During the fourth quarter of 2009, Houston-based Waste Management posted a net income of $315 million on revenues of $3.01 billion. In the same period in 2008, the firm posted a net income of $218 million on revenues of $3.11 billion.

For all of 2009, Waste Management posted a net income of $994 million on $11.79 billion in revenue. In 2008, the firm posted a net income of $1.09 billion on $13.39 billion in revenue.

“We saw encouraging signs of improvement in the fourth quarter,” said David P. Steiner, CEO of Waste Management, in a press release. “Internal revenue growth from volume declined by 6.4% compared with the prior year period, which was a 250 basis point improvement from the third quarter of 2009.”

“We are proud of what we accomplished in 2009,” Steiner added in the release. “During the economic downturn we continued producing strong cash flow and returned a big portion of it to our shareholders.”