Letter to S tockholders Looking at 2004 Our theme for 2004 was  Execution &  Accountability . We recognize that our employees are responsible for the execution of their  business plans and should be held accountable for delivering results by our many constituents,  including customers and stockholders. To t h a t e n d , w e f u r t h e r e x p a n d e d o u r O p e r a t i o n s A n a l y s i s a n d In t e g r a t i o n Gr o u p t o h e l p ensure that commitments made by our  employees in their budgets are implemented as scheduled and to help improve or exit  underper forming locations.  We were pleased that a majority of the over 2 ,000 objectives that drove last year’s budget were completed on time. But we can and must do  better. In 2005, we are tracking more than 5,000 tasks that underlie over 2,100 objectives  within the budget. On average, 400 plus tasks must be implemented each month in order to  deliver our desired financial results. Execution & Accountability is not a  passing theme, but rather a focus that is ingrained in everything we do. The benefits of both our differentiated  strategy and our employee focus on execution and accountability were evident in our 2004 fin ancial results. Other significant developments in 2004 that improved our strategic and  financial position going forward included: In November 2004, we completed the a cquisition of Northwest Container Services, Inc., an intermodal services provider in the Pacific Northwest. Our rationale for acquiring Northwest Container was based on uni que attributes of the solid waste disposal market in the Pacific Northwest. We estimate  that approximately 2.5 million tons of solid waste per year are transported via rail from w estern parts of Washington to competitor-owned landfills in the eastern parts of W ashington and Oregon. We own similarly situated landfills but currently are not in the  rail-hauled waste disposal market. •  Longer-term, we believe our ability to market both intermodal and disposal services will enable us to compete more  effectiv ely for a portion of this rail-hauled waste disposal volume and dispose of such  waste in our existing landfill network in that region. We are currently a finalist for such a lon g-term contract that is expected to be awarded in mid-2005. 