Allied Waste Services in Chula Vista has replaced 20 of its older bio-diesel garbage trucks with trucks that operate on compressed natural gas. All 75 trucks in the fleet will eventually be replaced.

Compressed natural gas costs about $.60 a gallon less than diesel, bio-diesel and regular unleaded gasoline. The savings would add up when each garbage truck burns through 40 gallons of fuel every day.


"Natural gas is cheaper. It's a domestic product so it's not affected by the world issues that we're seeing right now," said Allied Waste Services Division Manager Steve Miesen.

Clashes between governments and their citizens in several Middle East oil-producing countries have sent oil prices soaring around the world. It's one reason why Allied Waste spent $320,000 on each of its new trucks, and the investment will eventually save the company and its customers money.

"If we see big increases in our fuel, we have to pass those increases on because we have to fuel up every day. We have to have our trucks working," said Miesen.

The Allied Waste trucks pick up trash from 95,000 homes and businesses every week.

The compressed natural gas fleet also means less pollution in Chula Vista and the surrounding area. The older bio-diesel trucks were already a cleaner alternative fuel to gasoline or diesel, and natural gas brings emissions down to almost zero.

The federal government has already recognized Chula Vista as one of the greenest cities in the nation, and the new garbage trucks would only add to that title.

"We're going to see air quality improvements above 80 percent," said Chula Vista Environmental Resource Manager Brendan Reed.

The city has a fleet of about 500 vehicles and it is in the process of converting all of them to cleaner alternative fuels. It's also working with its contractors on swapping out their vehicles.

"We're working with our transit vehicles, our street sweepers and our tow trucks to also incorporate alternative fuels," said Reed.

Buck