Hydraulic Launch Refuse Trucks in PA!!

This is one of the COOLEST things I've heard about in a long time!

D. and I had his father and grandmother over for dinner the other night (homemade 13-bean and ham soup - yum!), and my father-in-law, who works for the city, told us that Port Angeles is the first city in Washington to incorporate hybrid garbage trucks into the fleet. Our town is now the proud owner of two Peterbilt "Hydraulic Launch Refuse Trucks".

So, you might ask...why am I so jacked up about garbage trucks?

Let me just share a few of the crazy-awesome facts - as shared by the city's equipment services supervisor:

--75% of the energy usually lost as heat and friction to the brakes is recaptured as hydraulic pressure.

--Brake replacement costs will be 2 to 4 times less then a comparable refuse truck without the HLA (Hydraulic Launch Assistance) system.

--The City of Port Angeles's average refuse fleet fuel consumption this year was 2.8 gallons per hour. Over the 10,000 hour design life of our trucks, that means we will use 28,000 gallons of diesel. Using only today's price of $3.10 a gallon we will burn $86,800.00 in fuel over that time. That 28000 gallons of fuel also represents 532,000 pounds of carbon expelled into the air in the form of carbon dioxide.

--With the 30% fuel savings the HLA is expected to get, we will save 8,400 gallons of fuel, $26,040.00 and reduce carbon emissions by 159,600 lbs. over that same 10,000 hour time period.

I want to make sure that I give credit where it is due. The HLA (Hydraulic Lift Assistance) system in these trucks is manufactured by Eaton, who claims that the system "delivers 15-30% better fuel economy in many applications while reducing emissions."

For more information on the HLA system...check out their website:

Eaton