SITA, a merger between Suez and Gas de France, is using Mercedes' truck for garbage disposal applications in Sweden for some six years now.
The Econic, who has fewer emissions than the Enhanced Environmentally friendly Vehicle (EEV) standard, has a 6.88l powerplant which generates 279 hp, paired with a six-speed automatic transmission.
The truck is fueled by biogas obtained from sewage sludge disposal systems and, more recently, from garbage disposal facilities, making it an almost cost-free vehicle to operate, as it uses no petroleum sourced fuels.
In Sweden's capital, the Mercedes-Benz Econic NGT is currently being used, for the first time, exclusively with biogas (methane) produced from the aforementioned sources.
"With increasing environmental awareness, rising diesel prices, and more stringent air quality controls, the versatile specialist has become a “green hit” that is now improving cleanliness and air quality in more and more major European cities," Daimler says in release.
So far, Mercedes has some 950 Econic NGTs on European roads, in Athens, Paris, Prague, Berlin and Valencia. This is a great improvement than back in the 1990s, when the Econic was unveiled at the Entsorga trade fair in Cologne, as low-priced fuel made cities look at the truck as to a niche model, and not a viable option.
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