Trillium customer, Athens Services is a family-owned waste collection and recycling company that has been a fixture in the greater Los Angeles community for the past 60 years, providing innovative, consistent and quality environmental services to more than 250,000 customers in the 50 communities they serve.
One of the largest privately held environmental services companies in Southern California, Athens maintains a collection fleet of more than 600 vehicles and a portfolio of facilities that includes two state-of-the-art materials recovery facilities. Their current fleet is 90% natural gas vehicles and the majority of municipalities that Athens operates in are serviced exclusively with CNG vehicles fueled with renewable natural gas (RNG).
Unlike fossil natural gas, RNG is made from organic waste sourced from sustainable and renewable feedstocks, including wastewater, food and green waste, dairy and animal waste, and forest management. RNG is produced by capturing and processing methane emissions from decomposing organic material which would otherwise escape into the atmosphere as a powerful climate-altering greenhouse gas. Depending on the source, RNG can even have a carbon negative footprint, meaning the use of RNG takes more carbon out of the environment than it produces.
“The use of ‘carbon-negative’ fuel is an important element for any fleet seeking to reduce its climate footprint,” said Marc Rowe, General Manager of Fuel Sales at Trillium. “One heavy-duty truck fueled with RNG made from dairy biogas offsets the carbon emissions from 2.5 diesel trucks so it can have huge impacts for a fleet that wants to reduce its climate footprint.”
Athens collects, processes, and disposes or diverts over one million tons of mixed solid waste per year utilizing the cleanest commercially available refuse trucks and fuel in the world — near-zero-emission (NZE) natural gas vehicles. They are committed to retiring all diesel vehicles and operating a 100 percent natural gas collection fleet powered entirely by RNG. Earlier this year, Athens made a commitment to fuel its growing fleet of natural gas vehicles exclusively with RNG produced from dairy waste, the lowest carbon fuel currently available.
“Athens Services is committed to supporting California as we move towards a more sustainable future. We were one of the first refuse fleets to deploy near-zero emission natural gas vehicles and we continue to convert our collection fleet and scale our use of RNG. This has allowed us to grow our operations in the cleanest, most efficient way possible without sacrificing performance,” said Marty Mitchell, Fleet Director Athens Services.
Trillium purchases landfill, swine, dairy, and wastewater RNG from suppliers across the country. The RNG supply is generated at various sites across the county, both inside and outside of California. The large number of suppliers and abundant domestic supply ensures Trillium has more than enough RNG available to fill a customer’s needs with sufficient back up supply.
To learn more about Trillium’s portfolio of fueling solutions, visit www.trilliumenergy.com.
