EL CAJON/SAN DIEGO, Oct. 9, 2006 - Waste Management of San Diego’s fleet of 125 natural gas-powered waste and recycling collection trucks, based in El Cajon, is the second largest fleet of natural gas refuse trucks in the nation, as reported by Resource Recycling Magazine.

As a result of helping to earn the City of El Cajon the distinction of housing this fleet, city coucilmember Jillian Hanson-Cox (on behalf of Mayor Mark Lewis), presented Waste Management of San Diego with a commendation in September for “taking measures to improve our quality of life on the environmental front” and “for all their professionalism and efficiency in providing an essential service to San Diego County and for their unfailing dedication to caring for our ecological system.”

A 2006 study, Greening Garbage Trucks: Trends in Alternative Fuels Use, 2002–2005, published by INFORM (New York), a national, environmental research organization, was reported in a recent issue of Resource Recycling Magazine. The study found 27 of the 31 fleets operating natural gas trucks are located in California, with the largest fleet in Los Angeles and the second-largest fleet in El Cajon.

Waste Management of San Diego currently operates approximately 150 trucks to service the cities of El Cajon, Santee and San Diego, as well as a number of unincorporated county communities in east San Diego County. Of the total fleet, 125 are liquefied natural gas-powered trucks.

Waste Management of San Diego has the heaviest concentration of natural gas trucks within all of Waste Management’s operations in North America – and the company as a whole also has the distinction of operating one of the largest fleets of low emission heavy-duty natural gas trucks in the country. Waste Management has the largest fleet of 100 percent natural gas trucks in the solid waste industry; in California, the company operates more than 400 natural gas trucks.

“We’re honored to receive this commendation from the City of El Cajon and proud that we can provide comprehensive services with clean-burning natural gas trucks,” said Carl Scherbaum, district manager of Waste Management of San Diego. “When our customers and others around San Diego see our trucks with the ‘breathe easy’ signs, they know we’re truly dedicated to keeping our communities clean both with the services we provide and how we go about providing them.”

For more information about Waste Management, visit www.wm.com.

Waste Management, based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Our subsidiaries provide collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery and disposal services. We are also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. Our customers include residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers throughout North America.