Jumbo reduction of emissions driven by Waste fleet

A jumbo jet sized amount of carbon emissions has not been wasted thanks to a service’s greener fleet.

Currently around 15 percent of the Council’s Waste Fleet is electric powered and used on suitable routes for collection work.

This fleet has undergone changes since 2022 to help reduce its and the Council’s carbon footprint whilst carrying out collection work across the county.

During early 2023, two Dennis Eagle e-Collect refuse collection lorries were introduced on county northern routes. The vehicles are able to put in up to 100miles and 1000 bin lifts per single charge.

These lorries provide long term costs savings through lower running costs compared to fossil fuel vehicles and cheaper maintenance due to less parts to maintain on the lorries.

Within the last eighteen months five refuse recycling Electra e-Cargo lorries became a part of the fleet. The vehicles provide a range of up to 155miles, again offering greener lower cost miles and cheaper maintenance. They can also be spotted out on the road as each are named on the front of the cabs, Christal Clean is one you can spot on the roads.

Currently the use of the vehicles has produced carbon savings of 409,493kg against the diesel equivalents. To put this into perspective this is the same as a loaded 747 Jumbo or Airbus A380, around 67 fully grown male African elephants or roughly four Flying Scotsmans.

Cllr Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “We have looked hard at our overall fleet to see where we can reduce emissions through electric vehicles by introducing them to replace end of life stock and through funding support.

“Waste is an important service, and these EV lorries are integral to helping reduce carbon emissions their fleet produces on a daily basis.

“Our fleet department is constantly monitoring suitable ways for service delivery to reduce our vehicle carbon footprint and the use of these EVs is a prime example of this which will also help reduce long term costs compared to running fossil fuel vehicles.