Louisville first to adopt fully electric waste management fleet

LOUSIVILLE, Colo. (KDVR) — Republic Services announced Louisville is the first city in the United States to adopt a fully electric fleet of waste management vehicles.

Louisville was first put on the map just over two years ago for enduring Colorado’s most destructive fire.

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“We’re first in the nation in a variety of ways,” said Mayor Chris Leh for the city of Louisville. “The Marshal Fire just a few short years ago. This is a nice rebound, if you will, several years later in one area.”

Richard Coupland, vice president of municipal services for Republic Services, said he is just as excited for the vehicles to get rolled out by the end of the year.

“The trucks themselves are really amazing,” Coupland said. “We set out several years ago to design the first fully integrated electric truck from the ground up.”

The idea of the trucks is to help cities, like Louisville, reduce their greenhouse emissions.

“One of these trucks, compared to a diesel-powered truck, is going to be 85% less emissions,” Coupland said. “And that remaining 15% is just in generating the power somewhere else out in the community. The truck itself has no emissions. There’s no tailpipe, there’s no engine, so that’s a huge benefit.”

The city of Louisville said this supports the city’s overall goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 35% by 2030.

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“This new fleet of EVs is really fantastic,” said Hannah Miller, sustainability manager for Louisville. “It’s going to help us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and directly support our climate action goals that are newly adopted.”

Not only are they going to help cut down on air pollution, but Republic Services said they are also going to help with noise pollution as well.

“Almost everybody knows what a garbage truck sounds like when it runs down your street,” Coupland said. “These things are incredibly quiet, even when they’re compacting their load they’re up to 50% or more quieter than a standard truck.”

This means people sitting outside enjoying quaint downtown Louisville won’t hear them rumbling down Main Street.

“We’re delighted for this development, and we hope it will make Louisville all the more livable a city,” Leh said.

Another factor in the decision to partner with Republic Services was the added benefit of safety with the new electric fleet.

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“These vehicles have all the bells and whistles you can think of with a luxury automobile,” Coupland said.

These features include:

• 360-degree cameras

• Enlarged windshields for improved visibility

• Lane-departure sensors

• Automated braking systems

• Audible devices to alert nearby drivers and pedestrians, compensating for EVs quieter operations

“It will make Louisville all the safer,” Leh said, “because safer is the number one priority, and I’m pretty happy we’re taking this direction that’s cost-effective as well.”

Republic Services and Louisville said they expect the transition to be seamless so customers and residents should not expect to see any changes to their current bins or any interruptions in service.

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