BOCA RATON — On June 3, Waste Management (WM) announced that it has begun construction on two new landfill gas-to-renewable natural gas (RNG) facilities at WM’s Medley Landfill and WM’s Okeechobee Landfill in Florida.

The RNG facilities will process landfill gas captured from the landfills as organic material decomposes. The captured landfill gas is then processed into RNG, which is then placed directly into the natural gas pipeline.

The WM Okeechobee RNG facility is expected to recover and distribute up to approximately 1.5 million MMBtu per year of RNG, which can serve the equivalent of up to 37,000 average U.S. households or has the ability to fuel the equivalent of up to 1,300 heavy duty natural gas vehicles per day.

The WM Medley RNG facility is expected to recover and distribute up to approximately 2 million MMBtu per year of RNG, which can serve the equivalent of up to 50,000 average U.S. households or has the ability to fuel the equivalent of up to 1,700 heavy duty natural gas vehicles per day.

“WM is proud to invest in Miami-Dade and Okeechobee counties with these new state-of-the-art renewable natural gas facilities,” said David Myhan, WM Florida area vice president. “WM is focused on developing sustainability-related projects within the communities we serve, and our investments in RNG enterprise wide are leading the way in that effort.”

Today, WM owns or hosts 22 RNG facilities at its landfills that convert landfill gas into pipeline-quality RNG. This RNG is pushed directly into natural gas pipelines, providing a lower-emission energy source for communities across North America.

The facilities are part of WM’s broader planned investments of over $1 billion in renewable energy from 2022 through 2026. Approximately 20 RNG facilities are expected to be included in WM’s 2022-2026 investment plan, which could power up to 1.7 million homes and support WM maximizing the allocation of RNG to its natural gas collection fleet.