Silent Waste Truck

In December this year East Waste will commission South Australia’s first fully electric-powered waste collection truck.

The new truck will replace a diesel-powered truck and, with zero emissions, remove from our suburban streets the polluting equivalent of 20 vehicles generating 63 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Shane Drury is a Team Leader with East Waste and manages 40 drivers. He is excited about the new truck and says it will change the whole driving experience. “It will be completely silent,” he says. “You won’t hear it coming and it will turn heads in the street.”

The current trucks use half a tank of diesel each day. “If we can get rid of that we’ve got to be doing the environment some good,” Shane says.

Travelling around the eastern suburbs Shane says Burnside residents are generally good about placing out the right bin on the right day. But he says there is always room for improvement in what goes in each bin. “One bin can contaminate a whole load,” he says. “Our cameras pick up what is being tipped into the truck but if I spot something like a gas cylinder I can’t stop it.” It is then the task of the sorters at waste centres to remove contamination.

Shane says if everyone “did the right thing” it would reduce waste to landfill and the costs associated with that.

The electric-powered truck is the first in a fleet replacement program. It is valued around $550,000, which is $150,000 more than a diesel version but the extra investment will return financial savings along with a raft of environmental benefits.

East Waste estimate the new electric truck will save in excess of $220,000 over the seven-year life of a diesel truck. Even with the additional $150,000 purchase price, that is a $70,000 net saving.

With significantly fewer moving parts than a conventional engine, the new truck is likely to last longer than the seven years of conventional trucks. Maintenance costs will also be reduced by at least two-thirds.

East Waste will install a 30kw solar system at its Ottaway depot to provide renewable energy to charge the truck’s batteries every day.

East Waste is a subsidiary of the Cities of Burnside, Campbelltown, Mitcham, Norwood, Payneham & St Peters and Prospect, the Town of Walkerville and the Adelaide Hills Council.