As waste generation grows globally, cleaner production and circular economy research increasingly seeks to understand how waste-related environmental outcomes are reflected inside firms’ cost structures. Using archival data for publicly listed Japanese firms from 2005 to 2024, this study examines the association between waste intensity and production costs, administrative costs, total operating costs, and cost stickiness. Waste intensity is positively associated with cost of goods sold (COGS) and negatively associated with selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A). Lower waste intensity is also associated with greater SG&A stickiness, while we find no support for an association with COGS stickiness. This pattern is consistent with persistent administrative commitments, but does not establish that lower waste intensity reflects stronger waste-reduction effort. Because COGS and SG&A have opposing associations with waste intensity and differ in baseline scale, the total operating cost analysis estimates their combined association on a common cost base, whereas the disaggregated analyses identify the underlying channels. The findings indicate a production-side inefficiency channel reflected in COGS and an administration-side commitment channel reflected in SG&A and SG&A stickiness. The study contributes to circular economy and resource-efficiency research by showing that waste-related practices should not be evaluated as producing a uniform financial effect. Managers and policymakers should therefore evaluate circular economy initiatives from a total-cost perspective that considers both production-side efficiency and persistent administrative infrastructure.