Houston-based Waste Management reported a net income of $155 million on revenues of $2.8 billion in the first quarter of this year. Both figures represent a decline from first-quarter 2008, when the firm posted a net income of $241 million on revenues of $3.3 billion.

Waste Management says that only 4.7 percent of the decline in revenue “comes from operational impacts to the solid waste collection and disposal business. The balance of the decline is due to commodity impacts related to recycling materials, fuel and energy, and non-operational items including foreign currency translation and one fewer work day during the first quarter of 2009.”

“The majority of our business relates to commercial and residential sources and is generally recession resistant …,” said Waste Management CEO David Steiner in a press release. “The fourth-quarter volume declines that we saw in our more economically sensitive industrial collection, landfill transfer and recycling business continued into 2009. We expect volumes in these economically sensitive lines of business to remain soft in 2009 and, as a result, we continue to focus on cost and pricing discipline and driving continued efficiency throughout our organization.”

Waste Management's complete first-quarter report is available here.