A town in England has found a simple solution for the rubbish thrown out by its residents – using it to power their garbage truck.

The council of Kirklees – a town about five miles south of Huddersfield – is believed to be the first to introduce an electric municipal garbage truck that is powered by the waste it collects.

When the truck returns to the Energy from Waste Centre with its haul, the rubbish that cannot be recycled is burned and converted into energy. This energy then goes into recharging the truck’s batteries with another ten megawatts left over to put back into the national grid. After six to eight hours of recharging the truck is ready for another outing.

The modified Ford Transit runs on a 40kwh lithium-ion battery back has a top speed of 50mph and a range of around 100 miles, which allows it to collect from the 25 bins that have been recently been placed around the town.

The story has sparked a lot of interest online, especially among the people who recognise the similarity between this truck and the DeLorean used by Doc Brown in Back to the Future. Sure, it’s not quite at that capacity yet, but give it a few years and who knows what Kirklees Council will have come up with.

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