Is everything going hybrid?

Listening to the news, sounds like everyone wants to go “hybrid” these days and it looks like your local garbage collector will be jumping on the bandwagon (or “bandtruck”) soon too.  (“Hybrids could turn big U.S. truck fleets green” ).

For garbage trucks, at least, hybrid technology looks like a winner.  Hybrid tech works “best on vehicles that stop and go a lot” and there’s no better example of that than a garbage truck.  From the article: “You pull up, you idle, you stop, you load. You pull up and do it all over again. It adds up to 300 to 1,200 stops a day per vehicle. For a conventional diesel, 4 miles a gallon is decent mileage.”

But even though this looks like the best use of the technology it’s not quite a no-brainer yet for everyone to buy the hybrid trucks.  Most people agree that using less gas and creating less pollution are good ideas, but when it comes down to it, for most people it’s the money that decides it.  So the article points out that the customers want the trucks, but the price isn’t right yet.

Our Ten Cents

This article makes two great points – first, use earth-friendly technology, products, and services where it makes sense.  Using hybrid tech for garbage trucks is perfect, but that same tech may not work or do as much good for your commuter car. 

Second, people and companies will do earth-friendly things only if it makes “cents” too.  Let’s not ask people to be “green” if its going to be too expensive or the savings aren’t worth the cost.  Sure, “being green” is worth some money to people but its probably not a truckload of money. 

What We Can Do

You don’t need to run out and buy that hybrid car just yet.  But we can each think about how much we value the good we’d do buy replacing our car with a hybrid.  And, once we each have an idea how much “being green” is worth to us, we can go out and find those earth-friendly products and services that make sense for our lives.

Ted K