In a recent interview, a Mack Trucks exec gave Charged several reasons that garbage trucks represent an ideal use case for EVs, and here’s one more: refuse trucks can be powered by electricity generated by the waste they collect.

That’s just what’s going on at the Landmann Way depot in London, where an adjacent waste facility provides electricity to power a fleet of 45 electric refuse trucks. The Westminster City Council invested some £20 million in the facility, which opened in July. Veolia, which operates the refuse trucks, worked to design the new depot and its charging infrastructure, which can charge 54 vehicles simultaneously.

The South East London Combined Heat and Power facility will provide the site with 3.3 GWh of electricity per year to charge the e-fleet. (The facility’s total annual capacity is 265 GWh.) Smart charging will allow the e-trucks to be charged at non-peak times.

The trucks, built by Dennis Eagle, are the mainstay of a zero-emission refuse fleet that also includes 90 electric street cleaning vehicles ranging from e-bikes to e-sweepers. Westminster’s refuse collection fleet completes 50 million collections every year. The agency says each EV saves up to 89% of the carbon emissions compared to a diesel truck.

Westminster will gradually convert its entire 80-vehicle fleet to EVs.

“Westminster City Council, in partnership with Veolia, has led the way in transforming our waste collection fleet and using new technology to reduce carbon emissions,” said Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Cabinet Member for City Management and Air Quality. “

“Using the waste we collect to power the electric fleet is an exciting innovation creating a local loop of energy, using local resources to run local services,” said Helder Branco, General Manager, Veolia Westminster.

Source: Veolia