Looking back on Western Disposal's 40 years in business, the Boulder company's president highlighted the company's innovations and its reflections of its environmentally friendly hometown.

"As the community values being environmentally sensitive about how everybody goes about their business, we've done the same thing," said Gary Horton, president of the waste management company.

Among those noted past actions: cart-based systems, curbside recycling, curbside composting and community donations.

Today, natural gas officially joins that list.

As Western Disposal marks its 40th anniversary, the company is also announcing plans to convert its entire 50-truck fleet to natural gas-powered vehicles.

The move is partly attributable to emissions regulations -- the first such rules for large work vehicles -- proposed Monday by the Obama administration, Horton said.

But a lot of the impetus came because it could just make for good business, he said.

"We could've stayed with the diesel technology, which is becoming cleaner, or we could go to natural gas, and natural gas is much cleaner," he said. "There's an investment up-front, but over time, at the end of 10 years, our fuel costs will be at or below (what they are today)."

The biggest chunk of the initial costs comes from the installation of a $1.8 million fueling station. The other costs come from the trucks themselves.

A compressed natural gas garbage truck runs about $335,000 -- $50,000 more than a traditional diesel fuel truck, Horton said. To help supplement the difference, Western Disposal is receiving a federal tax credit of $30,000 per truck and will sell the diesel trucks to rural trash companies, he said.

Horton said the duration of the tax credit has not been finalized.

Western Disposal has one compressed natural gas truck running Boulder County routes now, and the intention is to replace the fleet in phases during the next eight years, he said. Western Disposal expects to have seven natural gas trucks on the road next year.

The conversion should be complete by 2018, the same target date established this week in proposed emissions regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation.

The national program is projected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 250 million metric tons, officials said in a news release.

"Through new fuel-efficiency standards for trucks and buses, we will not only reduce transportation's environmental impact, we'll reduce the cost of transporting freight," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in the news release.