GEOL 425Praxis III: Environmental Leadership and Activism

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GEOL 425-Praxis IIIEnvironmental Leadership and
Activism

• Greening garbage trucks for a sustainable future

Emily Glick, Camille Jones, Alexi Ernstoff, Emily
Flynn Bryn Mawr College class of
2008 Advisors Joanna Underwood (BMC 1962
President, Energy Vision) Don Barber (Geology
professor Env. Studies director) Julie Zaebst
(BMC 2003 Praxis coordinator) Emily McGlynn
(BMC 2009 Biology)
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Getting Organized

• What is our mission?
• To educate the public and facilitate the
  conversion of diesel-powered refuse fleets
• to natural gas-power.
• Where will we focus?
• Baltimore? Philadelphia? Montgomery county?
• Lower Merion Township!
• How will we accomplish this?

Greening our garbage trucks is essential for
sustaining our future and for the health of our
children. Natural Gas fuel puts us on the path to
hydrogen, the cleanest fuel IMAGINABLE.
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Convincing Ourselves

• Education
• -Read
• Greening Garbage Trucks
• Fueling the Future
• Shifting Gears etc.
• -Researched
• Other Alternative fuels
• Pollution
• Public health
• Fleet Structure
• Political Structure

• Participation
• -Attended
• Weekly discussions with Joanna Underwood
• New Jersey Alternative Fuel Refuse and Recycling
  Trucks Conference 1/24/08
• Meeting with Mike Andre and Steve DeCarlo 2/25/08
• Natural Gas-powered school buses and maintenance
  facility 2/25/08
• NarbEarth Day 4/19/08
• Environmental Advisory Council Townhall Meeting
  4/22/08
• Penn Wynne Green Day 5/3/08

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Produced Materialsand outreach strategies

• Background research fact sheets
• Natural Gas Fact Sheet

• Contact Lists
• Cover letters for
• outreach contacts

• Future Course guide
• Op-ed article

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Montgomery County Is the countys air dirtier
than you think?

• Environmental Health Challenges

• Steps Taken and Future Paths

• Montgomery County received an F grade on the
  2007 American Lung Associations State of the Air
  Report for Ozone (smog) Pollution and a C grade
  for Particle Pollution (soot).
• Montgomery County ranked in the 90-99th
  percentile worst county in the U.S. for air
  releases of established carcinogens and other
  suspected toxicants affecting cardiovascular,
  kidney, endocrine, and brain health.
• Montgomery County ranked in the 90-99th
  percentile of the dirtiest counties in the U.S.
  for emissions of Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen
  Oxides, Particle Matter, and Volatile Organic
  Compounds.
• Montgomery Countys population has large
  percentages of high-risk groups including 23.4
  children, 14.8 senior citizens, and 26
  cardiovascular disease patients.
• Vehicle emissions, especially those from
  diesel-powered trucks and buses are a major
  source of the Countys air pollution. They
  irritate lungs, trigger asthma attacks and raise
  cancer risks.

• Lower Merion School District has 72 natural gas
  powered school buses. The shift from diesel to
  much cleaner natural gas was an important step
  towards making the Countys air cleaner for
  families and children.
• Montgomery County has natural gas locally and
  several operating natural gas refueling stations,
  including locations at Plymouth Meeting, PA,
  Harriton High School and on the Bryn Mawr College
  campus.
• Bryn Mawr College has one compressed natural gas
  (CNG) powered shuttle bus. Bryn Mawr, and other
  institutions bid on refuse haulers every few
  years. Bryn Mawrs bid will be renewed in 3
  years.
• Purchase of natural gas vehicles for refuse
  fleets and other heavy duty diesel bus and truck
  fleets is a huge remaining opportunity!
• Although some good first steps have been taken
  to clean our air, the State of the Air report
  shows much more is needed to protect the health
  of Montgomery County residents.

Sources scorecard.org, http//lungaction.org/repo
rts/stateoftheair2007.html, cleanercities.org
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Garbage Trucks Want to improve Montgomery County
air quality? Shifting away from diesel garbage
trucks should be a priority.

• Trucks in private waste hauling fleets are used
  for 20 years or more, and their fuel efficiency
  and pollution controls degrade over time.
• Loud diesel truck noise disrupts neighborhoods
  and can damage the hearing of workers.
• One refuse truck gets just 2.8 miles per gallon
  and consumes 8,900 -10,000 gallons of diesel fuel
  a year. (The average passenger car uses just 680
  gallons of gasoline per year.)

• Almost 170,000 refuse and recycling trucks
  operate in the US (three times more than transit
  buses).
• Garbage trucks deliver a vital service but are
  among the most concentrated sources of urban
  pollution, traveling down residential streets and
  pouring out their emissions.
• 99 of refuse trucks are diesel-powered. The
  American Lung Association cites diesel engines as
  accounting for as much as 70 of total hazardous
  air pollution.
• Diesel powered refuse trucks are responsible for
  increased cardiovascular and lung health risks
  for the communities they serve and for their
  drivers.
• South Coast Air Quality Management
• District in Southern California has banned
• diesel garbage trucks in public fleets because
• of their detrimental effects on air quality.

We have the power to clean our air by cleaning up
the dirtiest polluters and switching refuse
trucks to a cleaner fuel.
Greening Garbage Trucks, INFORM, Distributed by
Energy Vision www.greenprogress.com
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Benefits of Natural Gas versus DieselHow green
are natural gas garbage trucks?
Diesel
Natural Gas

• Diesel is a dirty fuel! It is more than
  one-third carbon, contains many toxics, and its
  emissions cause respiratory problems and
  increased cancer risk.
• Diesel greenhouse gas emissions contribute to
  climate change.
• Although diesel trucks can cut emissions by using
  low sulfur fuel and adding pollution controls,
  they are never as clean as natural gas trucks!
  New diesel trucks meet EPAs 2007 standards only
  after being expensively retrofitted.
• Over 60 of petroleum consumed in the U.S. comes
  from foreign sources with a third coming from
  politically volatile areas, putting our energy
  security at risk.
• Oil is the most rapidly dwindling fossil fuel
  with China, India, etc. competing for global
  supplies.
• Diesel fuel prices are soaring now close to 4
  per gallon putting a strain on municipal
  budgets and the economy.
• Using diesel is delaying technological advances
  in developing future alternative fuel sources.

• Natural gas is an intrinsically cleaner fuel
  80 hydrogen and with few impurities.
• Natural gas trucks reduce greenhouse gases up to
  23.
• Todays natural gas trucks are the cleanest and
  quietest on the market meeting EPAs 2007
  standards, but also the more stringent 2010
  standard for smog-forming Nitrogen Oxides.
• Natural gas is domestically plentiful 85 used
  today comes from the U.S. and the majority of the
  rest from Canada.
• Natural gas fuel is cheaper 0.50 to 1.00 less
  than diesel fuel.
• Investing in natural gas trucks paves the way to
  a sustainable future leading to even cleaner
  and renewable fuels Biomethane, a fuel as clean
  as natural gas and entirely renewable, as it is
  produced from gases formed at landfills, sewage
  treatment plants, etc. Hythane, a blend of
  natural gas and hydrogen. And ultimately to
  Hydrogen, which is generated from renewable
  sources.

Sources Cannon, James S. Greening Garbage
Trucks Trends in Alternative Fuel Use. INFORM,
distrib by Energy Vision, American Lung Asss
www.lungusa.org, image from energy.gov
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Other Alternative FuelsInvesting in alternative
fuels can secure our future, but which fuel
options are best?

• Ethanol Using ethanol fuel produced from corn
  (in light duty vehicles) displaces gasoline, but
  is not an environmental winner. It distorts corn
  prices and supplies in important food markets,
  generates more greenhouse gases, and has a third
  less energy content. (Devoting all the corn now
  grown to ethanol production would displace only
  12 of gasoline use.)
• Biodiesel Biodiesel fuel is cleaner and produces
  fewer greenhouse gases than petroleum-based
  diesel. Produced from waste oils, it has
  significant double-value, turning a polluting
  waste into a cleaner fuel for use in local
  settings. It can, however, be corrosive to the
  metal materials in engines and storage tanks.
• Biodiesel fuel produced from agricultural crops
  (i.e. soy) could displace 10 of petroleum-based
  diesel. Using a key food crop in a hungry world
  for fuel is ethically questionable, though. On a
  field to wheels basis, fuels made from crops
  were recently found to increase greenhouse gases.
  

• Biomethane Made by capturing the bio-gases
  produced by the breakdown of organic matter in
  landfills, sewage plants, and other agricultural
  waste sites, this fuel offers double-value. It
  traps a major greenhouse gas stream (methane is
  21 times more potent than CO2), and makes a fuel
  as clean as natural gas but renewable!
• Landfill generated-methane alone could
  completely fuel every refuse truck coming to its
  landfill site. Closed landfills can generate
  this fuel for more than 30 years.
• Biomethane today powers hundreds of buses and
  trucks in Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.
  It can be a vital renewable resource in the
  U.S., and this gas fuel can use the same
  technology and refueling stations that support
  natural gas.

?
A transition to natural gas fuel today expands
infrastructure which can also serve biomethane
gas and ultimately hydrogen gas a cleaner and
sustainable fuel. 
For more information, please contact Joanna
Underwood of Energy Vision via email at
underwood_at_energy-vision.org or by telephone at
[phone]. Please also visit
www.energy-vision.org
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Alternative Fuel and Refuse Recycling Trucks
Conference
Wow! This truck is neat!
Heard testimonies such as from many enthusiastic
speakers, such as Russell K. Barnett the director
of Smithtown
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Mike Andre (Transportation Manager for Lower
Merion School District) Steve DeCarlo (Fleet
Manager of Lower Merion Township)
Wow! This bus is neat!

• Fleet information fleet up for renewal 2010
• History of Natural Gas School Buses
• Tour of Natural Gas powered School Buses

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Town Hall Meeting Green days

• Met with LMT Environmental Council at Town Hall
  Meeting
• Attended NarbEarth and Penn Wynne green days

Daylin Leach State Rep for Lower and Upper Merion
Townships and running for PA Senator
Joe Mudd Gifted Educ. Teacher Founder, Lower
Merion School Green Council
Avi Fox Temple Student Founder of Narberth Greens
Camille and Alexi at Penn Wynne Green day
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Reflection

• Became mini-experts on Natural Gas and Garbage
  Trucks
• Experience making factsheets
• Experience with being apart of a productive group
  of activist and student leaders
• Experience making out-reach phone calls and
  writing letters
• Gained confidence in being advocates and reaching
  out to local officials and managers
• Made a course guide for students next year
• Together we can make a difference!

Through this exciting process we have laid the
ground work for change. Though we have not yet
officially convinced Lower Merion Township to
convert their fleet, we have raised community
awareness and set up important relationships with
township officials. We are confident next years
students will be able to complete this goal.
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Future Course Guide final report
Example Future Calendar
Dear Future Student Activists This course is
unlike any other. Your mission is to become a
catalyst for change. This course packet
documents what has been done by the four of us
this semester, including for example lists of
contacts, sample cover letters, factsheets, and
suggestions for what can be done by you in the
future.
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Questions?

• Thank you to
• Emily McGlynn for bringing this project to Bryn
  Mawr Praxis.
• Joanna Underwood for her continuous insight and
  wealth of knowledge.
• Julie Zaebst and Don Barber for coordinating this
  project
• Steve DeCarlo , Joe Mudd and the other township
  officials who are interested and enthusiastic
  about this potential change.

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Image Sources

• Cartoon red Garbage truck http//uts.cc.utexas.edu
  /rmr/images/garbage-truck.png