Greater Toronto is piloting Toronto’s first electric garbage truck.
If personal vehicles, trains and planes can go electric, what about garbage trucks? An area in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada is piloting Toronto’s first electric garbage truck.
The environmental cost of transportation
Transportation accounts for one-fifth of total carbon emissions. Road travel, which includes travel by personal vehicle, bus, and trucks carrying freight, accounts for most of these emissions, followed by aviation and rail travel.
Garbage trucks are a significant source of emissions primarily due to their use of diesel fuel and the heavy-duty nature of their operations. Diesel engines are common in heavy-duty vehicles due to their durability and torque, but they produce significant emissions, especially when idling or operating in stop-and-go traffic. The nature of a garbage truck is that they have to start, stop and idle throughout their routes. These conditions lead to inefficient fuel consumption and higher emissions compared to vehicles with more consistent driving patterns.
Their frequent stops also mean they will tend to have lower fuel efficiency than other vehicles, meaning they consume more fuel per mile travelled. In many areas, garbage truck fleets consist of other vehicles that may not meet current emissions standards or incorporate the latest pollution control technologies. Older trucks are generally less efficient and emit higher levels of pollutants than newer models.
Toronto’s first electric garbage truck
At the end of December 2023, Peel Region in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, began pilot-testing Canada’s first electric garbage truck for the collection of garbage, recycling and organic waste on both dense urban streets and more rural routes. The electric garbage truck is being made by Mack Trucks, one of North America’s largest manufacturers of medium-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks, proprietary engines and transmissions.
Toronto’s first electric garbage truck will keep streets clean, cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce air and noise pollution. Peel Region will also be working with a research network involving the Region of Peel, McMaster University, the University of Toronto and York University to study how much Toronto’s first electric garbage truck reduces greenhouse gas emissions and charging and maintenance requirements. They will have to identify how the trucks will perform for different kinds of waste in different conditions. They also have to make sure the trucks can withstand different terrain and the fluctuations of temperatures Canada experiences in a year.
This isn’t the first time Canada has seen electric garbage trucks. In 2022, Squamish, British Columbia, launched their pilot test of electric garbage trucks. The electric truck in the city represents about one-fifth of the local waste collection fleets and can run for four to six hours a day. The city had only good things to say about their pilot, especially that the trucks are significantly quieter than traditional garbage trucks.
Why electrify garbage trucks?
Toronto’s first electric garbage truck was considered an ideal candidate for electrification because garbage trucks typically follow set routes with predictable stops, making them well-suited for electric propulsion. This predictability allows for efficient planning of charging infrastructure along the routes, minimizing range anxiety. And while their stop-and-go operations are not ideal with being run on diesel fuel, it makes sense with electric-run trucks. Garbage trucks can benefit greatly from this regenerative braking technology, improving overall energy efficiency and reducing brake wear.
While the upfront cost of electric garbage trucks may be higher compared to diesel counterparts, they typically have lower operating costs over their lifetime. Electricity is often cheaper than diesel fuel, and electric vehicles have fewer moving parts, resulting in reduced maintenance and repair expenses.
If Toronto’s first electric garbage truck project is a success, more provinces might take on the challenge of electrifying their fleet, and we might see electric garbage trucks picking up waste all across Canada.
