The reason they don't own landfills is likely driven by a combination of Illinois regulation and who owns the existing landfills. Almost every landfill in Northern Illinois is controlled by two of their competitors (Waste and Republic). Permitting their own landfill would be costly and take years. When they put waste in one of the WM or Republic landfills they pay fees to their competitors.
Long term permitting more landfills in Northern Illinois is going to be harder and harder. The newer ones are further from the Chicago area (not in my backyard).
If they can avoid landfills in a cost friendly way they make more money for themselves and less for their competitors. If you went to the California Avenue site where the digester is you can see a number of things LRS already does to reduce waste sent to landfills. They have been reducing waste associated with metals, glass, construction materials and lawn/gardens for a number of years. Reducing organic waste is the next logic place for them to reduce the cost of materials transferred to landfills and their competitors.
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