Nebraska Waste Hauler Papillion Launches CNG Fleet

Nebraska waste and recycling hauler Papillion Sanitation is switching some of its fleet to compressed natural gas (CNG), adding one truck with plans to bring on three more in the next six months.

The Omaha, Neb.-based Papillion said it will be adding the subsequent trucks with help from Omaha’s Metropolitan Utilities District through its CNG fleet fund, according to a news release.

“CNG is the future, and we wanted to be the first to bring it to Omaha,” said Jay Hannen, Papillion maintenance manager.

Papillion serves residential and commercial customers in the Omaha and surrounding areas. The company’s website identifies its coverage area as Omaha, Papillion, LaVista, Elkhorn, Gretna, Springfield, Louisville, Sarpy County and Cass County.

Its environmental efforts also a pay-as-you-throw pilot program with the city of Bellevue.

The move continues the waste and recycling industry’s aggressive embrace of CNG. Earlier this month the solid waste district in Louisiana’s St. Landry Parish opened an expanded CNG fueling facility at its landfill to fuel Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. trucks that collect residential trash in the area. The district expanded the BioCNG facility in St. Landry Parish because of a fuel purchase agreement between the St. Landry Solid Waste Commission and the Vaughan, Ontario-based Progressive. Progressive purchased 10 new CNG waste trucks in 2015 to provide residential collection service in the parish, and it decided to use the biogas generated at the landfill rather than building its own fueling station.

The project continues Progressive Waste’s aggressive embrace of CNG. In April the company launched a new CNG fleet in St. Louis, adding 25 CNG vehicles. It also has its own fueling station there. By the end of the year Progressive expects to operate 40 CNG trucks, which would comprise about 50 percent of its fleet.

Other hauler CNG moves include Waste Management Inc. in June launching a new fleet of 28 CNG trucks to serve the Ontario cities of Waterloo, Guelph and surrounding areas, at an investment of more than $13 million.

In April waste and recycling hauler Emterra Group and its partners announced plans to spend nearly $50 million for a new CNG station in Mississauga, Ontario, and a new CNG fleet to serve the greater Peel region, all near Toronto. Also that month, WCA Waste Corp. expanded its investment in CNG vehicle operations.