The city of Austin publicly debuted Central Texas鈥檚 first-ever electric waste collection vehicle at the Austin Recreation Center. Residents were able to ask questions about the vehicles to city representatives and operators, gaining insight on how they work, as well as the expansion plan for the trucks.
When asked how the push for electric waste collection vehicles will affect Austin and its citizens, Richard McHale, the director of Austin Resource Recovery, detailed the city鈥檚 big picture. 鈥淭his is kind of our first step towards being carbon neutral and getting to a lower carbon footprint,鈥� McHale stated. 鈥淭his will be a pilot 鈥� we鈥檒l use the next coming months to determine how well the truck functions and what kind of issues we have. Back in 2011, the city did a zero waste master plan 鈥� We鈥檙e behind on where we need to be.鈥�
Desmond Young, operator trainee for the electric waste collection vehicle, while showing how the truck would be operated on a day-to-day basis, spoke about how much of an improvement it is over the previous machine.
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Author: Christian Rodriguez-Panesso, KXAN