Mack Trucks unveiled an electric garbage truck that has a powertrain developed by a Tesla Motors co-founder at WasteExpo, the waste management and recycling conference in Las Vegas.
The truck is one of several new approaches that could potentially make garbage collection cleaner, quieter and more energy-efficient, said Bill Van Amburg, senior vice president of Calstart, a Pasadena non-profit that provides green technology consulting services for the trucking industry.
Hybrid and electric trucks make sense for garbage collection because their braking systems recapture energy as the vehicles make hundreds of stops in neighborhoods.
