How actual waste power Waste Management's fleet of CNG trucks
Waste Management is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. It is a leader in landfill gas-to-energy facilities.
Waste Management challenged itself to maximize resource value while minimizing environmental impact. It was able to do this by replacing diesel trucks with natural gas trucks, building a CNG fueling infrastructure, and using technology to streamline and minimize driving routes.
- Each diesel truck replaced with natural gas reduces Waste Management’s diesel usage by an average 8,000 gallons per year
- Waste Management has over 100 CNG fueling stations in the US and Canada and runs plants that convert landfill gas into natural gas fuel
Cost Savings
With one of Waste Management’s key goals being to maximize resource value, the cost savings of compressed natural gas (CNG) was immensely appealing. Waste Management viewed CNG as saving it money in three ways: reducing the costs of after-treatment service and replacement, offsetting vehicle acquisition costs with CNG incentives and grants, and fuel savings.
Waste Management has been a pioneer in natural gas since the early 1990s. Waste Management was one of the early pioneers in trying liquid natural gas (LNG) in its fleet, but tit found that those early generations of LNG technology experienced considerable downtime and maintenance issues. After also struggling with diesel after treatment (DPFs) in California, Waste Management looked to CNG and discovered that it has none of the problems associated with either LNG or DPFs.
Waste Management has also benefited from grants and incentives, and was the first company with a vocational fleet to become a participant in the U.S. EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partnership, which assists companies in improving their fleets’ environmental performance.
Along the way, Waste Management has proven that the cost per mile of CNG is less than diesel, while still providing the same power and performance and a better payload. It’s no wonder Waste Management has switched a third of its fleet to CNG.
Pioneer
in use of natural gas
6,000
natural gas vehicles in operation
“Waste Management’s mission is to maximize resource value, while minimizing environmental impact.”
Environmental Impact
The switch to CNG has also been key to Waste Management achieving its goal of minimizing its environmental impact. Waste Management vehicles powered by CNG emit nearly zero particulate emissions, are quieter than diesel trucks, and cut smog-producing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by up to 50 percent compared with the cleanest diesel trucks.
For every diesel truck replaced with natural gas, Waste Management reduces its use of diesel fuel by an estimated average of 8,000 gallons a year, with an equivalent reduction of 14 metric tons per year of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, or a 15% emissions reduction per truck. Waste Management’s trucks powered by Cummins Westport’s low-NOx natural gas engines are more than 80% cleaner than the current federal emission standards. Waste Management also uses renewable natural gas produced at landfills to power its trucks, which are said to offset GHG emissions by more than 80%.
Efficient and Image Enhancing
Waste Management currently operates the largest Class 8 natural gas vehicle fleet in North America with over 6,000 natural gas vehicles, and one hundred percent of its California fleet runs on renewable natural gas. That’s no small feat, especially since Waste Management’s transition to a natural gas fleet required ample CNG fueling stations. Accordingly, a core element of its fleet transition strategy has been building its own onsite fueling infrastructure, to refuel its own vehicles and to sell CNG to other commercial fleets and individuals. In addition, Waste Management has plants that capture and convert landfill gas into natural gas, powering trucks with the very waste they are collecting.
By providing an abundant and stable fuel source for its own use and others, Waste Management is both reducing dependence on foreign oil and increasing the accessibility of environmentally friendly fuel options. This gesture has not gone unnoticed; Waste Management received Heavy Duty Trucking’s 2017 Top 25 Green Fleets award for the 5th straight year. It was also named to 2017 Carbon Disclosure Project’s Climate A List for the second year in a row. And this is just the tip of the iceberg–an iceberg that’s melting a little more slowly thanks to Waste Management.