Waste Management debuts new CNG fleet in Lake Charles, Louisiana

Waste Management, Houston, Texas, has unveiled its newest fleet of compressed natural gas-powered garbage collection trucks, which will service residential and commercial customers in parts of Louisiana and Iowa.

“Waste Management is thrilled to introduce our newest environmentally-friendly CNG fleet to Southwest Louisiana, our third fleet conversion in the state,” Beverly Gilchrist, district manager of Wast Management Lake Charles, stated at the ribbon-cutting last week. “Waste Management vehicles powered by natural gas emit nearly zero particulate emissions, cut greenhouse gas emissions and are quieter than diesel trucks. This clean and green transition brings us another step closer to reaching Waste Management’s overall sustainability goals.”

The diesel-to-natural gas conversion is part of Waste Management’s broader corporate sustainability goal to convert 80% of the company’s fleet to alternative fueled vehicles by 2020.

At the end of Q4 2018, Waste Management’s fleet included more than 7,600 natural gas trucks, the “largest heavy-duty natural gas truck fleet of its kind in North America.” Each diesel truck that is replaced with natural gas “reduces diesel fuel by an average of 8,000 gallons per year" and reduces "14 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.”

According to Waste Management, the new 2018 zero emission natural gas engine is the “cleanest heavy-duty engine” certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The engine is “certified at 16 percent below the current greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standard and is 12 percent below the proposed 2027 standard.”

At the end of Q4 2018, Waste Management operated 123 fueling stations in North America, 25 of which are also open to the public. Waste Management owns and operates, purchases the fuel and finances the construction of the stations.

Waste Management was also recently awarded a solid waste collection contract in Sulphur, Louisiana. The current service provider, Republic Services, Phoenix, Arizona, was contracted in 2017 and has faced complaints about missed collections, according to an American Press article.