Hounslow to invest £9 million in new refuse collection fleet

Image: Hounslow refuse collection lorry

New fleet will be powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil

Hounslow Council is buying a new fleet of refuse collection vehicles which, they say, will deliver ‘improved, greener, and cleaner waste and recycling services for the borough’.

Since ULEZ was expanded to include all the outer London boroughs in August 2023, the Council has struggled to upgrade their fleet to make all their vehicles compliant.

They were branded hypocrites for asking the Mayor’s office for an exemption period to replace their diesel fleet, when private citizens were having to replace their vehicles in order not to be caught with ULEZ charges.

Cllr Katherine Dunne, who was then the Deputy Leader of Hounslow Council, as well as being Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport Strategy, wrote to the Mayor’s office in June 2022 to say  around a quarter of the council’s vehicle fleet was non-compliant with ULEZ regulations, and to request that Transport for London “grants Hounslow and other London Boroughs additional time to upgrade fleets beyond the time that the ULEZ expansion is implemented.”

READ ALSO: LB Hounslow branded ‘hypocrites’ for wanting ULEZ exemptions for own vehicles

The situation now is that all the Council’s corporate vehicles and those used by Lampton Services are ULEZ compliant or exempt. The exemption applies to 15 school transport vehicles which they are planning to replace in October this year.

The Council is investing over £9 million in the 50 new refuse collection vehicles over the next three years. The procurement exercise is underway, with the new vehicles expected to be delivered between now and 2028.

The current refuse collection vehicles are diesel, and so will the new ones be, but the new fleet will run on bio-diesel fuel. They will be powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel – a renewable fuel that lowers emissions – saving potentially over 85% of emissions compared to regular diesel.

Cllr Dunne told The Chiswick Calendar:

“The current recycling fleet is fully ULEZ-compliant. However, the vehicles are reaching end-of-life and need replacing. Electric vehicles were considered but we do not have the charging infrastructure to enable use of electric refuse collection vehicles currently.

“The purchase of pre-owned vehicles to be run on HVO is an affordable option for the council that allows us to reduce carbon emissions by 85% whilst buying time to build up the EV infrastructure we will require in the future.”

The Council is investing £100k in an HVO storage tank so they can run the whole recycling fleet on HVO.

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