Toronto will soon be one of the first cities in North America to power its garbage trucks with biogas from the very food scraps and trash it collects.
In March of 2020, the trucks will collect Toronto’s organic waste where it will go to a facility to be processed into renewable natural gas. Trucks can drop off and fill their tanks all in one place and head out for more collection.
RNG is less expensive, more environmentally friendly, and can be used to fuel vehicles as well as provide electricity or heat in homes and commercial spaces.
Studies estimate that 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in Toronto are due to food waste, but with this new closed-loop system, 3.2million cubic meters of RNG per year will save about 9,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
Toronto has three other projects in the works for waste-to-RNG production in the next few years.