WATERLOO, ON – The company Waste Management celebrated the launch last week of a new fleet of compressed natural gas (CNG) fueled trucks at its facility on Conrad Place in Waterloo.

The move is part of a wider move to reduce carbon emissions from its heavy duty fleet vehicles, according to the company.

“These new vehicles support our overall efforts of reducing carbon emissions from our heavy duty fleet vehicles,” said Graham Wathen, district manager, Waterloo, for Waste Management. “It means that 28 vehicles that service the region of Waterloo, Guelph and surrounding areas are CNG fueled, in line with our long-term sustainability strategy.”

Waste Management said it has been using natural gas in its fleet since the early 1990s.

Its North American fleet includes more than 32,000 collection and support vehicles, 18,500 of which are dedicated to collection activities with nearly 4,100  running on natural gas.

In Ontario, it has 79 CNG-powered vehicles and is expecting to grow that to 111 later this year.

Waste Management operates 73 CNG fueling stations in North America, two of which are in Ontario.

As part of its commitment to natural gas vehicles, over 90 percent of its new truck purchases each year will be natural gas vehicles, according to Waste Management.