This from Investment U:

A friend of mine, along with his family, owns and operates one of the largest landfills in my area. He smiles and says, “It’s about as a recession-proof business as you can find. Here in the United States, people and businesses generate 750,000 tons of garbage every day. The trucks never stop coming.”

Many years ago, before recycling became popular, the company started a recycling operation as a natural extension of the landfill business. It’s doing very well. When any given recyclable commodity goes up, the company’s a seller. The rest of the time, it just stores the copper, steel, aluminum and a dozen other scrap metals and plastics in huge mounds.

Now the company plans to “drill the pile” and tap into the vast source of methane gas generated when garbage decomposes. That solves a big problem with landfills: smell. Some of the power produced will be used at the site and the excess will be sold off to the local power company.

Plans to expand the landfill are currently under way. And even though the company gives back to the community in many ways besides paying taxes, the expansion is being met with mixed feelings by local residents. It’s the old “NIMBY” (not in MY backyard) argument. So what’s the best way to play the garbage game?

Market Vectors Environmental Services: A “Trashy” ETF

Not surprisingly, there is a “trash” exchange traded fund (ETF), called Market Vectors Environmental Services ETF (AMEX: EVX) that seeks to replicate the performance of the AMEX Environmental Services Index.

The 24 companies in the AMEX ESI include those involved in the management, removal and storage of consumer and industrial waste (trash haulers and landfill operators), and related environmental service companies.

Three of the top four holdings of EVX are trash haulers and landfill operators: Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WMI), Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) and Allied Waste Industries (NYSE: AW). Veolia Environnement (NYSE: VE), an international environmental services company, rounds out the top four.

EVX shares – cut in half by the recent market rout – have recently rebounded to the $35 range, but still trade well below the 52-week high of $58.54 reached this past June. EVX sports a yield of 1.5% and is a great buy at current levels.

Special Mention - Clean Harbors Included in Amex: EVX

Clean Harbors (Nasdaq: CLHB) – a vertically integrated environmental services and hazardous waste treatment company – is included in the EVX ETF, but merits special mention.

Handling the hazardous side of waste disposal and management is Clean Harbors’ special focus, and business is booming. Revenues are up 55% in the last three years, and earnings are up an even more impressive 81%.

Clean Harbors is the leading provider of environmental services in North America, with 45,000 customers located in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada. The company’s customer list includes 325 of the Fortune 500 companies, and it services them from over 100 locations.

Treating and disposing all this hazardous waste requires extremely specialized facilities, and Clean Harbors has that covered, too. The company owns and operates six hazardous waste incineration facilities, six wastewater treatment plants, nine landfills, six PCB (polychlorinated biphenols) management facilities, two waste oil reprocessing and recycling facilities, and 20 TSDFs (transportation, storage and disposal facilities).

The second quarter of 2008, ending in June, was a record for the company. CEO Alan S. McKim had said, “Clean Harbors delivered another record quarter in Q2, with double-digit increases in both revenue and profitability. Solid growth across nearly all of our operations enabled us to generate revenues of $265.3 million.”

Currently, shares are trading midway between their 52-week high/low, and represent an excellent buy at current levels.

I expect that the third quarter of 2008 will be another good one for the company, perhaps another record. We won’t have to wait long. It’s expected that earnings will be announced on November 3, 2008.

In summary, both Market Vectors Environmental Services ETF (AMEX: EVX) and Clean Harbors represent two great ways to add some recession resistance to your investment portfolio while you wait for the global economy to slowly recover.

Source: Market Vectors Environmental Services ETF: Adding Recession “Insurance” To Any Portfolio

• Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) plans to install self-service kiosks in eight major U.S. airports, The Associated Press reported. The vending machines will be stocked with cell phone and computer accessories as well as digital cameras, memory storage devices and headphones. Best Buy is calling the new program, “Best Buy Express.”

• Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) narrowly averted a strike deadline set for yesterday (Monday) by coming to a last-minute agreement Sunday night with its two major unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The tentative three-year contracts, which still need to be ratified by union membership, include raises totaling nearly 11% and with Verizon continuing to pay 100 percent of current workers’ and retirees’ health premiums, The New York Times reported.

• Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (PPC) yesterday (Monday) announced it would stop production at two chicken-processing plants as it strives to combat high feed costs. Pilgrim’s Pride has already has already shut down one processing plant and seven distribution centers so far this year, resulting in 1,700 job losses and a 5% decline in chicken production volume, MarketWatch reported.

• JDA Software Group Inc. (JDAS) yesterday (Monday) agreed to purchase i2 Technologies Inc. (ITWO) in a deal valued at $346 million. JDA will pay $14.86 for each share of i2, a 4.9% premium to i2’s closing price Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The acquisition is slated to close in the fourth quarter and will double JDA’s manufacturing capabilities while enhancing its global presence.

• Japan will issue a stimulus package to support its ailing economy by the end of the month, MarketWatch reported. The package is expected to include financial support for small and midsize firms, as well as assistance to consumers suffering from high prices. “The economy has been in a difficult situation,” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was quoted saying ahead of the outline’s release. “We will employ all fiscal and taxation measures” to stimulate the economy.

• Oil prices finished at a new three-month low yesterday (Monday) after briefly dropping below $113 a barrel mark. Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell 75 cents to settle at $114.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as low as $112.72 a barrel earlier in the day.

• Waste Management Inc. (WMI) has raised its unsolicited buyout offer for Republic Services Inc. (RSG) by 9% to $6.73 billion. The new offer of $37 a share comes less than a month after Waste Management, the nation’s largest trash collector, offered to buy Republic in an all-cash buyout worth $34 a share, or $6.2 billion.

• United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) is in talks to buy Dutch rival TNT NV (OTC: (TNTTY), a source familiar with the talks told Reuters. TNT’s express delivery unit, which accounts for two-thirds of sales, is seen as the key attraction for its rivals because of its relative resilience in an economic downturn.

Source: Global Investing Roundups: Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

• China-based Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) boosted its revenue forecast for the second quarter, sending its shares up over 18% yesterday (Monday). Canadian Solar announced that net revenue for the second quarter will be between $210 – $214 million, Reuters reported, well above analyst expectations of $187.5 million. Shares gained $5.99 to close at $38.39.

• Waste Management Inc. (WMI) yesterday (Monday) announced an unsolicited bid for rival Republic Services Inc. (RSG) in an attempt to derail Republic’s own bid for Allied Waste Industries Inc. (AW). The $34 per share cash bid represents a 22% premium over Republic’s July 11 closing price, Bloomberg News reported.

• Concerned IndyMac Bancorp Inc. (IMB) customers queued outside branches yesterday (Monday) to withdraw money from the financial institution that was seized by federal regulators on Friday. IndyMac is the largest regulated thrift to fail in U.S. history, BusinessWeek reported. IndyMac shares have been completely gutted and are down over 97% year-to-date.

• President George W. Bush announced yesterday (Monday) that he had lifted an earlier ban on offshore drilling in the outer continental shelf due to high oil costs. “Today I’ve taken every step within my power to allow offshore exploration of the OCS,” Bush said in a statement at the White House, Bloomberg News reported. “This means the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action by the U.S. Congress.”

• Apple Inc. (AAPL) said yesterday (Monday) that it sold 1 million units of the new iPhone in its initial weekend. The original iPhone, introduced in late June 2007 in the United States only, sold about 270,000 units in its first two days, Reuters reported. Sales had topped 1 million units by early September. The new device sells in 21 countries.

• Airlines from oil-rich Middle Eastern countries booked orders for around 150 planes worth more than $25 billion the world’s largest air show The Associated Press reported. Many European and U.S. airlines have refrained from signing big deals at the Farnborough International Airshow as they cope with soaring fuel costs and sluggish passenger demand.

• Russia’s energy projects, all of which have foreign participation, failed to achieve their oil production targets in 2007, Russia’s Audit Chamber said in a statement yesterday (Monday). Declining oil production became a hot topic in Russia after the world’s No. 2 oil exporter saw output fall in the first quarter for the first time in years, The Associated Press reported.

• Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A, RDS.B) has agreed to buy Canada’s Duvernay Oil Corp for $5.9 billion, according to Reuters. “Duvernay has an unmatched position in terms of leverage to (natural gas) resources,” said Robert Fitzmartyn, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital.

Source:  Global Investing Roundups Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

• Citigroup Inc. (C) may lay off more workers this week under a March plan to cut its trading and investment-banking workforce by about 6,000, or 10%. So far, about half of the jobs have been shed, a source with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

• The Joint Center for Housing Studies released its annual State of the Nation’s Housing report yesterday (Monday), MarketWatch reported. According to the report, the slump still has further to run, as local markets continue to grapple with drops in housing starts, new home sales and existing home sales.

• Republic Services Inc. (RSG) said yesterday (Monday) that it would buy Allied Waste Industries (AW) in a $6.07 billion stock deal that would combine the second- and third-largest disposal companies in the industry. Republic Services Inc. will pay Allied Waste shareholders .45 worth of a Republic share for each share held, valued at $14.04 per share based on Republic’s Friday closing stock price of $31.19, the Associated Press reported.

• The euro fell 0.6% to $1.5516 at 4:31 p.m. in New York yesterday (Monday), from $1.5606 on June 20 after the Ifo survey showed German business confidence fell to its lowest level since 2005 in June, Bloomberg News reported. A separate study showed that Eurozone manufacturing and services both contracted in June, which also put downward pressure on the euro.

• Chemicals manufacturer Huntsman Corp. (HUN) sued Leon Black, head of Apollo Management LP, for more than $3 billion after a failed takeover. In a complaint filed yesterday (Monday), Huntman alleged that Black and Apollo co-founder Joshua Harris engaged in fraud and tortious interference to gain acceptance of a bid for Apollo’s Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc. unit.

• General Motors Corp. (GM) announced it would increase prices on its 2009 line in response to soaring commodity costs, The Wall Street Journal reported. The struggling automaker will also extend its summer shutdown at six plants and offer more sales incentives in hopes of decreasing inventory on its larger vehicles such as pick-up trucks and sport-utility vehicles.

• French firm Safran SA (PINK: SAFRY) made a $300 billion cash offer for the secure ID business of Digimarc Corp. (DMRC) topping a previous offer from L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. (ID) put forth in March, Reuters reported. In a statement. Digimarc said its board has determined that Safran’s proposal “could reasonably be expected to lead to a superior proposal,” which would allow the company a chance to back on out on its deal with L-1.

• Shares of Motorola Inc. (MOT) dropped over 6% yesterday (Monday) after analysts downgraded the outlook for the mobile phone maker. The stock dropped 50 cents to close at $7.44 after analysts at Piper Jaffray Cos. (PJC) and Avian Securities lowered ratings on Motorola stock, Reuters reported.

Source: Global Investment Roundups Tuesday, June 24th, 2008