Ontario’s first 'poo-powered' garbage truck hits the road

It may look like a typical garbage truck, but what’s powering this unit has never been used to power a garbage truck in Ontario before.

“We’re the first in Ontario to launch it. Hopefully the first of many,” says Francis Veilleux, president of the Bluewater Recycling Association, based in Huron Park.

This is Ontario’s first “poo-powered” recycling and garbage truck. It’s not running on diesel, natural gas, or ethanol, it is running on the methane produced from a Middlesex County dairy farm.

“It’s just a natural progression for us to move to this fuel, that’s just renewable natural gas, really. We’re trying to really close that loop locally,” says Veilleux.

Ontario’s first carbon negative waste truck, powered by renewable natural gas from cow manure is seen in Hensall, Ont. on August 22, 2022. (Scott Miller/CTV News London)

Instead of using 20 litres of diesel a day, this refuse collector is burning methane, captured from the manure produced from 100 cows. Capturing and reusing that methane, instead of letting it float into the atmosphere, helps to make Bluewater’s manure-powered garbage truck the first carbon negative waste truck in all of Ontario.

“Instead of buying the gas from a pipeline, now we’re relying on a local farmer [and] dairy farm to generate the gas to fuel our truck, that services his household,” says Veilleux.

Bluewater Recycling has already converted two-thirds of their 43 truck fleet to natural gas from diesel. Following the six month pilot project, Veilleux anticipates this being the first of many they expect to convert to the more expensive, but more environmentally friendly, renewable natural gas.

“When that concludes, we’ll be looking for more material to fuel our entire fleet,” says Veilleux.

Veilleux says Enbridge is already working with other garbage and recycling collectors in Ontario to get them on board and join Bluewater in their poo-power project.