of this kind value permits like infrastructure and accept longer holding periods.
• Family-run Mittelstand groups: Lobbe bought the waste management company Röhrtaler together with Tatay Containerdienst (EUWID, 30.07.2026), Nehlsen bought Karl Meyer AG with around 800 employees (Nehlsen AG, 2025), and OTTO DÖRNER bought Richard John GmbH in a 100% share deal (OTTO DÖRNER, 31.10.2025).
• New market entrants: The Dutch Milieu Service Groep entered the German market as of 01.07.2026 through Lins Recycling in Mannheim (EUWID, 08.07.2026), and the Stork group acquired 49.99% of the underground disposal company GSES from the Schmidt Kranz Group and R+M Beteiligungsgesellschaft (EUWID, 05.05.2026).

Family offices and smaller strategics also buy, usually without a press release. You do not reach these buyers through an auction, but through direct, confidential approach. The current market phase is set out in the overview of DACH M&A trends (in German).

EBITDA multiples in the sector

The DUB classification has no separate row for waste management, environmental services or recycling. The closest reference is business-related services (B2B) at 3.7-5.4x EBITDA in the micro-cap band, 5.0-7.2x in small-cap and 6.4-8.0x in mid-cap (DUB KMU-Multiples Q3/2026). These values are the SME reference. Waste management typically trades above them because of permits and fixed assets, and large platform transactions higher still: Derichebourg valued Scholz Recycling at 6.5x the three-year average including expected synergies (Derichebourg, 31.07.2026), and Veolia paid USD 3.0bn for Clean Earth, or 9.8x the EBITDA expected for 2026 after synergies (Veolia, press release 2025/2026). The Clean Earth value is a large-cap deal in US hazardous waste and is not reached in the DACH lower mid-market.

The line between evidence and classification runs at 7.2x. Up to that point the subsegment values are covered by the DUB small-cap band. Above it there is no DUB coverage, and the figures rest on the public hazardous waste anchor of 9.8x from the Clean Earth deal and otherwise on a classification by SourcingClub. The same applies downwards: a skip hire business with eight vehicles and no facility of its own is not valued like a facility operator; for it, the micro-cap band of 3.7-5.4x is the right anchor.

Data basis: DUB KMU-Multiples (dub.de/kmu-multiples), Q3/2026, sector business-related services (B2B) as the closest reference, since no separate DUB row exists for waste management; values above 7.2x are not covered by DUB. Transaction anchors: Derichebourg/Scholz 6.5x (Derichebourg, 31.07.2026) and Veolia/Clean Earth 9.8x in US hazardous waste (Veolia, 2025/2026). Subsegment classification, premiums and discounts and analysis: SourcingClub. Full ranges by size class: EBITDA Multiples DACH.

Every premium above the B2B reference needs an argument that can be documented. For hazardous waste it is the only public price anchor in this subsegment, the 9.8x Veolia paid for Clean Earth (Veolia, 2025/2026), backed by rising volumes: 23.1 million tonnes in Germany in 2024, after 22.5 million tonnes the year before (Destatis, no. 260 of 22.07.2026). For landfills it is scarcity: 962 sites compared with 1,131 in 2014 and a remaining volume of 457.6 million m³ (Destatis, as of 03.03.2026), offset by aftercare provisions. For the integrated platform it is buyer behaviour: Igneo at Neumann and Paprec at Metabader (Igneo Infrastructure Partners, 11.08.2026; presseportal.ch, 08.07.2026).

What raises the multiple and what lowers it

Valuation example: a regional waste management company with €18m in revenue

A constructed but typical example: an owner-managed regional waste management company in northern Germany, 95 employees, 34 collection vehicles, one sorting plant permitted under BImSchG, three municipal contracts, around 900 commercial customers. All figures are fictitious and only show the calculation.

Starting point. Revenue €18.0m, of which 42% municipal collection, 33% commercial waste and skip hire, and 25% revenue from secondary raw materials. Reported EBITDA €2.10m, or 11.7% of revenue.

Normalisation. The owner's managing director salary is €380k; the market rate for the role would be €220k, which adds €160k. Two vehicles in private use and a sublease below market rate add €60k. A one-off legal dispute weighed on the year with €80k and will not recur. Together that is plus €300k, so adjusted EBITDA is €2.40m, or 13.3% of revenue.

Multiple. With €18.0m in revenue the business is a small cap, and the DUB reference for that is 5.0-7.2x (DUB KMU-Multiples Q3/2026). The mix of own collection and own facility corresponds to the sorting and processing row in the table above, so 5.5-7.5x. A premium, because the BImSchG permit cannot be replicated and one municipal contract still runs for seven years. A discount, because a quarter of revenue depends on fluctuating secondary raw material prices and the business is too small for a true regional platform. The multiple applied is 6.3x, within the overlap of both bands. Enterprise value: €2.40m times 6.3 = €15.1m.

Bridge to the purchase price. Less bank loans of €3.2m, less fleet leasing of €1.8m, plus cash of €0.9m gives net financial debt of €4.1m. On top of that comes a €1.2m provision for landfill aftercare and restoration, which the buyer treats like debt. Calculated equity value: 15.1 minus 4.1 minus 1.2 = €9.8m.

Negotiation point: investment backlog. The technical due diligence puts the modernisation requirement of the sorting plant at €1.5m, including NIR sorting, fire protection and the environmental management system required under IED 2.0 by 01.07.2030. The buyer wants to deduct the full €1.5m and arrives at €8.3m; the owner counters with the capacity gain and stays at €9.8m. Realistic corridor: €8.3m to €9.8m equity value.

Structure at €9.5m. €6.7m at closing (70%), a €1.4m earn-out over two years tied to the renewal of the largest municipal contract (15%), and a €1.4m subordinated vendor loan over four years (15%). The operating site remains the owner's property and is let for 12 years on market terms; the owner remains managing director for 18 months.

€9.5m corresponds to 4.0x adjusted EBITDA, even though the enterprise value was set at 6.3x. This gap is particularly large in waste management, because leasing, aftercare provisions and investment backlog come together. If you only negotiate the multiple, you are negotiating the wrong number.

The sale process in the sector

From the first approach to closing, six to nine months is realistic, plus merger control clearance where it applies. Two cases show what that can cost in time: for Paprec and Brantner, signing was on 12.08.2026 and closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 (EUWID, 12.08.2026); for Remondis and Saubermacher, the Austrian Federal Competition Authority only cleared the deal after an in-depth review (EUWID, 18.06.2026). The stages are the usual ones, from preparation through an anonymous teaser, approach, NDA, management meetings and due diligence to contract negotiation.

Three workstreams are specific to waste management and need lead time. The first is permit due diligence: approved waste codes, permitted annual throughput, storage capacity, ancillary provisions, open conditions, pending notifications of change. A business that in practice runs above its permit is a purchase price risk, not a growth argument. This includes the status of your certified waste management company certification under Section 56 KrWG with the latest monitoring report. Since 01.07.2026 IED 2.0 has been added, with a wider scope for waste treatment facilities and landfills (BMUKN draft bill, 2026).

The second is the contract review. A buyer reads your municipal contracts line by line, for remaining term, renewal options, change-of-control clauses and indexation. The key question in 2026 is whether your clause allows the BEHG CO2 costs to be passed on. How strongly this feeds through can be seen on the fee side: Cologne is raising its waste and street cleaning fees by an average of 12.37% in 2026, citing among other things higher residual waste disposal costs and the CO2 levy on residual waste incineration (Stadt Köln, 2026).

The third is the substance. Technical review of the sorting plant, baling line, weighbridges, fleet and container stock, plus an environmental and contamination review of your operating sites. With owner-managed waste management companies the land is often held privately; the usual solution is to separate it with a long-term lease on market terms. And because the most likely buyer is a consolidator with its own site nearby, staged release of your data room belongs in the process from the start.

Typical deal structures

The following ranges reflect market practice in the DACH lower mid-market; there is no official statistic on them. The transactions named are documented externally.

• Full sale as a share deal. The norm for smaller regional waste management companies, because the permit, municipal contracts, the certified company certificate and the waste tracking register are tied to the company. Derichebourg acquired 100% of the Scholz Recycling group (Derichebourg, 31.07.2026), OTTO DÖRNER bought Richard John GmbH (OTTO DÖRNER, 31.10.2025).
• Majority with reinvestment. Typically 70 to 85% goes to the buyer, and the rest stays with the family. Paprec took over 80% of Brantner green solutions, and the Brantner family keeps 20% (EUWID, 12.08.2026).
• Minority as a strategic anchor. Control and operational management stay, and a partner comes on board. Remondis International holds 27.79% of Saubermacher (EUWID, 18.06.2026), and Stork acquired 49.99% of GSES (EUWID, 05.05.2026).
• Carve-out of part of the business. When only sites, contracts and staff are to transfer. PreZero took over key activities of Weisgerber Umweltservice as of 01.12.2025, not the company as a whole (PreZero, 02.12.2025).
• Earn-out. Usual is 10 to 25% of the purchase price over two to three years, tied to the renewal of municipal contracts, to throughput being held or to a normalised EBITDA. Earn-outs are an established bridge between differing price expectations in the German Mittelstand (Unternehmeredition, 2026).
• Vendor loan. 10 to 20% of the purchase price, three to five years, subordinated. The background is bank logic in the German Mittelstand: debt financing usually ends at 3.5 to 4x EBITDA.
• Real estate split. The operating site stays with the owner or in a property holding company, and the buyer receives a lease of 10 to 15 years on market terms. For landfill and gravel operations this is often the real value lever.
• Transition period and W&I. Market practice is 12 to 24 months of continued involvement by the previous managing director, longer in permit-driven businesses, because the operations manager and the waste management officer are named personally. W&I insurance becomes standard from an enterprise value of around €10m, but often excludes environmental and contamination risks.

For PE investors: the buy-and-build thesis in brief

The barrier to entry can be quantified here. The stock of facilities is falling: 12,920 waste disposal facilities in 2024 after 13,566 the year before, and 962 landfills compared with 1,131 in 2014 (Destatis, as of 27.02.2026 and 03.03.2026). The 2024 amendment to the BImSchG made procedural deadlines more binding, but exceeding a deadline still carries no sanction and does not trigger deemed approval (CMS Legal Update; KPMG Law, 2025). Whoever holds a facility holds an asset with shrinking supply.

The platform logic follows directly from this. An initial investment in an integrated regional platform that fills its own facilities with its own collection volumes, followed by add-ons in collection and skip hire that raise utilisation. This is exactly what can be read from other people's books in 2026: Paprec Swiss and Metabader together have more than 31 sites and around CHF 350m in expected revenue (presseportal.ch, 08.07.2026), and Igneo agreed a majority in the Neumann Group (Igneo Infrastructure Partners, 11.08.2026). Regulation acts as a demand anchor, because from 12.08.2026 the PPWR creates more reliable offtake for recycled material (IHK Schleswig-Holstein, 2026). The mechanics are described in the article on buy-and-build strategy in the DACH region (in German).

Two things set the sector apart from classic roll-ups. First, infrastructure capital competes too, valuing permits like infrastructure and accepting longer holding periods. Second, the bridge from enterprise value to purchase price is wider than elsewhere, because leasing, aftercare provisions and investment backlog together easily add up to one to two years of EBITDA. The bottleneck is still access to owner-managed businesses before they enter a structured process. How systematic sourcing creates this access is set out under For Investors.

From my sourcing work

In this sector the price is rarely decided by the multiple that is discussed at the start. I see again and again that the bridge to the purchase price tips the balance, meaning leasing, provisions and investment backlog, and that these items only sit side by side on the table for the first time during the process. The second point is the permit, and not whether it exists, but what exactly it allows. Willingness to talk, on the other hand, is almost always decided by discretion, because the most likely buyer is the competitor two districts away. If you think about this early, you can look around calmly without word getting out in the region.

Next step

Whether a handover is due in two years or only in five: the permit overview, soil survey and investment plan can be prepared calmly, and the most active buyers are known by name. A confidential match against specific acquisition profiles shows, without obligation, which buyer groups fit your business, without your company name circulating in the market early on.