It would probably surprise most people to learn that landfills can serve as nesting grounds and habitat magnets for wildlife, such as great blue herons.

Waste Management, the nation's largest provider of waste services, has created 24 of these conservation areas but plans to increase that to 100 sites totaling 25,000 acres by 2020. To do this, it partnered with the Wildlife Habitat Council, which presented the 24 cites with "Wildlife at Work" certifications.

And the company has more up its sleeve. North America's largest recycler already creates enough waste-based energy for the equivalent of a million homes each year, and expects to double that by 2020. Its Greenville, SC plant landfill captures methane and turns the greenhouse gas into energy to provide a nearby BMW plant with 25 percent of its energy.

Waste Management manages 8 million tons of recyclables but plans to up that to 20 million tons by 2020. In 2006 alone, Waste Management recycled enough paper to save 41 million trees.

To do all this requires a reliable fleet of vehicles, for which the company will spend up to $500 million in the next 10 years to increase the fleet's fuel efficiency by 15 percent and to reduce fleet emissions by 15 percent.

Not bad for a trashy business.