DEKALB, Ill. (WIFR) – WM celebrates Earth Day Tuesday by opening its new renewable natural gas facility in DeKalb.

Leaders say the facility, located at 18370 Somonauk Road, uses special technology to take landfill gas, refine it and convert it to renewable natural gas.

Brian Snyder, director of operations for WM Renewable Energy, explained the $60 million, state-of-the-art facility creates a sustainable, “circle of life” that will help fuel its fleet and homes in the area.

“So, our collections trucks pick up the trash from the people’s homes, bring it to the landfill and within weeks that’s converted to a landfill gas. We bring it into this facility and convert it into a renewable natural gas that can fill our fleet trucks to go back to the same house and pick up that same material,” Snyder said.

The project has been in development for several years and took about eight months to build.

Snyder says the facility expects to begin producing gas within the next couple weeks.

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