San Francisco has been the test site and a leader in America for many upgrades to the automobile industry, such as Waymo. Now, Recology is currently testing an environmentally friendly alternative to the usual gas-powered engines in the city. They are in partnership with New Way Trucks, the manufacturers of Recology trucks, to create the first hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric collection vehicle, which they are calling the refuse collection vehicle.

In a news release, Salvatore M. Coniglio, Chief Executive Officer of Recology, said,  “Recology’s leadership on recycling and composting helped make San Francisco ‘the greenest big city in the nation’; now we are leading the way on sustainable operations.”

Recology is doing this to further stand by their initiative of being “waste zero,” since they are well-known for being leaders in sustainability. Recology has made a difference in landfill waste but now they are taking a step further. By fully cutting the greenhouse gas emissions of collection vehicles, it would be a major step towards San Francisco’s zero emission goals.

This sort of project has been the first of its kind in the nation as well as the first in all of North America to be used on urban streets.

“I think San Francisco is a good place for innovations and exploration, and a good place to test different engines with our different types of terrain and traffic,” stated Lexie Neil ’25.

For two weeks in San Francisco, they used a route to test the new hydrogen fuel cell tank. It was said by the company that it had gone well and even exceeded their expectations.

“Considering there are more than 140,000 refuse trucks operating across the market today, waste collection presents an ideal application to showcase the viability of hydrogen fuel cell technology across the environmental services industry,” said Eric Evans, Chief Product Officer for New Way, in a news release.

Moving forward, Recology also plans to use a similar technology for ferry boats in San Francisco’s Bay.