Waste Management Inc. launched a new fleet of 28 compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks to serve the Ontario cities of Waterloo, Guelph and surrounding areas, at an investment of more than $13 million.

“These new vehicles support our overall efforts of reducing carbon emissions from our heavy duty fleet vehicles,” said Graham Wathen, Waste Management district manager–Waterloo, in a news release.

In Ontario, Waste Management now operates 79 CNG-powered vehicles. The firm expects to increase that total to 111 later this year. The company also operates two fueling stations in Ontario.

The company now operates nearly 4,100 of its vehicles running on natural gas, with 73 CNG fueling stations.

Waste Management has committed to more purchasing more than 90 percent of its vehicles this year with natural gas.

And the move continues the waste and recycling industry’s steady increasing embrace of CNG. 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. Meanwhile, Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. launched a new fleet of CNG waste and recycling vehicles in St. Louis.

And Waste Management has kept its own pace going on CNG. In June its Grand Central Hauling Co.’s Pen Argyl branch in Plainfield Township, Pa., unveiled its new fleet of 30 CNG collection trucks. In March Waste Management opened a CNG fueling station in Chino, Calif., and plans to convert its entire Chino fleet to CNG this year.