Since last Wednesday the city Rotterdam, in The Netherlands, is testing a electric garbage truck which is powered by the burning of the household garbage it collects. This is a world first according to Van Gansewinkel.

The project is jointly launched with Rotterdam Climate Initiative (RCI) and Roteb. The use of an electric garbage truck is part of the efforts of RCI to achieve sustainable mobility in Rotterdam. RCI is the platform within which government, organizations, businesses and residents in Rotterdam work together to halve CO2 emissions and at the same time try to strengthen the economy in Rotterdam.

The garbage truck uses hydraulic vegetable oil instead of normal hydraulic oil. And has a top speed of 32 km/h with a range of 60 kilometres per charge. According to Van Gansewinkel the garbage truck should annually save 15 tonnes of CO2 emissions compared to a diesel powered garbage truck.

If this test is successful Rotterdam plans to buy more of these vehicles to replace ageing garbage trucks in their fleet.