With oxymorons abound, Sweden is the proud owner of Volvo’s newest hybrid electric refuse truck or, as the title suggests, “World’s Cleanest Garbage Truck”. And after all, now that they’re using our garbage to power our cities, why not make the process of picking up the garbage a little more environmentally friendly too?
As we all know, Garbage Trucks travel at mostly slow speeds, and do a lot of braking, and Volvo has used these characteristics to make the vehicle as efficient as possible: regenerative braking technology actually recharges the lithium batteries that help power the truck.
Autoblog Green is also reporting that the truck uses 20% less fuel and saves on enormous amounts of carbon emissions that would be produced by another refuse truck. But Volvo is still looking for new ways to make the trucks even greener: new research into DME fuel will hopefully be capable of powering heavy duty vehicles, such as the refuse truck, in the near future.
While these are likely too expensive for adoption nationwide anywhere quite yet, it’s good to know that the garbage of the future will be having a much smaller impact on our world than it is today.
