2011 Energy Vision Corporate Leadership Awards

 

Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, TX, the largest waste services and recycling company in North America, has been a pioneer in helping reduce this country’s risky dependence on oil-based fuels and in developing ways to get the maximum value from resources that have traditionally been considered waste.

 

Waste Management, which serves over 20 million customers uses 32,000 refuse collection and recycling trucks – the largest such fleet in the United States. WM ranked number 1 in 2003 in using the then-new natural gas fuel technology in 380 natural gas trucks which were deployed in 14 communities. This year, WM hit a milestone: putting its 1,000th natural gas truck into operation! Further, in July, 2011, in Camden, NJ, WM opened its first natural gas refueling station in the region which will not only power 45 new CNG trucks serving the City of Camden but will also provide refueling to other local fleets and to citizens who own natural gas cars. WM’s 1000 natural gas trucks have brought much cleaner air and an improved quality of life (these trucks are 50% quieter) to those who live and work in the communities that the fleets serve.

 

In 2009, Waste Management pioneered the use of landfill gas to produce a clean renewable form of natural gas that promises to be one of the most important and “greenest” vehicle fuels of the 21st century. At WM’s Altamont Landfill in Livermore, CA, WM partnered with Linde, North America, part of a leading global gases and engineering company, in building the largest, most successful liquefied natural gas production facility of its kind. It was designed to produce 13,000 gallons of fuel daily to power nearly 300 Waste Management trucks serving 20 communities. Were not one more ounce of organics deposited in this landfill, it would still continue to generate gases that can fuel vehicles for the next 30 years. The Altamont project, recipient of a 2009 award from the U.S. EPA, also hosts electricity-generating landfill gas-powered turbines and windmills.

 

John Morris, WM’s Vice President for the Mid-Atlantic Area, joins Energy Vision to receive Waste Management’s Corporate Leadership Award.