Are Electric Refuse Trucks In Your Collection Fleet’s Future? SWANA’s Free Report Can Help You Decide

In February 2023, Republic Services announced that it expects that electric vehicles will make up half of its new truck purchases by 2028. Should electric refuse trucks be part of your collection fleet’s future? A 2022 report prepared by the SWANA Applied Research Foundation (ARF) provides timely information and guidance on the use of electricity and other alternative fuels for refuse and recycling collection vehicles. This report, which is now available free of charge to all SWANA members, can help you answer that question.

In 2018, 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) were collected and transported to recycling, recovery, or disposal facilities in the United States by a fleet of about 150,000 refuse trucks, the majority of which were equipped with diesel engines that run on diesel fuel. Refuse trucks have a fuel economy of 2.5 to 3 miles per gallon which is the lowest for all highway vehicles.

Despite the significant advances that have been made on diesel fuel engines and the growing utilization of CNG refuse trucks over the last 20 years, refuse and recycling collection fleet managers face increasing pressure to utilize new alternative fuels such as electricity, hydrogen fuel cells, renewable natural gas, and renewable diesel. Much of this pressure is due to the concern over climate change impacts of the fossil fuel-based fuels that are currently used to power their fleets.

The alternative-fueled refuse and recycling trucks presented in this report and compared to diesel-fueled trucks include:

• Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Refuse Trucks,
• Electric Refuse Trucks, and
• Hydrogen Fuel Cell Refuse Trucks.

The findings resulting from the evaluation of these alternative fuels are summarized in following table.

The analyses presented in this report indicate that the use of electricity as a fuel for refuse and recycling trucks offers many benefits including reduced noise and air pollution in the neighborhoods being served. From an economic standpoint, electricity is by far the lowest cost fuel at $0.66 per mile, which is estimated to be about half of the costs of diesel on a fuel cost per mile basis. Electric refuse trucks also use less energy than the other alternative fueled trucks. Perhaps most importantly, electric refuse trucks emit less than half of the CO2e emissions of other alternative fuels even when the electricity is generated by the current mix of fossil fuel and renewable power generators in the United States. Finally, electric refuse trucks were found to have the lowest total cost per mile of the alternative fuel options analyzed.

The major drawbacks to switching to electricity at the current time are the high upfront capital costs of electric refuse trucks and the relative lack of experience in North America regarding the use of electric refuse trucks in real-world service environments over the lifespan of the truck, typically considered to be about ten years. Simply put, electric refuse trucks are still in the “demonstration” stage of their commercialization journey.

The full report, Evaluation of Electricity and Other Alternative Fuels for Solid Waste and Recycling Collection Vehicles, is now available free of charge to all SWANA members and can be downloaded by clicking the button below.

You can also access our Library of all ARF Reports.