Fairfax County gets an electric trash truck
Fairfax County is rolling out its first electric trash truck, the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services announced Aug. 18.
The truck will hold up to seven tons of recycling and up to 12 tons of trash.
The public is invited to the official unveiling of the EV truck on Aug. 25, at 11 a.m. at the Newington Collections Facility, 6901 Allen Park Road in Lorton. Board of Supervisors Chair Jeffrey McKay and other county officials will speak at the event.
Another electric trash truck is expected to hit the road in September. Each truck costs approximately $350,000. Funding comes from the county’s Solid Waste Management Program and a grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
Two charging stations have been installed at the Newington Collections, where the trucks are based. When the trucks’ batteries have less than 20 percent power, it will take five hours to recharge.
The EV trucks are a key element in the county’s energy strategy, which calls for government operations to be carbon-neutral by 2040. Electric vehicles produce zero emissions, resulting in cleaner air. They are also quieter and require less overall maintenance than petroleum-powered vehicles.
Fairfax County already has 50 electric vehicles in operation.
Wow – odd thing to spend money on. Can we just focus on actually collecting trash and recycling correctly and on time? Or arresting litterbugs on Americana drive?
Wait this story is about MORE WASTED TAXPAYERS MONEY! I’m shocked (again & again)!
EVs cost is not worth it. At this time and at this level of technology, EVs are commercialized environmentalism to falsely ease people’s guilt. The environment pollution from the minerals and materials for EVs is as bad or worse than gasoline and assuredly diesel for heavy trucks.
Fairfax county government can’t provide universal affordable trash service to the community. Fairfax county government can not even provide equal and high quality waste removal service to those it does serve (see story about leaf vacuuming). Furthermore, Fairfax county government does not actively oversee the poor quality of private contractors providing trash removal (lost count on the # of stories about private trash haulers). Plus Fairfax county board of supervisors doesn’t help keep the companies in business under the heavy regulatory apparatus – creating thin profit, high cost & capital for the business.
Agree that this is a waste of money and I’d rather they focus on just collecting trash on time and reliably, but you’ve clearly drank the kool aid on EVs/environment. https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths
Great! My tax dollars went to support Chinese rare earth mineral miners and child slave labor used to mine cobalt in open pit mines in Africa. How about using clean, American made Compressed Natural Gas trucks? Battery electric vehicles are not the wave of the future as long ad the mining for the battery minerals uses strip mining and child slave labor.
A lot of ‘facts’ here are at best a charitable take on EV’s and their benefits and costs. Try it out Fairfax, and let’s see where we are in 20 years. If we don’t embrace nuclear energy or come up with something similar, and we still have batteries causing ruin to environments rich in cobalt, and the government hasn’t taken control of our lives by limiting our choice to drive wherever we please, the world will not be a better place, and the climate will not have ‘changed’ one whit.
So much folly and fantasy from the misinformed fossil fuel fools (with one exception – thank you, Adam). Think I will sit this on out since most of these guys will not be around to see the ultimate impact of ignorant thoughts, beliefs, and behavior.
Pretty sure that was a comment celebrating the genocide of people who drive normal cars. Get a hold of yourself.