Retirees Don't Need to Pick Between Growth and Income: These Two Sturdy Stocks Deliver Both

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Many investors assume they must choose between growth stocks and dividend stocks. For retirees who want to supplement fixed income, that trade-off can feel especially important. Yet some industries can offer both, even if they look unexciting on the surface — waste management is one example.

“Investors tend to associate growth with exciting companies and dividends with boring ones, which is misguided,” Michael Coraggio, managing director at SoundRidge Private Wealth, writes in an email to Money. “Boring businesses can produce exciting returns.”

Companies in the industrials sector often fit that description. Because they operate in industries seen as slow and steady — such as machinery, construction materials, transportation and trash collection — they are frequently overlooked.

They may lack flashy products or big marketing campaigns, Coraggio says, but they provide essential services that customers cannot easily replace. That makes them more predictable businesses with meaningful competitive advantages.

“Growth and income aren't mutually exclusive,” he says. For investors seeking both share appreciation and dependable yield, the two largest names in waste management offer a compelling middle ground.

Waste generation is expected to rise sharply

Each year, the world produces roughly 2.1 to 2.3 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste, or MSW. That is an almost unimaginable amount of garbage — enough to fill 800,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Still, about 30% of global waste is openly dumped or left uncollected, according to the World Bank. The organization says solving that problem will require major investment in universal, sustainable waste collection and management. By 2050, the amount of MSW is projected to rise by 50%.

Much of that opportunity is in North America. According to industry consultancy Grand View Research, the region holds more than 33% of the market share, with the United States leading all individual countries.

Rising demand is being driven by greater use of packaged goods, shorter product life cycles and the expansion of healthcare, industrial and electronics industries, which create needs for compliant medical waste handling, hazardous waste services and e-waste collection.

That backdrop creates an opening for the industry's two biggest competitors. Waste Management (NYSE: WM) and Republic Services (NYSE: RSG) have both beaten the S&P 500 over the past year while continuing to reward shareholders with solid dividends.

Waste Management: the market leader

Founded in 1968, Waste Management is North America's largest provider of waste collection, transportation, disposal, recycling and resource-recovery services.

The company has a market capitalization of about $95 billion and controls nearly 33% of the market. That scale helps it produce strong cash flow and dependable profits. In the first nine months of 2026, it generated more than $3 billion in free cash flow, a key measure of financial strength that reflects the cash left after operating expenses and capital spending. Of that amount, Waste Management returned 90% to shareholders through $1.58 billion in stock buybacks and $1.14 billion in dividends.

That performance helped produce record quarterly profit of $820 million in the third quarter, along with year-over-year earnings per share growth of nearly 38%.

Beyond growth, the company has increased its dividend for 23 straight years, putting it close to joining the Dividend Aristocrats, the group of stocks that have raised payouts for 25 consecutive years. Waste Management currently yields 1.59%, or nearly 95 cents per share each quarter, and its five-year annualized dividend growth rate is 8.65%.

Republic Services: second in size, but strong in returns

Republic Services may trail Waste Management, but it still carries a market cap of nearly $75 billion and more than 26% market share.

Built from the consolidation of many MSW collection companies in the early 1990s, Republic Services was incorporated in 1996. It now operates in 40 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, serving residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers with waste collection, recycling and disposal services.

On growth, the company has been consistently strong. The last time Republic Services missed Wall Street earnings expectations was the second quarter of 2018. It also reported record revenue of $4.56 billion in the third quarter of 2026 and record profit of $592 million. Over the past three quarters, year-over-year free cash flow growth has averaged more than 61%.

Republic Services is close behind Waste Management in dividend consistency, with 22 consecutive years of dividend increases. It currently yields 1.09%, or 67 cents per share per quarter, and its five-year annualized dividend growth rate is 7.38%.

Those yields may not look especially high at first glance, but given the companies' share prices, they still translate into meaningful payout amounts. Combined with their growth potential and long records of dividend increases, they can help anchor a retirement portfolio focused on both income and appreciation.

“Waste Management and Republic Services have long histories of increasing their dividends. But their history of maintaining conservative dividend payout ratios matters more as it leaves substantial earnings and cash flow available,” Coraggio says. “It's hard to disrupt a business whose best asset is a permitted landfill. Nobody's building new ones, and that scarcity becomes their [competitive] moat.”