The Vallée de Chevreuse waste authority (SIOM) has renewed its household waste collection contract for a further eight years with Veolia Environmental Services, via its subsidiary OTUS, with effect from January 1, 2010. The service covers 17 districts with a total of 173,650 residents, and the contract represents cumulative revenue of close to 74 million euros for the contract duration.
Under the provisions of the contract, new collection vehicles will be provided from fall 2010. The vehicles will:
- have a chassis with a compressed natural gas (CNG) engine
- include an electric compactor and a modular, multipurpose hopper, with a high hopper equipped with a bin lift for picking up containers and a low hopper for taking bin bags and bulky waste; the vehicles are manufactured by Geesink Norba.
This innovative solution enables the number of collection vehicles to be reduced, lowers consumption of fossil fuel (savings of around 100,000 liters of diesel fuel per year) and polluting emissions, and generates far less noise than a diesel vehicle.
The waste collection service will be carried out by 135 people using:
- 26 new hybrid 26-metric-ton collection vehicles, for residual household waste, source-separated and bulky waste
- a 26-metric-ton truck-mounted crane for collecting glass left at bottle banks
- five low-capacity household waste collection vehicles (3.5, 6.5 and 12 metric tons) for collecting waste from narrow streets and no-through roads.
The contract is also the opportunity for Veolia Environmental Services Ile-de-France to offer SIOM the possibility of being part of a European program in association with Volvo. The program involves two full hybrid collection vehicles designed jointly by Volvo Trucks, Geesink Norba and the Veolia Environmental Services research team (VERI: Veolia Environnement Research and Innovation). For two years, a vehicle will be tested under operational conditions in SIOM's area; the aim is to confirm its performance and validate the best operating configurations.
This full hybrid collection vehicle, which will be the first in France, is built on a chassis with two parallel motors, one electric and one diesel, and an electric compaction unit. The energy recovered during braking is stored in batteries that supply the electric motor. The battery pack for the compactor can be charged either by the electric motor or directly from the grid.
A vehicle has been undergoing trials since December 2009 in London and the environmental benefits are clear:
- reductions in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of up to 30%
- far less noise from waste collection operations.
This association confirms the commitment of Veolia Environmental Services and SIOM to greener waste transportation.