|Natural gas-powered refuse truck use flourishes in U.S.
It seems that we are at the intersection of wide acceptance of natural gas powered refuse trucks, the quest for cleaner air and the “shale tsunami” that promises long-term price stability for natural gas (NG). This convergence is playing out across the country in large and small municipal waste departments and among private contractors who are buying natural gas vehicles and investing in fueling stations like never before. What was once prompted by environmentalism is now being driven by large savings on fuel.
The significance of U.S. shale gas development cannot be underestimated. According to the recent 11th annual Energy Industry Outlook Survey conducted by the KPMG Global Energy Institute, nearly two-thirds of energy executives now believe the United States can attain energy independence by 2030, eliminating the U.S. dependency on foreign oil.
Given the potential of shale development, energy executives appear more confident as to relative price stability. Most (73 percent) are bullish that the price of natural gas will remain steady between $3.01 – 4.00 MMBtu (Million Metric British Thermal Units) for the remainder of the year. Similarly, 39 percent of respondents expected Brent crude oil to peak at $116 to $125 per barrel in 2013.
Depending on geographic location and proximity to gas lines, the average price of natural gas today can cost $1.50 to $2.00 less per diesel gallon equivalent (DGE) and projections look like this favorable cost trend will extend well into the future. Moreover, refuse fleet operators can get fixed-price, multi-year contracts from suppliers of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). ...read more
The latest on pay as you throw
Pay as you throw waste programs help municipalities achieve significant increases in landfill diversion and recycling without adding to city costs. PAYT, as it’s also known, can save cities money by reducing landfill tipping fees, increasing recycling income and generating revenue from sale of bags, tags or other fees charged to citizens for disposing of waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in 2006 that nearly 7,100 towns and cities across the United States operated some sort of PAYT system. That included 30 of the largest 100 cities, according to the EPA. The technique is also widely used in Europe and some Asian countries.
PAYT, also called variable rate pricing, is a way of disposing of municipal solid waste that charges residential users based on how much they throw away. The two main traditional methods for handling waste disposal charges are to have all users pay a flat rate, or include trash collection and disposal costs in tax rates. With both these approaches, unlike PAYT, everybody pays the same no matter how much trash they dispose of.
With PAYT, users who throw away more, pay more. Those who throw away less, pay less. The resulting incentive to generate less trash results in significant decreases in solid waste, along with large increases in recycling rates. ...read more