Waste Management opens Lincoln Park hauling site, adds jobs and cleaner fleet

More than 20,000 Duluth-area customers got a new Waste Management base in Lincoln Park, a $12 million site built to add about 50 jobs and keep 30 compressed-natural-gas trucks on the road. For a neighborhood that already carries a heavy share of industrial and service activity, the project means more than a new building: it puts fleet maintenance, hiring and trash service logistics under one roof.

The 21,000-square-foot facility was designed to support WM’s all-alternative-fuel fleet and can fit six trucks at a time. Pete Vandussen, WM’s area fleet director, said the building functions as a maintenance shop where technicians can inspect automated side-load trucks, check for leaks and make sure equipment is being maintained safely for the community and the environment. The site also includes alarms, sensors and automatic doors to operate in a compressed-natural-gas compliant way.

WM is leaning hard on the cleaner-fleet pitch. Vandussen said the company’s CNG trucks produce 95% less nitrogen oxides than a traditional diesel fleet, a claim that matters in a city where truck traffic and neighborhood air quality are not abstract issues. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says compressed natural gas generally creates fewer smog-related tailpipe emissions and can cut tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions by about 20% compared with gasoline, though the full climate benefit depends on how the fuel is produced and delivered. WM says it is also expanding renewable natural gas use from dairy and hog operations, a reminder that the environmental case depends not only on the trucks themselves but also on the fuel supply chain behind them.

The jobs side of the project may be the most immediate local change. WM said the site will create roughly 50 positions for Duluth residents, including drivers, technicians and administrative staff, and current openings already include driver and technician jobs. In a city where dependable industrial and service employment still anchors many households, that makes the Lincoln Park facility a workforce story as much as a sanitation one.

The project also fits into a larger regional reshuffle in waste handling. St. Louis County commissioners approved a 10-year contract with Resource Renew for municipal solid waste disposal at the St. Louis County Regional Landfill in Virginia, with the agreement slated to begin in July 2026 after the Moccasin Mike landfill in Superior reaches capacity. St. Louis County says its Environmental Services department manages garbage and recycling for most of the county outside Duluth and surrounding townships, underscoring how much of the region’s day-to-day service depends on reliable hauling and disposal infrastructure.

WM says it now operates more than 12,000 natural gas trucks systemwide, the largest heavy-duty natural gas truck fleet in North America, and its careers page says the company employs nearly 50,000 people. In Lincoln Park, that scale now shows up in a very local way: a new shop, a cleaner fleet and a larger bet that Duluth’s waste system can run with fewer emissions and fewer service interruptions.