Managing a waste management fleet requires careful balance. When you consider adding a new piece of equipment or replacing an old one, be sure that you are making the right decision for your bottom line, not just the environment.
By Dana Hopkins
Fleet emissions contribute to greenhouse gas emissions in the waste management sector. While there is no catch-all solution, legislative initiatives and low- or no-carbon equipment solutions have helped steer the sector toward more sustainable alternatives.
Municipalities and waste management companies, for instance, have made headlines for adding electric refuse vehicles to their fleets. The implementation is a significant step forward not just for the waste management sector, but also the transportation and industry sectors. Both sectors are identified by the U.S. EPA as leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
However, less consideration has been given to the heavy diesel equipment used at processing centers to sort, transport, and manage the waste, and load it into the various conveyors or hoppers. The industrial emissions issue is the same with the loaders and excavators used for digging, moving, and compacting waste in landfill cells.
The diesel equipment used today for these material handling tasks releases literal tons of unnecessary and harmful emissions in waste management. Implementing more electric heavy equipment can help reduce these figures.
Zero Direct Emissions, Same High Performance
Electric heavy equipment is designed to run in many of the same applications as comparably sized diesel excavators and loaders, including waste and scrap handling in the recycling and waste segments. They have the same power, digging forces, and lifting capacities as their diesel equivalents and support the same attachments and services.
The main difference is that electric heavy equipment is powered exclusively by batteries, which makes them best suited for static sites like public works yards, incinerators and other waste management and recycling facilities where the machines rarely get far from their refueling source.
The lack of an engine results in zero operating emissions and significantly less noise and vibration. These benefits are advantageous in interior work applications such as sorting areas, processing halls, and material recovery facilities. In these environments, where there are multiple pieces of equipment running, avoiding the need for extensive ventilation or exhaust filtration systems translates to cost savings.
Manufacturers of electric construction equipment understand municipalities and waste management companies play critical roles in promoting sustainability in their sectors and communities. To support this, they are engaging in collaborations to develop solutions that are well in line with the environmental needs of these organizations—and their budgets.
Electric Equipment ROI: What Are the Financial Benefits?
Today, managing a waste management fleet requires careful balance. When owners consider adding a new piece of equipment or replacing an old one, they must be sure they are making the right decision for their bottom line, not just the environment.
Because electric heavy equipment is at the forefront of industrial electrification, fleet owners and contractors often assume that it must come with a hefty price tag and lower return on investment in the name of satisfying green initiatives. However, that is not the case anymore.
Today, beyond the environmental and health benefits, electric heavy equipment traditionally has a higher ROI than diesel. And owners do not always have to wait years to realize the total profit return. The reasons vary.
Reduced Diesel Costs
Diesel fuel prices are notoriously volatile and fluctuate due to geopolitical tensions, supply-demand imbalances, and varying market forces. Businesses and municipalities that rely solely on diesel-powered equipment in and around waste management facilities often find themselves at the mercy of these price fluctuations. Their operating budgets swing accordingly. And this does not even include the cost of Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) to ensure Tier IV engines run clean.
Electric heavy equipment reduces these financial uncertainties by offering a more stable and predictable energy source. Unlike diesel, electricity prices tend to be less volatile and more consistent, which allows for better budget planning and cost management.
Less Maintenance
The internal combustion engines in diesel equipment are complex, with thousands of individual components. It requires intensive, nonstop maintenance to ensure optimal performance and longevity.
In contrast, electric loaders and excavators are powered by electric motors with significantly fewer moving components. This reduces wear and tear and can decrease recurring maintenance costs significantly less over the equipment’s lifespan compared to diesel counterparts. In certain instances and applications, the savings can be even more significant.
Easy Regulatory Compliance
Governments and regulatory authorities are enacting stricter emission regulations for non-road diesel engines, making it more challenging for construction firms to use diesel-powered equipment. Moreover, many governments, from state to local levels, have imposed low noise ordinances.
Electric loaders and excavators are in complete harmony with these types of environmental regulations. This compliance allows companies to continue adhering to regulatory standards, prevent interruptions, and avoid scrutiny from regulatory agencies. Businesses and municipalities that invest in electric construction equipment also gain a reputation as environmentally responsible leaders that cater to the communities where they work.
battery placed at the back of the machine.
Government Incentives and Tax Benefits
Governments know how much electric heavy equipment can help reduce emissions around public yards, processing centers, and other sites. That is why they offer so many incentives to encourage its adoption.
Incentives include tax credits, grants, subsidies and, in some instances, special financing options, all of which can decrease the upfront and long-term costs of investing in electric heavy equipment. These financial advantages create a win-win proposition, allowing companies to embrace powerful electric technologies while saving tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, across a single fleet.
Reasonable Purchase Prices
Like many innovative technologies, it is widely assumed that electric equipment costs significantly more upfront than comparable diesel models. That indeed is the case with many manufacturers, but not all.
With advanced manufacturing capabilities, solid supply chains, and efficient logistics, manufacturers can deliver their electric heavy equipment without the exorbitant upfront costs. In some instances, the final cost of all-electric loaders and excavators can be comparable or even the same as their diesel alternatives, eliminating the sticker shock often associated with new technologies.
That means, instead of justifying the purchase price of electric heavy equipment by emphasizing reduced diesel and maintenance costs over several years, some manufacturers offer a final cost that gives more immediate savings that owners can reinvest into their business.
Limited Availability Challenges
While many well-known heavy equipment manufacturers are in the process of creating electric-powered construction machinery, most of these products are currently at the prototype phase. The machines that are commercially available, albeit in limited numbers, fall into the compact size category. Such smaller-sized equipment may be suitable for certain waste management tasks, but is not universally applicable. The availability of these machines remains constrained.
Consequently, as the industry anticipates broader production in the coming years, fleet owners in waste management who want to incorporate electronic machines into their equipment roster will need to look for manufacturers who already have electric loaders and excavators in their inventory ready to go.
Improving Your Environmental Footprint
Consider the following: Using just one piece of electric heavy machinery, according to the statistics, can offset 400 tons of carbon dioxide annually on a single shift, according to Power & Motion magazine. This impact is comparable to substituting six to eight transit buses or more than 80 passenger vehicles. That is a significant advantage that waste management providers looking to improve their environmental footprint should not ignore. | WA
Dana Hopkins is the Chief Operating Officer of HEVI Corp. With more than 30 years of leadership experience in the industrial and construction sector, Dana leads HEVI’s service, sales, and operations teams in their mission to build a more profitable, sustainable future by providing the U.S.’s first clean, commercially available, all-electric heavy equipment to the industrial sector. For more information, visit www.gethevi.com.
References
www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-
emissions
www.benzinga.com/markets/penny-stocks/23/10/35391045/greenland-
technologies-nasdaq-gtec-aims-to-quiet-the-noise-pollution-at-construction-sites
www.benzinga.com/markets/penny-stocks/23/09/34577031/hevis-line-of-all-electric-excavators-and-loaders-finally-brings-a-zero-emission-alternative
www.powermotiontech.com/technologies/article/21279609/purpose-built-design-benefits-electric-construction-equipment