Monterey County trash trucks turn garbage into fuel

More than half of Monterey County’s “Waste Management” garbage trucks are running on fuel that comes from garbage.

By 2016, the company wants every truck to run on methane.

The technology behind the process starts at a landfill in the Bay Area.

“The trash that is buried there starts creating a methane gas,” Waste Management District Manager Felipe Melchor said.

A pipeline system harvests that gas and engineers cool it down into a liquid for transport.

Once the liquid methane arrives in Castroville, it’s stored in a 13,000 gallon tank. Then, the liquid is compressed back into natural gas to fuel up the fleet.

“It helps reduce the consumption of fossil fuels to begin with, which are not clean-burning,” Melchor said.

It’s also more cost-efficient.

So the next time you throw something out, just remember, that trash is essentially powering the truck that picks it up.