CHICAGO, Ill. (May 6, 2008) The first hybrid truck to be used for waste removal by Casella Waste Systems, Inc. will be on display at the International Truck booth at the 2008 Waste Expo being held in Chicago this week. The International® DuraStar™ Hybrid is the transportation industry’s first medium-duty diesel electric hybrid truck, providing customers with improved fuel efficiency and reduced engine emissions. 

“We are excited to partner with Navistar, a forward-thinking company that understands the rapidly changing global energy and resource constraints,” said John W. Casella, chairman and chief executive officer of Casella Waste Systems. “We are looking for other locations and applications to put additional International diesel electric hybrid trucks or other hybrid vehicles into service to further reduce our environmental footprint and diesel fuel costs.”

Casella will use the truck to collect organics for recycling. Casella is dedicated to improving how organic waste disposal is handled in Vermont. This includes using hybrid trucks to collect food waste from restaurants, schools and other institutions to be converted into odorless, nutrient-rich soil. The company plans to buy more hybrid trucks which would result in substantial fuel savings across its organics recycling fleet.

“I believe this marks the first time a hybrid truck has been put into service in this type of waste application, and this is just the beginning,” said Jim Williams, director of sales and distribution, new products, Navistar. “With diesel prices at an all-time high, an average fuel economy improvement of 30-40 percent translates into thousands of dollars in savings per truck, per year.”

The International DuraStar Hybrid diesel hybrid electric truck has the proven capability to provide dramatic fuel savings from 30-40 percent on standard in-city pickup and delivery applications. The fuel efficiency can increase to more than 60 percent in utility-type applications when the engine can be shut off, but electric power still operates the vehicle. Diesel emissions are completely eliminated when the hybrid truck operates equipment solely on the truck’s battery power, instead of allowing the engine to idle.

About Casella Waste Systems, Inc.
Casella Waste Systems is an integrated solid waste and resource management company headquartered in Rutland, Vermont. In addition to providing traditional solid waste collection, transfer and disposal services, in the fiscal year ended April 30, 2007, the company renewed the life-cycle of over 3.8 billion pounds of recyclable material (the equivalent of a line of fully loaded garbage trucks stretching from New York City to Omaha, Nebraska) and produced over 91,500 MWh of clean, renewable energy from landfill gas-to-energy facilities (enough energy to power a community of 33,000 people each year). It is the only solid waste services company participating in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program to reduce greenhouse gases.