Waste Management Innovator Emterra Partners to Unveil Canada’s Largest Natural Gas Fuel Station

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario - Nov. 4, 2015 - PRLog -- Canada’s largest compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station open to the public officially opened October 26, 2015 to much fanfare. This was made possible by Emterra Group in partnership with GAIN Clean Fuel and C.A.T. Inc. (formerly Canadian American Transportation, Inc.) of Quebec.

The state of the art CNG fuelling station represents Emterra Group’s (http://www.emterra.ca/) fourth such station in Canada. To mark the occasion, Ontario’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Glen Murray and Peel Region Chair Frank Dale along with Emterra Group officials were on hand.

Located at 1611 Britannia Road in Mississauga, the CNG fuelling station is a key part of Emterra’s new capability to provide recycling and waste collection services to a significant portion of the Region of Peel’s residents and local businesses, with cleaner-burning, quieter-running, CNG-fuelled collection trucks.

Together, over 100 new CNG trucks to serve Peel Region, the fast fill CNG fuelling station, along with the purchase and upgrade of a heavy truck maintenance facility certified to CNG requirements represent a $50 million investment in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

“The ‘fast-fill’ station will be open to other fleets and operators of CNG vehicles, expanding opportunities for the transportation sector in and around the GTA to ‘go greener’ using a lower cost fuel in their operations, helping to make Ontario trucking businesses more competitive and sustainable,” said Emterra’s Founder and CEO Emmie Leung.

Ontario’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Glen Murray spoke at the grand opening event, noting; “Using compressed natural gas for vehicle fuel has many advantages, such as being clean, affordable and readily available. I applaud Emterra Group for doing their part to support a low carbon economy in Mississauga, one of Canada’s busiest transportation hubs. This is the type of innovation to help keep Ontario strong and prosperous.”

Lower Emissions, Reduced Noise for Sustainable Communities

CNG powered trucks reduce green house emissions by up to 20%, thereby being a clear green choice when it comes to powering refuse fleets. In addition, they drastically reduce “noise” pollution by emitting about 1/10^th of the noise produced by diesel truck counterparts.  This is especially important within the residential neighbourhoods the refuse trucks routinely service.

"The Region is dedicated to providing valuable service to the Peel community, in an environmentally-sound manner," said Peel Region Chair Frank Dale, who also spoke at the event. “These new CNG trucks are a more eco-friendly method of collecting waste and recyclable materials in our community.”

“Over their years of service these new trucks will help us cut carbon emissions in Peel by an estimated 31,500 tonnes, which is the equivalent of taking over 6,600 typical passenger vehicles off the road for an entire year[1],” said Leung. “That will contribute significantly to cleaner air in Peel and in the province.”

Mississauga City Councillor and Peel Region Councillor Carolyn Parrish represented Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie at the event. She said she sees “the Emterra-GAIN-C.A.T. partnership in this CNG facility encompassing a fuelling station and a CNG-certified maintenance facility as the start of a new chapter in building a promising future for Mississauga.”

Emterra CNG Stations and Fleets Proven to Handle Harsh Canadian Weather

Emterra opened its first CNG fuelling station (http://www.emterra.ca/cng-green-waste-fleets) for its fleet of 60 collection trucks in 2012 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was a testing ground to learn how to operate CNG-powered trucks and a fuelling station in an extreme cold weather climate. The findings led Emterra to open its second CNG fuelling station in Chilliwack, BC in May of this year and the third in Victoria, BC earlier this month.

“We’re blazing the trail in building CNG fuelling stations for our own CNG fleets because we see the economic and environmental benefit of it. But we’re also improving the environmental and economic health of Ontario by opening up this station for use by other CNG fleet owners and operators,” Leung said.

“This makes Emterra one of the leaders in adopting cleaner running CNG technology and it helps everyone running on CNG to be more environmentally responsible, more competitive and more sustainable,” she added.

U.S. Venture Gain Fuel Canada, ULC Business Development Manager Marc-André Paquin was thrilled about the opening of this station. “Partnering with two well-known and respected companies created a great opportunity for us to continue GAIN’s growth in Canada,” he said. “We’re continuing to look for new opportunities and new partnerships to expand the international GAIN Clean Fuel network.”

Located alongside C.A.T.’s new heavy truck maintenance facility, the station provides strategic benefits to C.A.T. and Emterra. “The convenience of having this alongside our new facility combined with the significant cost savings provides great advantages,” said C.A.T. President Dan Goyette. “We’re looking forward to leveraging the advantages of this station, and the other four stations we’ve partnered on with GAIN Clean Fuel, to provide the superior service our customers expect while meeting our goal of reducing emissions.”

Emterra Group is a Canadian leader in recycling resources management and waste diversion. It won the contract to provide approximately 216,000 households in the north and southwestern area of Peel with single stream recycling, food organics, yard waste, bulk waste and garbage collection services beginning in January, 2016. In keeping with its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Region of Peel required the use of CNG-fuelled vehicles.

With the award of this contract, Emterra will provide extensive employment opportunities within the Peel community. Job creation in the areas of waste and recyclables collection services, fleet maintenance, administration and supervisory functions will support local employment and the economy.