Vincent V. in NYC writes: Garbage trucks are a major source of urban air pollution. One truck pollutes about as much as 350 cars. NYC has been moving to switch utility vehicles to hybrid tech (w/city buses & taxis), but not with garbage trucks.

There was a PR event yesterday at Union Sq for natural gas powered trucks: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080410006271&newsLang=en

But Volvo just introduced the first hybrid garbage truck in Sweden, which seems even better suited than CNG to congested environments like NYC. Garbage trucks idle for 60-70% of the time they're in use. But Volvo's hybrid shuts off completely, eliminating pollution and noise. (sorry for the autochannel.com spam...)

It would be great to push the NYC Dept of Sanitation to look into purchasing hybrid garbage trucks in their next round of ordering.

And under the fold, if you are needing a little inspiration/thinking, you'll find a brief speech by RFK on GDP and measuring success in America. :)