Waste Management and New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) have opened a public-access compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station at Waste Management's facility in Toms River, N.J., the companies announced.

The construction of the CNG fueling station in Toms River is part of NJNG’s pilot program, the NGV Advantage. With approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, NJNG invested a total of $10 million to build, own, and maintain the infrastructure for three public CNG fueling stations in its service territory, according to the energy provider. The station at Waste Management’s Toms River facility is the first to become operational.

“Waste Management’s natural gas conversion has allowed us to achieve important environmental goals of reducing our fleet’s emissions by 15 percent and improving efficiency by 15 percent,” Waste Management Senior District Manager Carmen Perez said. “These ambitious goals were announced in 2007 and the natural gas conversion allowed us to reach these milestones well before our 2020 deadline, and we have many more trucks to convert."

Previously, there had been only eight CNG fueling stations open to the public in New Jersey, according to NJNG.