Garbage to gas, an alternative to diesel, garbage trucks in California

Why use gasoline to power up a garbage truck, when the stuff it’s carrying can power it up too! And that’s exactly what these trucks use to power up in California, garbage. Around 500 of these trucks operated by Waste Management Inc. run on liquid natural gas obtained from garbage instead of exploiting diesel resources to carry our trash around. So how is this fuel procured? All that rotting refuse from homes in San Francisco and Oakland been thrown away at the Altamont landfill since early 1980 emit methane gas, which, since November, has been sucked into tubes and sent across to a purifying facility, where it is converted into liquid natural gas.

The 240-acre landfill is generous enough to produce energy that can drive around these trucks effortlessly. Waste Management Inc. proudly flaunts the largest landfill-to-LNG conversion plant in the world, which pumps out around 13,000 gallons of LNG everyday. An answer to diesel use, LNG sure seems the cheaper way out.
[CSMonitor]