Waste and Recycling Fleet Technology

Finding new ways to keep waste and recycling operations safe is a longtime challenge for even veteran operators, but a little creative thinking can transform safety programs, said speakers at the virtual Waste Advantage Safety Summit on March 20.

Speakers highlighted how small changes to employee engagement, paired with medium and large changes to data analytics and company safety culture, can breathe new life into safety programs for operations of any size.

The discussions come as the industry grapples with Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that waste and recycling collection was ranked as the fourth deadliest job in 2023. 

“We can't accept that our safety record, our accidents, collisions and injuries, are just the cost of doing business,” said David Biderman, president of Biderman Consulting. 

Here are some of the takeaways from the virtual event:

Tuned-out workers are sending an important message

Simply scheduling regular safety meetings and training isn’t enough to create safer workplaces, speakers said. Employees will tune out content when it feels perfunctory or irrelevant to their daily operations — and that can lead to cut corners, mistakes and injuries, Biderman said. 

“Sometimes the guys in the room, they've heard this all before and they can't wait to get back out on the route,” he said.

Assess training materials and make updates when the handouts and videos feel stale, speakers said. “We found that you just have to keep things relevant. If you're going to be using safety videos and slides from 10 years ago, it's time for a refresher,” said Paul Zambrotta, director of safety for Boro-Wide Recycling, a New York-based recycler. And don’t be afraid to meet workers where they’re at: “It doesn’t hurt to talk about the Mets and the Yankees every so often," he said as an example.

Simply bringing in an outside presenter can also mix up safety messages in a new way, speakers said.

Boro-Wide is refreshing its safety training as part of its participation in New York City’s new commercial waste zone system, which has certain worker safety training requirements. Boro-Wide created a joint venture with another hauler, Mr. T Carting, as part of the process. The resulting safety training has been more lively and interesting as a result, Zambrotta said. “It's a great experience to get someone else involved, because you learn something new every time you do training, and we can add a fresh perspective to it,” he said. 

Safety training is also a two-way street, he added. “Get the employees involved. Let them tell you, let them show you what they've learned. Maybe they can teach you something.”

Accept that safety is more important than productivity

In an ideal workplace, workers do not fear punishment and feel empowered to point out an unsafe condition and will confidently stop work instead of ignoring the issue, speakers said. 

To create that type of environment, leaders need to actually demonstrate their commitment to that value. That might mean company leaders diligently attend toolbox talks — even the ones that start at 4:30 in the morning — “to send the signal that frontline safety matters,” Biderman said. 

Examples could also include offering workers small incentives for pointing out safety hazards or following safety rules, such as providing gift cards or other rewards, added David Bennett, public works solid waste director for Scottsdale, Arizona. “You always hear about what people did wrong, but we also want buy-in by showing what people do right.” 

Leadership must be willing to look for proactive ways to prevent safety issues for frontline workers, even when it could eat into operations time and budgets in the short term, said Shawn Mandel, vice president of safety and risk management for Waste Connections. Safe workplaces are better for employees and also save money in the long run, both in terms of insurance costs and the cost to bring in and train new workers.

“By living out those operating values, the success of the organization, including the profitability, will flow,” he said.

In Scottsdale, the city was grappling with a “less than stellar” safety record about six years ago, Bennett added. That included incidents such as a critical worker injury, a crash involving a collection vehicle and a major yard fire. A few years later, the city was able to bring down both insurance costs and safety incidents in part by being willing to reach out to “key partners” for help — including state OSHA inspectors, he said. 

Scottsdale’s public works department worked with OSHA to conduct a voluntary compliance inspection, then implemented some operational changes based on the inspector’s feedback. That included adding new safety screens and adjusting workflow to prevent muscle strains and other issues, Bennett said. The department also added dash cams on certain trucks.

If all else fails, leaders must also be willing to let go of employees who repeatedly violate safety rules, Biderman said. That can be tough to do, especially when the employee is a productive worker and their role is challenging to fill, but “we have to drive home that it’s ‘safely or not at all.’” he said.

Data can offer insight into safety priorities

Waste operators increasingly have access to more and better data from sources like route optimization software, pre- and post-trip inspection reports, dash cams and fire prevention equipment. Speakers stressed the importance of proactively assessing that data for safety trends that can help prevent injuries to both frontline workers and the public. 

“You're never going to have a better data set than your own, because you have the ability to analyze it, slice it, dice it and make immediate changes that impact what you're doing inside of your own company to try and be safer,” said Nathan Brainard, division president at Insurance Office of America.

It can be overwhelming to know where to start, but data can help “figure out what your most frequent and severe incidents are and figure out what contributed to them,” Biderman said. 

Create accountability by weaving safety data into company key performance indicators and using the numbers to guide how to prioritize safety improvements for the year, speakers advised. Safety dashboards are one tool to help. 

Remember to pair that data with feedback from frontline workers, who are the eyes and ears of the operations, Zambrotta said. “The drivers and helpers might give you some great information on how you can be more efficient and safer. It's really just a balance between management and frontline workers, because we're all on the same team. We all have the same goal in mind.”

As electric collection trucks become more common, companies such as Coastal Waste and Recycling are beginning to experiment with electrified heavy equipment as well.

Earlier this year, the Florida-based company announced plans to pilot a Volvo EC230 Electric excavator while also purchasing a Class 8 electric collection truck from Volvo Group subsidiary Mack Trucks.

“We are excited to add both pieces of equipment to our fleet,” said CEO Brendon Pantano in a release at the time. As the first private hauler in Florida to invest in electric, he said the firm “looks forward to harnessing the strength of this strategic move to further elevate innovation in our operations.”

Coastal has deployed its EC230 for MRF tasks and green waste operations at one of its waste processing sites north of Miami. The company already operated a large fleet of Volvo EC220 diesel excavators, which are considered virtually identical to the EC230 aside from the power source.

“We all knew eventually we'd have to be looking at different energy sources. It was the perfect opportunity because with their similarity, the learning curve for the transition was simple,” said Martin Mattsson, Volvo Construction Equipment’s director of strategic accounts in the waste industry. Furthermore, he said the arrangement will allow for side-by-side comparison in actual operations.

Coastal also worked closely with Mack to prepare for delivery of the truck.

“We had to look at numerous factors; including the charging apparatus and matching the vehicle to the application they wanted to use it on,” said Tyler Ohlmansiek, director of E-Mobility Sales at Mack Trucks. “We evaluated everything from the route density, to where it would be housed and how it would be run.”

Mack used a route recorder tool to analyze runs for the new collection truck, while assuring a service pipeline through a certified local Nextran Truck Centers dealership. Ohlmansiek said the company’s E-Mobility Ecosystem also provided resources, expertise, analysis and technical support to help ease the transition.

“We worked with Coastal’s in-house electrician to design and site the charging station for the truck at a facility where they regularly housed vehicles. We were able to take advantage of power already on site for some of their other uses,” he said.

Evolving performance

Battery-electric collection trucks are becoming an increasingly visible trend and industry groups are working to help advance research in this area.

The Solid Waste Association of North America has begun developing a survey of field results with alternative fuel and electric powered vehicles. Jeremy O’Brien, SWANA’s director of applied research, said the goal is to provide data that can help guide decision making during the transition to electric.

For example, he said SWANA found that Ocala, Florida, operates its electric trucks at an energy cost of about 66 cents per mile, comparing favorably with an average fuel expense for diesel trucks of $1.30 per mile. O’Brien said he hasn’t seen a central clearinghouse for operational performance data on electric collection vehicles, but said information is available. He suggested that anyone considering the conversion to electric should find an operation close in size to theirs with a similar service environment and ask them how they are doing before gradually making the transition.

Ray Gallant, Volvo Construction Equipment’s vice president for sustainability and productivity services, believes the time is right for going electric across collection vehicles and heavy equipment. While the transition so far has mainly been focused on converting existing equipment designs to the new power source, he expects that will evolve.

“The second and third generations are when you start designing around the fact that you are using electric drive and not only replace the power system, but use the characteristics of electric drive to add new capabilities to become more efficient and improve ease of operation,” he said. Gallant predicts that these future generations of heavy equipment will take further advantage of telematics, artificial intelligence, autonomous operation and other emerging technologies. 

Already, there are notable differences for operators in this first generation. 

“An electric motor can operate at 20% of full power or 80%, it doesn't matter. The variable load doesn't bother it at all,” Gallant said. “There is never any need to throttle the engine and rev up to perform a lift.”

Additionally, there are no exhaust fumes or engine noises to contend with, which the company said is a good fit for densely occupied urban areas or indoor environments. Mattsson said operators at Coastal have also been impressed by the cool climate and responsive controls in the cabin. 

“No one argues about the performance any more,” he said.

Energy and maintenance

Electric heavy equipment still remains a newer application than collection vehicles, with some fundamental challenges to resolve in the coming years.

“The first is the duty cycle and battery capacity, and understanding when we have to recharge,” said Gallant.

Coastal factored these charging cycles into its daily work schedule for the EC230. 

“They charge it overnight and start each morning with a full charge,” said Mattsson. “Around midday, they take it off duty and charge it for a couple of hours, doing what's called an opportunity charge, before moving on to the next task.” 

This particular unit is housed and operated from a separate site than Coastal’s Mack LR collection truck, but it uses the same model of charger which allows for interoperability across applications and facilities. 

Cost is also a factor for customers. Volvo encourages them to consider that within the context of potential maintenance savings, because there are a smaller number of moving parts in the electric excavator than a diesel model.

Gallant said that electric heavy equipment could yield a 60% to 80% operational cost savings compared with diesel. And when factoring in energy costs, he estimates there could be a 30% to 35% reduction in overall costs during the life of the unit.

Volvo currently has seven models of battery-electric construction equipment commercialized and plans to continue building its lineup of heavy equipment powered by alternative fuels. Its current offering includes six 48-volt models in various applications, along with the 600-volt EC230.

Gallant said the company's goal is “to have sustainable powered models for pretty well everything we make, where practicable, reasonable and feasible” over the next several years.

“They may not all be battery electric,” he said. “Some may be grid-connected machines, some of them may be hydrogen powered, with some, we may have to go with [hydrotreated vegetable oil] and alternate fuels. There are a variety of technologies coming into play.”

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By Routeware

The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence has impacted industries as diverse as healthcare, supply chain management, energy, and agriculture. Despite the hype cycle, including fears of job losses and hopes for revolutionary advances in productivity, AI has not yet been widely adopted in waste management. While chatbots for customer service are already in use and applications like data analysis and route optimization are on the horizon, waste management is lagging behind other industries in the widespread adoption of AI. As is true for the use of AI in many industries, the greatest potential lies in how we can harness its power to improve the lives of the living, breathing humans who are actually doing the work.

Five-star Service

Right now, tools like chatbots, e-mail automation, and autoreplies are widely available for customer service in a wide range of industries, including waste management. However, there remains vast untapped potential for AI in customer service. The ability to integrate AI into call centers can assist representatives by analyzing conversations while simultaneously pulling up relevant information—such as driveway photos without bins present—and even initiating service orders. This customer-centric approach empowers customer service teams to provide faster, more accurate, and personalized support. With real-time AI assistance, representatives can address customer concerns more efficiently, reducing wait times and eliminating the frustration of repetitive explanations. Additionally, AI’s ability to analyze conversations in real time ensures that customers receive relevant information and tailored solutions, fostering trust and enhancing the overall service experience.

Contamination Reduction

Material recognition is another use case for AI and machine vision in the waste management industry. This technology is already being deployed at material recovery facilities (MRFs) and even in the hoppers of waste collection vehicles. By leveraging proprietary AI models, waste management organizations can alert drivers of risks using tablets, cameras, and specialized sensors to detect contaminants. For example, if a load marked as organic waste contains trash, the system flags it as a contamination risk. Similarly, if recyclable materials are found in a solid waste load, it identifies this as a missed opportunity for recycling and can prompt educational outreach to the resident. These applications not only streamline waste management operations and increase sustainability efforts, but they also improve customer satisfaction while providing frontline employees with valuable, actionable data-driven insights in the flow of their day-to-day work.

Safety First

The potential for AI to improve the lives of workers can be extended even further, helping to keep them safe, well-trained, and even ensure that they are feeling supported in their jobs. Waste management jobs are both physically and mentally demanding, requiring long hours, repetitive tasks, and continuous focus on safety for themselves and the communities they serve. Drivers operating automated side loaders daily navigate tight spaces while managing precise equipment, which can be physically taxing and mentally draining. AI can monitor performance and provide instant feedback or coaching to improve efficiency and safety. AI tools can recognize and reward exceptional performance, boosting morale and fostering a sense of accomplishment, which is critical for employee retention in every industry. Additionally, these AI-powered systems can offer data-driven, proactive suggestions, such as taking breaks or addressing signs of fatigue, promoting driver well-being, and reducing the risk of accidents.

AI can create a safer, more efficient, and more human-centric waste management industry.

Improved Efficiency

By harnessing the data generated during day-to-day operations, waste management companies can monitor and optimize collection routes. Real-time data analysis can adjust for delays, unexpected workload increases, or interruptions. AI can be used for dynamic load-balancing between drivers, ensuring operational efficiency, and increasing customer satisfaction with timely service. These tools can also enable companies to efficiently and effectively manage their most important assets—their human resources. AI can help to support drivers with specific scheduling needs, overtime preferences, and more, acting as support mechanisms for route supervisors—not a replacement—once again providing tangible benefits for hardworking frontline employees.

Compliance Made Easy

In the future, AI could be leveraged to streamline regulatory compliance by analyzing constantly changing regulations. As states, municipalities, and countries continue to introduce new regulations designed to drive sustainable outcomes, waste management organizations are often faced with a patchwork of requirements based on their operating locales. Regulatory compliance for sustainability acts as a critical driver for the waste management industry to adopt more environmentally responsible practices, minimizing their environmental footprint and promoting a circular economy. Proper compliance documentation is critical to achieving regulatory alignment because it provides a clear, verifiable record of adherence to the complex and evolving sustainability requirements imposed by various governing bodies. Accurate documentation ensures that waste management organizations can demonstrate compliance, avoiding penalties and building trust with stakeholders, including customers, governmental bodies, and community members.

In all of these applications, AI provides waste management organizations with powerful tools to better serve their employees, customers, and communities. By keeping the humans using these tools top-of-mind, companies can achieve more sustainable outcomes, while providing a customer-focused approach that bolsters their brands through superior service delivery. In addition, AI’s role in retaining, training, and supporting skilled employees ensures continuous improvement, continuity of service, and creates safer working environments.

Real-time data analysis can adjust for delays, unexpected workload increases or interruptions.

Looking to the Future

While we are only at the beginning of understanding the full capabilities of AI to improve waste management, there remain several barriers to adoption. The industry’s often-fragmented and siloed nature, along with a long history of paper-and-pencil route management, can lead to slower adoption rates for new technologies. The hyper-localized nature of waste collection—where regulations, customer needs, and infrastructure vary widely by region—makes it challenging to implement sweeping technological advancements at the same pace as other industries. Overcoming these obstacles will require fostering collaboration between stakeholders, while demonstrating clear value to encourage widespread adoption of AI-driven solutions that benefit drivers, customers, and the environment.

Fears of AI replacing humans in the workplace should be replaced with understanding of how this technology can enhance the workplace. AI can create a safer, more efficient, and more human-centric waste management industry. It has the potential to address skilled labor shortages, help companies and communities to achieve their sustainability goals, while optimizing waste collection to be more efficient and eco-friendly. Implementing AI with a human-centered focus creates numerous positive outcomes, where employees feel supported, customers receive exceptional service, and communities benefit from more sustainable and efficient waste management practices.

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Jed Dawson is VP of Product Engineering for Routeware. With more than 25 years of experience in the waste and recycling industry, Jed began his career at Paso Robles Waste & Recycle before transitioning to Core Computing as the Director of Innovation. At Core, Jed played a pivotal role in developing eMobile, a groundbreaking solution that led to a shift across the waste industry from fragile, custom hardware to more reliable Android platforms. In this role, Jed expanded the team and guided them through Core’s acquisition by Routeware. Today, Jed leads the Product Engineering team at Routeware, overseeing all product lines and driving innovation within the company. For more information, visit routeware.com.

Updated artificial intelligence capabilities are helping waste collectors automatically identify contamination inside recycling carts long before the material arrives at a MRF. 

Collection vehicles have been outfitted with cameras for years, mainly for safety and fleet management applications. But in a newer trend, haulers are attaching AI-enabled camera systems directly to recycling collection trucks in order to see and measure items in recycling bins that shouldn’t be there. 

Such a system can capture images of the material as it’s dumped into the truck. Then, it analyzes the images for incorrect items, such as stray plastic bags or food waste, and sends photos of the offending items directly to customers to offer personalized feedback on how to recycle correctly. 

In addition to identifying contamination using AI, the system can often identify other issues such as overfilled containers or bins that were not placed out in time to be picked up. 

Municipalities are starting to purchase the technology from a variety of companies as a way to reduce contamination-related costs and serve as an enforcement strategy in communities where contamination can lead to fines, said Craig Wittig, The Recycling Partnership’s vice president of grant implementation. Many truck-mounted AI technologies can also mark pickups as complete using GPS, something drivers used to have to do by hand. 

“This is on the cusp of really taking off, especially with municipalities,” Wittig said. “They have a vested interest because they are the ones that are paying contamination fees. They're the ones that are impacted by increased processing fees or straight out rejections. This technology can give concrete contamination data.”

Truck-mounted technology also allows companies to collect this insight without requiring added labor from drivers, and it can do it “at scale and in a highly automated fashion,” stated Ken Tierney, product manager at AMCS Group, in a news release announcing the company’s partnership with private haulers and municipalities.

WM has its own technology, known as Smart Truck, which the company said is installed on “thousands” of its vehicles, including throughout California and Texas. Trucks equipped with Smart Truck technology reduce contamination by as much as 20% when paired with targeted educational outreach, the company said. 

Brent Bell, WM’s vice president of recycling, told Business Insider in a sponsored post that it’s a powerful tool to help “remove the guesswork and educate our customers, so more materials can be captured and used again.”

Other cities have more recently adopted similar technology. East Lansing, Michigan, partnered with Canadian company Prairie Robotics to install AI-enabled, truck-mounted cameras in the hoppers of city collection vehicles. The city wants more data on contamination issues, but it also uses the technology to measure recycling program participation, Wittig said. TRP and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy provided grants and technical support.

East Lansing “has a MRF contract that has tolerances on contamination, and while they weren't exceeding them, they wanted to be proactive in their approach and be an active participant in the recycling system,” he said.  

Early results show the program has reduced contamination by about 25%, Michigan EGLE said. That success has helped the program expand to Bay City, Michigan, which is in the midst of a six-month pilot project that uses the same tech on its own fleet.

“Public education is critical, because when wrong items are inadvertently placed in the recycling cart, they can injure workers at the recycling facility, lower the quality of good recyclables, and damage sorting equipment,” said James Blake, Bay City’s environmental services manager, in a statement.

Meanwhile, Peninsula Sanitary Service, a hauler that has served Stanford University in California for more than 80 years, recently partnered with AMCS to add that company’s Vision AI technology to collection vehicles. Last year, the university and the hauler negotiated a new 10-year contract that included an agreement to use the camera technology. Stanford sees the tech upgrades as an important step toward achieving its 2030 zero waste goals.

A major strength of truck-mounted AI systems, Wittig said, is their ability to automate a process that is typically time-consuming and potentially dangerous for humans to do. A “feet on the street” contamination audit generally requires humans to physically walk pickup routes, open up bins by hand and take photos of contents. This type of audit can cost a city up to twice as much as installing truck-mounted AI systems, he said. 

However, human auditors have also benefited in recent years from handheld AI-assisted technology, such as contamination-finding, smartphone-based tools like Zabble, Wittig said. Last week, Zabble announced it received a grant from the U.S. EPA to continue developing its contamination monitoring software that helps haulers and jurisdictions in California meet contamination requirements laid out in SB 1383. 

Handheld technologies can still offer users valuable contamination insights, but truck-mounted technologies tend to offer a more instantaneous, automated process, Wittig said. Most of the available truck-mounted contamination technologies have features that can directly mail or email images to its customers to alert them to any issues, often pairing it with educational information about what is and is not recyclable.

In East Lansing, the pilot program is seeing “promising” results as customers continue to get personalized postcards showing contamination and offering tips. “When you recognize your own Albertson’s bag [in the photo], it makes an impression that is close to home,” Wittig said.

However, a major limitation of automated AI systems is that the cameras are often mounted inside the truck and measure contents as they’re dumped, Wittig said. “The cart’s already in the air and tipping into the truck, so if you had significant contamination, you can’t really stop that from going into the truck. At least with [feet on the street audits] you can reject the cart,” he said.

Though truck-mounted systems for contamination control aren’t as common as other truck-mounted camera systems meant to optimize routes or monitor safety, Wittig thinks more companies will adopt contamination-related AI for their fleets in the future. States and communities with strict contamination guidelines are looking for faster, more reliable ways to gather data to meet reporting requirements, he said. 

Extended producer responsibility legislation will likely drive more AI business, he said, since EPR bills require data reporting on packaging and other materials producers must manage at end of life. 

“AI is already light years ahead of where it was a few years ago, and we’ll continue seeing new applications,” Wittig said.

Choosing alternative fueling options for heavy-duty vehicles has become quite complex, due in part to a patchwork of overlapping regulations. WasteExpo 2024 showed that the industry can expect to see an increasing number of choices, as well as a split among certain major companies in terms of their investment plans.

While compressed natural gas remains the industry’s most popular alternative to diesel, battery electric vehicles also featured prominently at the event. The show also saw the debut of a hydrogen fuel cell truck. These newer options are still considered to be in their earlier stages.

Discussions throughout the conference’s investor summit and other sessions centered around common themes such as range, cost and availability of charging or fueling infrastructure. Such discussions aren’t new at WasteExpo, and the 2023 event featured plenty of opinions about zero-emission vehicle production and usage requirements under California rules. These requirements will ultimately require waste companies to use zero-emission vehicles by 2042, with multiple other states also moving toward requirements on varied timelines.

The event happened in the wake of the U.S. EPA finalizing its own rules requiring manufacturers of heavy-duty fleets to reduce emissions in new models starting in 2027 and continually improve on those reductions by 2032. The enforcement timing of these rules may be affected by multiple lawsuits, but original equipment manufacturers and waste companies said they’re moving ahead anyway.

Volvo’s Mack Trucks, for example, has a target to sell 35% zero-emission vehicles by 2030. Jonathan Randall, president of Mack Trucks North America, said his company’s new and upcoming diesel engines are “incredibly clean,” but the future appears to be in EVs. More than 50 authorized Mack dealers have already been certified to work on electric vehicles, with more coming, and Peterbilt is seeing a similar trend driven by regulatory requirements.

“It’s not just a California thing. There's five more states in 2025, there's more states in 2026 and then in 2027 electric vehicles are gonna be a reality for all 50 states,”said Jason Skoog, general manager at Peterbilt and vice president of PACCAR. “So every one of our dealers sees it ... and they're not gonna miss out."

Figuring out the right application in each market may be complicated, leading many speakers to say it won’t be a one-size-fits all approach. Recology, which has reported notable strides in reducing its own fleet emissions, advised others to keep an open mind and be patient as technology evolves.

"The real goal is to be able to line up any of the alternate fuel types that may be available ... and have that perform just like any other diesel truck,” said Jim Mendoza, the company’s director of equipment procurement and maintenance. "We'd love to see that same performance out of a diesel vehicle as you would with electric or CNG or hydrogen, but there's going to be a little give and take here.”

Scaling battery electric vehicles

Battery electric vehicles are gaining broad popularity, as shown in the 2024 State of Sustainable Fleets report shared at the ACT Expo. It noted that orders for electric buses, trucks and vans doubled between 2022 and 2023. But usage for heavy-duty refuse applications is still in the earlier stages. 

James Johnson, president of Autocar, said it has taken a long time to perfect CNG and he doesn’t think EVs are there yet for waste applications. His company built a hydraulic hybrid nearly 20 years ago, but it was expensive and had limited capabilities, and he feels current versions are still more for show.

"We have the tendency to call them parade trucks ... because that's really what they've been doing, parading around,” he said, citing questions about infrastructure and maintenance.

Mack had a different view, noting multiple customers were currently running EVs around the country.

"We're beyond the, ‘I'm buying this for a PR play,’” said Randall. “Fleets are now recognizing that this is coming and they need to figure out how it's going to work for their operation.”

Aside from cost, one of the biggest themes that came up throughout the event was how range compares between EVs and diesel or CNG vehicles.

“Range anxiety is one of the biggest challenges ... and I use that word ‘anxiety’ because it truly is that way,” said Kelleigh Ash, chief technology officer for Battle Motors. “Obviously it depends on the use case, but in most instances one of our smaller battery pack sizes will absolutely meet that range and so one of the challenges is proving that.”

Battle, which has grown since acquiring Crane Carrier in 2021, offers multiple battery pack sizes and has a patented enclosure system which Ash said can help handle unique weight distribution challenges. The company also manufactures CNG and diesel vehicles, but sees big growth opportunities in EVs.

Ash said some customers adjust their operating schedules to account for charging time, in some cases moving to staggered shifts of eight to 10 hours to allow for an estimated four-hour charging window. This landscape will continue to evolve as battery technology changes “rapidly,” she said, with incrementally more powerful versions expected to hit the market in the next few years.

Randall said that for many customers the goal is to be able to run a full route in 10 hours on one charge, which for some could entail 125 miles and 1,200 pickups, but for the most part “we’re not there yet.” He said there are cases where there this is happening, but it all depends on the use case. For example, urban markets with denser and shorter routes will likely be a better fit to start.

“When you look at battery electric, you can't just look at it in terms of buying a truck or buying an asset. You've got to look at it in terms of the entire ecosystem and everything that goes with it,” he said. “You got to understand the routes and which routes make the most sense.”

WM CEO Jim Fish cited range and weight as key barriers to his company making any significant investment in EVs beyond small-scale pilots, also citing the 125-mile threshold.

“I'm not opposed to electric in any way, shape, or form, but we don't have the infrastructure at this point and we don't have a viable vehicle for us,” he said.

Republic Services, on the other hand, is betting big on EVs. The company currently has 15 vehicles on the road and expects to reach 50 by the end of 2024.

"The trucks that we have running right now we're really confident that we're going to be buying at scale,” said CEO Jon Vander Ark. He said the company made “mistakes” along the way as part of being an early mover in the space, but now understands “it’s not a truck, it’s a system” and is prepared to move at scale. Earlier this month, certain area presidents and local leaders attended a demo in Phoenix to learn more about the vehicles.

“This year alone, we're going to invest $100 million between EV trucks and infrastructure,” said CFO Brian DelGhiaccio. “You can imagine the upside when you start thinking about growth, as we realize those benefits in lower energy costs and reduced maintenance costs.”

A dedicated team has been pursuing local, state and federal incentives for multiple years to help offset costs. They’ve also mapped out how factors such as topography, weather and distance will affect charging and performance needs for all of the company’s routes.

“Over 90% of the utilities we've gone to to claim power we've gotten it, and the early bird gets the worm in those cases,” said Vander Ark.

Waste Connections CEO Ron Mittelstaedt said his company was piloting EV vehicles in three markets, with better use cases in areas that require less driving such as New York City. He said the trucks are “not quite ready for prime time yet,” citing similar factors about range and limited charging infrastructure.

“EV will get there, but it's not around the corner,” he said. When asked to predict where the industry would be in 15 years, Mittelstaedt estimated that a “large percentage” of the fleet could be some combination of electric, hybrid or hydrogen.

High hopes for hydrogen

Recology said it’s heartened by the improvements in EV technology, but also has its sights set on other possibilities.

"The performance of the battery electric has drastically changed from where it was just a few years ago,” said Mendoza, adding that “we're very excited to see what happens with the hydrogen fuel cell." 

During the event, New Way and Hyzon debuted what they say is North America’s first electric refuse truck powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Recology will demo the truck, which Hyzon anticipates could be commercially available in late 2025.

"Our biggest advantage is power density. We have the most power dense fuel cell available,” said Steven Boyer, vice president of commercial at Hyzon.

Boyer said hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles have lower weight than electric, perform well in cold weather, refuel in a similar amount of time as diesel and have a longer operating range, and offer a similar user experience to CNG. He noted that the federal government plans to invest billions in hydrogen fueling hubs around the country, with similar networks also growing in Canada and California. Pilots are also underway to create hydrogen from landfill gas, through companies such as Hyzon’s partner Raven SR, but the infrastructure is still nascent.

“Right now, hydrogen is expensive,” said Boyer, citing prices of around $30 to $34 per kilogram at certain stations in California. He anticipates that could drop to around $15 per kilogram by the end of 2024, making it more comparable to diesel, and said further decreases will help offset the total cost of ownership.

“When we get to ‘26 and ‘27, we expect to see hydrogen prices in the single digits. And when we get to the single digits that's when the TCO becomes equal to what we see right now,” he said.

Boyer also said that fleets currently using CNG would have a similar maintenance experience with hydrogen after making certain updates such as adding hydrogen sensors. He also cited existing tests on the road, including with Performance Food Group in California.

CNG still growing

In the meantime, CNG remains a popular option. The Sustainable Fleets report noted that refuse vehicles led new orders for the category in 2023, accounting for 33% of all Class-8 purchases, and the sector is expected to resist a broader decline in popularity for this option.

“Use of natural gas in refuse and goods movement sectors is likely to persist thanks to their strong fit and performance in services that are otherwise challenging to electrify,” said the report.

WM runs an estimated 61% of its collection fleet on CNG and plans to expand that. Waste Connections said it’s currently around 25% and may see nominal increases. GFL Environmental is now around 18% and plans to reach 50%; but like others, the company doesn’t view rural markets as being cost-effective to convert.

Hexagon Agility, a company that makes CNG tanks for vehicles — including in the refuse market — said this market has grown over many decades and has further runway ahead.

“We still see a long bridge for CNG, natural gas in general,” said Craig Kerkman, market segment manager for refuse. “We don't see it going away any time soon."

Kerkman said the capability to project stable CNG fuel costs is a “big deal” for fleet operators, with the potential to see pricing below retail if waste companies have fueling infrastructure on site. The Sustainable Fleets report said that in 2023 retail prices for CNG were 50% less expensive than diesel.

Local governments are increasingly asking for CNG fleets in their collection contracts, though major cities such as New York and Los Angeles are eyeing zero-emission fleet goals in the future and certain states will eventually require the same. In the meantime, Kerkman said Hexagon remains “bullish” on CNG, but is also working on its own EV and hydrogen applications.

With all of these options in play, fleet equipment manufacturers and operators throughout WasteExpo echoed the importance of taking a multipronged approach.

“There's going to be a variety of zero-emission technologies that are going to be available. A battery electric vehicle happens to be the first one today,” said Skoog.

Disclosure: WasteExpo is run by Informa, the owner of Waste Dive’s publisher, Industry Dive. Informa has no influence over Waste Dive’s coverage.

An electric vehicle charging pilot by one of the world’s largest waste companies could chart a new course for the industry as operators look to electrify their fleets.

Electrification is increasingly seen as the future for waste vehicles, based on corporate pledges and requests from municipal customers, but costs and charging infrastructure are still evolving.

France-based Veolia recently completed what it described as the world's first trial of bidirectional charging for waste collection vehicles, which could have implications for fleets in other areas. According to Phillippe Queruau, electrification services manager for Veolia UK, waste collection fleets are uniquely situated to take advantage of vehicle to grid (V2G) charging technology.

Queruau said studies of the fully electric collection fleet that Veolia operates for London’s Westminster Borough, powered by one of the company’s waste-to-energy facilities, revealed some of the reasons. They run consistent predictable routes within a reasonable range of their home base, and when they return to the depot their batteries generally still hold 50% of their charge. 

During the evenings, after completing their routes, the trucks sit quietly parked as he said most of London “puts the kettle on and the grid enters peak demand.” The UK's power grid offers tiered subsidies so Queruau said the excess energy stored in these idle batteries would have value if it could be drawn upon to provide electricity to offices, offsetting some of the expense of peak power prices. 

After Veolia spent several years completing the conversion of its Westminster collection fleet to electric vehicles, some of the trucks were starting to near the end of their service life. Veolia selected two of these trucks for upgrades, refitting them to the newest Combined Charging System standards and equipping them for bidirectional charging.

The company entered these vehicles in a trial to assess the technology, which involved testing them on the road, charging and discharging the batteries, and sending power back into a building on site. The company reported delivering 110 kW of energy back to the grid.

Veolia worked with Magtech, an electric power train and systems manufacturer, to upgrade the vehicles. Andrew Sloan, engineering director for Magtech, said bidirectional charging has evolved in recent years. It's now used frequently in the UK for private vehicles and fleets of smaller vehicles, and is at the point where it doesn't take a revolution in technology to apply it for new uses.

According to Sloan, the key to scaling this further is about more than just technology. Applying two-way charging broadly for waste collection fleets will require nurturing new relationships and coordination between a constellation of dedicated partners. These potential partners include manufacturers of vehicles and charging systems, control software developers, electric service providers, and waste collection management and staff.

To prepare Veolia’s two vehicles for the test, Magtech upgraded their CCS 2 equipment, as well as the high voltage direct current wiring and batteries. The company also provided onboard software support for the vehicles and for the CCS controller, which enabled the V2G capability.

Turbo Power Systems supplied the off-board charger and developed the software to define the controls to export power from the vehicles. The system requires an off-vehicle charger that is capable of bidirectional operation to take that DC power and convert it to three-phase and put it back into the grid.

“The advantage to off-boarding DC is that it's really easy,” said Sloan, noting that the batteries are already discharging at a high rate when the vehicle is in operation. He described the task of extracting this current from the charging connector as “very simple from a hardware point of view.”

According to Sloan, CCS 2 enables faster charging. When accompanied by the appropriate software, this facilitates charge tracking and discharge cycles that can change due to grid demand and fluctuations in power prices. This capability was demonstrated during the study, with the collection vehicles providing electricity to the building where they were parked during their discharge cycles and successfully recharging during charging cycles. 

EVs expand in the US waste industry

The U.S. waste industry hasn’t seen as much progress on bidirectional charging infrastructure, but manufacturers like Mack Trucks are making moves to scale up the use of electric collection vehicles. Customers such as New York City’s Department of Sanitation and WIN Waste Innovations are among the latest examples of fleet operators looking to replace diesel or natural gas-powered vehicles with electric alternatives.

Scott Barraclough, senior product manager for e-mobility at Mack, said DSNY saw this as “a way to reduce the carbon footprint of the department,” while noting other benefits. “Fueling a truck with electricity rather than diesel or natural gas can provide a cost savings.”

Aside from their zero-emission profile, Barraclough said Mack's LR Electric trucks are functionally identical to its widely deployed LR Diesel and natural gas models. He said they can be “a good match for many routes,” but also require upfront work.

“You can't just take a diesel truck off of a route and put an electric vehicle in its place. We need to work with the customers to examine the route to make sure electric is a good fit for that route. Range is a concern, along with charging infrastructure,” he said. “Building the truck might be the easy part, the charging infrastructure is equally important because a truck with no charger is a down truck.” 

Additional considerations include training drivers on how to use regenerative braking, which can extend a vehicle’s battery range. 

Customers may also need to work with their utility company to prepare. Mack has options to support haulers who want to make the electric shift, including service, parts, financing and facilitating charging infrastructure. Barraclough also recognized that cost can be a factor and noted the availability of grants and “incentive money out there for municipalities,” some of which “can make the move to electric fairly comparable to diesel.”

WIN Waste is another company experimenting with the switch to electric at one of its facilities in Massachusetts. In an ongoing pilot study, launched in November 2023, the company is charging two Mack LRs at a mass burn combustion facility in Saugus before they run their routes in Boston. Similar to what Veolia is doing in London, which the company describes as a “perfect circular loop,” the waste that WIN collects goes into its facility and creates electricity to charge the vehicles.”

Chief Operating Officer Marieke Curley said via email that this pilot offers a unique local opportunity while also fitting into the company’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality. It was supported in part by state and federal grant funding.

“The Saugus facility’s proximity to the City of Boston helps to maximize the performance of the batteries while serving as many customers as possible. This renewable electricity generation allows us to create a circular economic model with our EV program,” she said.

Looking ahead

As electric vehicles continue to become more common in the U.S. waste industry, with states such as California requiring them in the coming years, charging infrastructure and vehicle performance will be important areas to watch.

WIN said it’s still too early in the pilot project to fully evaluate the feasibility, but early results are promising.

“Perhaps the greatest milestone so far has been the excitement among our customers to offer a service that can so clearly advance their sustainability goals with no extra effort on their part,” said Curley.

Andrew Meintz, chief engineer for electric vehicle charging and grid integration at the National Renewable Energy Lab, said one of the challenges facing widespread adoption of V2G technology in the U.S. is getting everybody in the room to agree on standards for connection and communication. 

Sloan believes these standards in communications and controller logic will eventually crystallize around the methods and products of market leaders. Both Magtech, Mack and others say they plan to continue focusing on this area as charging technology develops.

In waste collection, as standards develop and “the technology improves, the number of routes where it's appropriate to use electric vehicles will expand, until electric becomes the norm rather than the exception,” said Barraclough.

For Veolia, the next phase in its V2G trial will commence later this year. The company will test V2G-equipped trucks running actual collection routes and performing their customary duties. Queruau believes these trials will prove the economic model, demonstrate conclusively that bidirectional charging does not reduce the lifetime performance of the battery and help prove that “it can all be done without interfering in the core service of waste collection.”

The fatality rate for refuse and recyclable material collectors increased in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The category was ranked as the fourth deadliest job in the country, with 41.4 fatalities per 100,000 employees. The related solid waste collection category had 35 reported fatalities. The category had 31 in 2022. Solid waste landfills had three reported fatalities, whereas BLS did not record any in 2022. MRFs had nine fatalities; five were recorded in 2022.

Waste and recycling jobs remain a potentially hazardous occupation, despite ongoing efforts to get out of the top 10 deadliest job category by investing in more safety training and technology for vehicles and facilities.

The only occupations that had higher fatality rates in 2023 were logging, fishing and hunting and roofing.

BLS reported 5,283 total fatal work injuries in the U.S. during 2023 across all industries, which was a 3.7% decrease from 2022. The entity also cautioned that it recently changed aspects of its methodology, which may not make the 2023 data directly comparable in all cases.

Nationally, transportation incidents were the most common type of fatality event across all jobs, accounting for 36.8% of the total. This was also the case for the solid waste collection category, in which 24 of the 35 fatalities were attributed to transportation incidents. Another four were attributed to exposure to harmful substances or environments, with no further details reported on the remainder. 

The National Waste & Recycling Association, in an unattributed statement, said it was “saddened” by the news and that “these results do not align with our members’ commitment to safety programs and training.” NWRA noted an ongoing focus on safety training, including for smaller haulers.

Solid Waste Association of North America CEO Amy Lestition Burke said in a statement that the organization was “very disappointed” in the results.

“This data reinforces the need for safety improvements. The individuals who collect waste and recycling are making communities livable and sustainable. We all have a role to play to protect these everyday heroes,” said Burke.

“The increase in solid waste collection worker fatalities is concerning, and occurred from coast to coast and at small haulers, the large publicly traded companies, and local governments,” said David Biderman, a safety consultant and former SWANA CEO, in an emailed statement that also noted this was one of the highest rates in years. “There are a wide variety of contributing factors to these tragic incidents. We know what these factors are, and need to address them.”

The broader waste management and remediation services category had 87 fatalities in 2023; up from 61 in 2022.

That category also includes other jobs beyond solid waste collection, landfills and MRFs. The hazardous waste treatment and disposal category had 10 fatalities, followed by seven in remediation services and 16 in other waste management categories, including septic tanks.

This BLS data follows the publication of injury and illness rates. While injury rates declined for waste workers in 2023, illness rates increased.

Together for Safer Roads, a national fleet trucking safety organization, has partnered with the National Waste & Recycling Association to extend its fleet safety program to the association’s independent waste and recycling haulers. NWRA is searching for haulers with fewer than 100 trucks to join the new cohort.

The FOCUS on Fleet Safety Training Program helps small and midsized fleet operators adopt best practices for improving their safety culture. The program has been in operation since 2022, but the NWRA partnership aims to target waste and recycling operators who often have time, personnel and resource constraints that larger operators might not have.

Previous FOCUS trainings took place live, but TSR is working on an updated version of the program that can be completed in online modules, making the program more accessible and adaptable to independent operators’ schedules, the organization said.

The partnership comes as the waste industry is continually working to improve injury and fatality rates, including from crashes and deaths related to fleet vehicles. Waste collection was listed as the seventh deadliest job in the U.S. in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At the same time, NWRA members have been searching for safety resources that acknowledge the multiple roles workers must play in smaller companies, said Kirk Sander, chief of staff and vice president of safety and standards. “For the most part, if you’re a company with under 50 trucks, you don’t really have a dedicated safety manager,” he said. 

TSR works with businesses, community groups and government agencies to prevent injuries and deaths related to vehicle crashes, including through fleet safety programs, distracted driving programs and the promotion of in-cab dash cameras.

FOCUS is meant to be a flexible program independent haulers can customize to their operations and priorities, said Peter Goldwasser, TSR’s executive director. The program, which stands for “fairness, openness, capability, unity and sustainability,” covers aspects such as building a safety culture and understanding drivers’ perspectives and motivations. It also delves into strategies for collecting data, assessing leading and lagging indicators, selecting the right safety technology and other facets. FOCUS also offers executive coaching and benchmarking resources.

Ultimately, FOCUS aims to “really meet drivers and companies where they are,” Goldwasser said. “What does a safety culture mean for you, your drivers and your business and what does that look like?”

A previous version of the program required participants to log into live webinars, which Goldwasser said were hard for some participants to attend due to scheduling conflicts. “We still want the fleets all working together and learning from each other,” he said. “The idea was, how do we lower the barrier to entry?” 

A new “FOCUS 2.0” version will now allow haulers in the cohort to participate in recorded training modules on their own time, but still sets aside parts of the program where participants can collaborate with peers.

Establishing training that works for small and midsize fleets is important since they make up about 88% of all commercial fleets on the road, Goldwasser said.

Previous cohorts have included a mix of different types of companies from equipment rental groups to office furniture suppliers, as well as waste companies like Filco Carting and composting organizations such as GrowNYC, Goldwasser said. The NWRA-specific cohort will include companies that are all in the waste industry.

NWRA first partnered with TSR in 2020 in an effort to make more of the organization’s safety resources available to association members. Republic Services is on the global advisory group for TSR along with other partners like PepsiCo and UPS.  Republic has endorsed the FOCUS program, which Sander said is an important way to show independent companies that the program understands how important fleet safety is to the waste industry. “We hope that can really help with engagement,” Sander said. 

Allowing fleet operators to connect with each other and share ideas can also go a long way in helping individual companies foster stronger safety environments, Goldwasser said. “Safety has to come from the top and the bottom and it has to be a collaborative process, or it doesn't feel authentic to that business. And that is really critical,” he said.