--- title: Retirees Don't Have to Choose Growth or Income. These 2 'Boring' Stocks Offer Both description: Want dividend income and stock growth? Waste Management and Republic Services offer both, thanks to steady demand for waste services. authors: - name: Jordan Chussler role: Editor, Investing and Banking url: https://money.com/author/jordan-chussler/ bio: Jordan is an investment editor and CPFC who specializes in traditional equities, gold and other precious metals, retirement savings and income investing. He combines his personal and professional interests in finance and education to help readers increase their financial literacy and make better investment choices. education: Lynn University certifications: Certified Personal Finance Counselor at_money_since: 2023 articles: 135 covers: - Investing - Banking - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement also_seen_in: - Weiss Ratings - 24/7 Wall Street - Better Investing - Yahoo Finance - Nasdaq - Investing.com - Marketbeat - MSN Money social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-chussler-b3597811/ editors: - name: Katherine Peach role: Associate Editor url: https://money.com/author/katherine-peach/ bio: Katherine Peach is an associate editor with a focus on news and email at Money. She didn’t always intend to write about money. She’s a classically trained pianist who dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. However, in 2007 Katherine began working in financial publishing as an editor for Agora Inc. (Apparently, unearthing ideas about improving your personal finances isn’t such a bad career alternative!) Katherine’s writing and editing work has been featured in Investing Daily, Clever, Investor Junkie, The Palm Beach Letter, Truth & Plenty, Independence Monthly, NICHE, AmericanStyle, AntiqueWeek, Millennial Money, Money Done Right, TheStreet, Sure Dividend and many others. Katherine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient Studies with concentrations in Archaeology and Ancient Languages and a minor in Literature from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. education: University of Maryland, Baltimore County at_money_since: 2025 articles: 15 covers: - Investing - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes published: '2026-11-06T13:30:04.000Z' section: Investing tags: - Investing - stocks word_count: 901 canonical: https://money.com/dividend-growth-waste-stocks/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Garbage truck with bull](https://img.money.com/2026/11/News-retiree-WM-RSG.jpg) A common misconception is that investors need to choose between growth stocks and dividend stocks. For retirees looking to supplement their fixed income, that pressure can be even more pronounced. But certain industries can provide the best of both worlds, even if they seem big and boring on the surface — like waste management. "Investors tend to associate growth with exciting companies and dividends with boring ones, which is misguided," Michael Coraggio, managing director at SoundRidge Private Wealth, writes in an email to Money. "Boring businesses can produce exciting returns." Companies that belong to the industrials sector, for instance, often meet those requirements. But because they are perceived as operating in slow-and-steady industries — such as machinery, construction materials, transportation and trash collection — they're often overlooked. These companies may not have exciting products or flashy marketing campaigns, Coraggio says. But they provide essential services that customers can't easily do without, which makes them predictable businesses with competitive advantages. "Growth and income aren't mutually exclusive," he says. For investors looking for both strong share appreciation and reliable yield, the two biggest names in waste management provide the ideal middle ground. ## Waste generation is set to increase by 50% Each year, the world produces approximately 2.1 to 2.3 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste, or MSW. That's an almost unfathomable amount of garbage — enough to fill 800,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Yet roughly 30% of global waste is still openly dumped or left uncollected, according to the [World Bank](https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1f8e0136-c279-46e7-877c-657b7f8ab5f6/content), which says that addressing that challenge will demand significant investment in universal and sustainable waste collection and management. That's because by 2050, the amount of MSW is expected to increase by 50%. Much of that opportunity lies in the North American market, which, according to industry consultancy firm [Grand View Research](https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-waste-management-market), accounts for more than 33% market share, with the United States holding the highest market share among individual countries. Driving that demand to address rising MSW volumes stems from higher use of packaged goods, shorter product life cycles and the expansion of the healthcare, industrial, and electronics industries, which require compliant medical waste handling, hazardous waste and an influx of e-waste generation. This presents an opportunity for investors in the form of the industry's two biggest competitors. Waste Management (NYSE: WM) and Republic Services (NYSE: RSG) have both outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year while continuing to reward shareholders with strong dividend payments. ## Waste Management: the market dominator Founded in 1968, Waste Management is North America's largest company that provides waste collection, transportation, disposal, recycling and resource-recovery services. Its market cap is around $95 billion, and it boasts a nearly 33% market share. Because of that, the company consistently generates high cash flow and reliable profits. For the first nine months of 2026, it generated more than $3 billion in free cash flow — a reliable measure of a company's financial health that calculates the money left over after a business pays its operating expenses and capital expenditures. Of that, Waste Management returned 90% of that cash to shareholders through $1.58 billion in stock buybacks and $1.14 billion in dividends. That translated to record quarterly profit of $820 million in the third quarter alongside year-over-year earnings per share (EPS) growth of nearly 38%. But in addition to that growth, the company has increased its dividend for 23 consecutive years, putting it on the verge of joining the Dividend Aristocrats club — an exclusive group of stocks that have hiked their payouts for 25 years in a row. Waste Management's dividend currently yields 1.59%, or nearly 95 cents per share per quarter. Its five-year annualized dividend growth rate stands at 8.65%. ## Republic Services: a second fiddle with first-rate returns Republic Services may play second fiddle to Waste Management, but that orchestra seat comes with a nearly $75 billion market cap and more than 26% market share. Formed in the early 1990s when numerous MSW collection companies consolidated, Republic Services incorporated in 1996. Today, the company operates in 40 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, providing waste collection, recycling and disposal solutions for residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. In the growth department, the company checks all the boxes. The last time Republic Services didn't beat Wall Street's earnings expectations was the second quarter of 2018. Meanwhile, it posted record revenue of $4.56 billion in the third quarter of 2026 alongside $592 million in profit, which was also a record. Year-over-year free cash flow growth has averaged more than 61% over the past three quarters. Republic Services is right on Waste Management's heels with 22 consecutive years of dividend increases. It currently yields 1.09%, or 67 cents per share per quarter, and its five-year annualized dividend growth rate is 7.38%. Those yields may not appear to be the strongest at first glance. But considering both companies' share prices, they equate to generous payout amounts. Combined with their growth prospects and their respective track records for dividend increases, they can help form the foundation of a retirement portfolio that focuses on share appreciation and income generation. "Waste Management and Republic Services have long histories of increasing their dividends. But their history of maintaining conservative dividend payout ratios matters more as it leaves substantial earnings and cash flow available," Coraggio says. "It's hard to disrupt a business whose best asset is a permitted landfill. Nobody's building new ones, and that scarcity becomes their \[competitive\] moat." ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/dividend-growth-waste-stocks/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Investing", "item": "https://money.com/investing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Dividends", "item": "https://money.com/dividends/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Retirees Don't Have to Choose Growth or Income. 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