OCT. 16 - Waste Management, North America's largest provider of waste and environmental services, announced four environmental initiatives to double renewable energy production, triple recycling volumes, improve fleet fuel efficiency by 15 percent and reduce emissions by 15 percent and preserve and restore wildlife habitat across North America.

The initiatives were unveiled by Waste Management's chief executive officer, David P. Steiner, at the World Business Forum in New York on Oct. 11, 2007. The initiatives have important impacts in King County (Seattle) and the Pacific Northwest where Waste Management provides solid waste and recycling services to more than 400,000 customers.

By early spring of 2008, Waste Management of the Pacific Northwest will be producing 2 megawatts of renewable energy from the Columbia Ridge Landfill in Arlington, Oregon - or enough power for 2,000 households. Columbia Ridge provides disposal services for the municipalities throughout the Northwest, including the cities of Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Together with other landfill gas to energy and waste to energy projects across North America, the company expects to produce enough energy to power

the equivalent of 2 million homes, more than double energy that it currently provides.

Also at Columbia Ridge Landfill, 67 windmills are generating enough renewable power for 30,000 homes as the result of a leasing agreement with Leaning Juniper Wind Power, LLC, a subsidiary of PPM Energy and permitting is underway to add another 40 windmills.

Waste Management's state-of-the-art recycling center in Woodinville now processes 170,000 tons of recyclables, from more than 250,000 households in King and Snohomish County. Ensuring that these commodities are recycled and not disposed of in a landfill is equivalent to a total greenhouse gas reduction of over 519 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent. Waste Management currently manages 8 million tons of recyclables throughout North America and plans to process more than 20 million tons by 2020.

Waste Management facilities serving parts of King and Snohomish Counties now offset a portion of their electricity usage through participation in green power programs offered by Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy.

In the Pacific Northwest, the company also is continuing programs to:

    -  Expand its fleet of trucks fueled by low-emission biodiesel;

    -  Test innovative new hybrid garbage and recycling collection trucks;

    -  Work toward the commercialization of new technologies to convert recovered landfill gas into alternative transportation fuels such as liquefied natural gas and synthetic diesel

    -  Assist businesses in recycling materials such as food waste and construction and demolition waste, as well as special wastes such as fluorescent lamps and E-Waste.

In addition to being North America's largest recycler, the company is a leader in waste based energy technologies. As a result of its efforts to date, Waste Management has achieved the following environmental progress:

    -  Waste Management supplies enough waste based energy to replace over 14        million barrels of oil per year.

    -  In 2006 alone, Waste Management recycled enough paper to save 41 million trees.

    -  Waste Management's landfills provide more than 17,000 acres of protected wildlife habitat - the Wildlife Habitat Council has certified 24 of these sites.