Bill Gates’s $29 Billion Waste Industry Investment Contradicts Climate Commitments
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates accumulated a 29 billion dollar stake in Republic Services through decades of share purchases while simultaneously committing millions to clean energy initiatives, according to an investigation published by Gazete Oksijen.
Gates first bought shares in the waste management company in 1999, initially acquiring a 5 percent stake, which he eventually expanded to 38 percent through investment vehicles managed by Michael Larson. ProPublica analysis of securities filings showed that the billionaire earned 2.6 billion dollars in dividends from the holding since 1999, while the company’s share value multiplied by roughly 30.
The investment predated Gates’s public pivot toward environmental advocacy. In 1999, he directed his personal wealth management to acquire safe, steady assets that generated regular income. By 2006, after consulting with climate scientists, Gates shifted his focus toward greenhouse gas reduction, later promising at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit to direct at least 2 billion dollars into clean energy innovation.
Despite his green technology commitments, Gates did not drive a major environmental transformation at Republic Services, according to the ProPublica findings. Scientific research indicates that landfills represent a critical battleground for global warming because organic waste decaying in oxygen-free environments releases methane, a gas holding roughly 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over the short term. The United Nations Environment Program attributes about one-third of current global warming to methane.
Republic Services reported that its annual climate pollution equals the emissions of 3 million gasoline-powered automobiles. The company joined the Science Based Targets Initiative in 2019 to cut emissions 35 percent by 2030, but it did not adopt a stricter 2021 target because employees estimated the upgrades would cost more than 1 billion dollars.
The US Environmental Protection Agency issued warnings in 2024 regarding widespread monitoring violations at landfills nationwide. ProPublica documents showed that one-fifth of the audited facilities belonged to Republic Services, with inspectors finding over 1,400 problems across at least 39 of its approximately 200 sites since 2020. Methane concentrations reached 100 to 300 times federal limits in certain locations.
Discrepancies emerged between corporate reporting and independent atmospheric measurements. Republic calculates total emissions based on gas collected from landfills, but satellite data published in 2025 by researchers from Harvard, NASA, and Carbon Mapper revealed that real emissions at several facilities exceeded reported levels. The National Serv-All landfill in Indiana emitted 13 times more methane than the figures submitted to the EPA.
Trade organizations representing Republic opposed federal rules requiring stricter methane monitoring, including the mandatory use of drones and satellites. The industry also resisted policies aimed at diverting organic waste away from landfills. While Germany successfully reduced methane emissions by more than 90 percent after gradually halting biodegradable waste shipments to landfills beginning in 1993, the United States achieved only a 40 percent drop over the same timeframe.
Gates divested from oil and gas companies in 2019 to fight climate change, but he kept his Republic Services stock. Certain employees at Breakthrough Energy told ProPublica they were unaware of the waste sector holdings, and Gates did not respond to questions from the investigation.
