The company behind Waterloo Region’s waste and organics collection has opened a new facility that could help make the process more environmentally friendly. Emterra Environmental held a grand opening for their new $57.5 million facility on Shirley Avenue in Kitchener on Monday. Emterra said it’s one of their largest compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations in Ontario and it has helped create 75 local jobs. “It definitely makes it more central. And this is our home - Long-term home if you will. We’re able to base our entire CNG fleet here,” Paulina Leung, Emterra’s chief sustainability officer said. “We have a regional CNG certified maintenance shop. We have our full administrative team, supervisors, dispatchers, mechanics, everybody operating out of here in one location.” Emterra originally operated out of a location in Elmira when it was first serving just the townships. But now that it has expanded into the cities, they wanted to find a more central spot in the Region of Waterloo. The new facility allows Emterra to access natural gas and fuel their fleet of 60 CNG vehicles. “We purchase gas directly from Kitchener Utilities. The station that we built here on site modifies the pressure so it’s suitable for filling into our CNG trucks,” Leung said. According to Emterra, its previous fleet ran on diesel, but the lower-carbon fleet can help avoid approximately 1,660 tonnes of [Carbon Dioxide Equivalent] a year. The company said it’s the equivalent of taking about 360 passenger vehicles off the road. They say the switch has other benefits as well. “So, now with the compressed natural gas fleet, we’re able to reduce our noise,” Leung said. “You and I can have this conversation standing next to the truck, and we’d still be able to hear each other. And it also reduces carbon emissions, our CO2 emissions, by about 20 per cent. Given that these trucks operate 99 per cent of the time in residential areas, next to homes, next to schools, these are the small kind of things that make a big difference on a day-to-day basis,” Leung said. When Emterra bid to be the region’s operator for cart-based collection, the CNG aspect was a major selling point. “As part of our request for proposal to align with our strategic plan at the Region of Waterloo, we requested that contractors propose alternative fuel methods to use to fuel their fleet,” Olivia Kwok, Region of Waterloo’s director of waste management said. “As part of that, Emterra used compressed natural gas to fuel the garbage trucks. And then they also included using electric vehicles for other operations, such as supervisor trucks or the cart maintenance trucks.” “This is tried and true technology. It works in the winter here and it works in the summer. It just works,” Leung said. Another benefit to using CNG, according to Leung, is that it causes the trucks to rattle less than ones using diesel. “So, it is a much more comfortable work environment for [employees], especially if they’re in the trucks for 8 to 10 hours a day. They can finish their shift and they’re not as tired from all that ambient pressure on the body,” Leung said. Leung said Emterra does have a fully electric fleet on Vancouver Island, but CNG was the right mix between value and benefit for Waterloo Region. While it’s always looking at new opportunities, this new home and new approach is how they want to serve the region right now.
