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   Paris-based Veolia has disclosed that it is planning to sell its solid waste business in the United States as part of a restructuring initiative to raise $6.7 billion and reduce the parent company’s debt. Under the plan, Veolia Environmental Services North America (VESNA; Chicago,  IL) will sell Veolia ES Solid Waste Inc. but retain Veolia ES Technical Solutions and Veolia ES Industrial Services, as well as its Canadian solid waste operations. Veolia’s U.S. solid waste operations include 29 landfills, 17 recycling facilities, 43 transfer stations, and 72 collection operations. “Our solid waste business is self-sustaining, profitable, and highly marketable, and its sale will make a significant contribution to the financial well-being of Veolia globally,” said Richard Burke, VESNA’s president and CEO. “As the company seeks a buyer, we will continue with business as usual.”.    Analysts suggest that the Veolia solid waste assets could be very attractive to the marketplace if they are broken up on a geographic basis and sold separately, but that they would present challenges to potential buyers if sold as a single entity. Waste Management, Inc. (Houston, TX) and Republic Waste Services, Inc. (Phoenix, AZ) would court antitrust issues with any proposed purchase, while Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (Toronto, Ontario) probably can’t afford to pay the minimum $1.5 billion that Veolia ES Solid Waste would fetch, according to Hamzah Mazari, a research analyst at Credit Suisse. Waste Connections, Inc. (Folsom, CA) could perhaps afford to buy the Veolia operations, Mazari told Waste & Recycling News, but it has a strategy of avoiding hyper-competitive, urban markets.