A Waste Management trash truck powered by “trash gas,” or liquefied natural gas that is produced from recovered landfill gas, is seen in this undated photo. Photo courtesy of Waste Management.
11:23am | Waste Management is set to celebrate on Tuesday the delivery of its 1,000th heavy-duty fleet vehicle powered by natural gas at its L.A. Metro-area office in North Long Beach.
The largest solid waste hauler in the U.S. and Canada, Waste Management operates the largest “clean” fleet in North America.
According to information provided by Waste Management spokeswoman Jennifer Andrews, the 1,000 trucks over the course of a year “displace 8 million gallons of petroleum and eliminate 45,100 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.”
She added that 80 percent of the Houston-based company’s “green” fleet are in service in Southern California.
Natural-gas burning vehicles, or NGVs, reduce environmentally harmful emissions spewed by gasoline-burning vehicles. They can achieve up to a 93 percent reduction in carbon monoxide emissions, 33 percent reduction in various nitrogen oxides emissions and a 50 percent reduction in reactive hydrocarbons compared to gasoline vehicles. They also reduce the amount of particulate matter 10 emissions by a factor of 10 when used in diesel applications, according to HowStuffWorks.com, a website operated by the parent company of the Discovery Channel.
Additional efforts by Waste Management to reduce its environmental footprint include powering more than one-third of its NGV trucks with ultra-low carbon liquefied natural gas, also known as renewable
natural gas, that is produced from recovered landfill gas. Andrews said this fuel, sometimes dubbed “trash gas,” offers the lowest carbon footprint of any transportation fuel rated under the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard.