What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Republic Services (RSG) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Republic Services generated $4.5B of operating cash flow and $2.59B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 57.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Republic Services (RSG) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Republic Services's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Republic Services (RSG) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.5B

Capex

-$1.9B

Free Cash Flow

$2.59B

FCF Margin

+57.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Republic Services (RSG) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.59B

Cash flow breakdown for Republic Services (RSG) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.5B	$4.5B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.9B	$2.59B
Free Cash Flow	$2.59B	$2.59B
Acquisitions	-$1.02B	$1.57B
Other Investing	-$9M	$1.56B
Share Buybacks	-$1.11B	$456M
Dividends Paid	-$750M	-$294M
Net Debt Change	$427M	$133M
Other Financing	-$30M	$103M
Forex Effect	-$68M	$35M
Net Cash Increase	$35M	$35M

Operating Cash Flow$4.5B
Capital Expenditure-$1.9B
Free Cash Flow$2.59B
Acquisitions-$1.02B
Other Investing-$9M
Share Buybacks-$1.11B
Dividends Paid-$750M
Net Debt Change$427M
Other Financing-$30M
Forex Effect-$68M
Net Cash Increase$35M

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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