Coconut Creek runs Florida's first all-electric garbage fleet

Republic Services and the City of Coconut Creek have put six McNeilus Volterra electric trucks into residential service, making the Broward County city of roughly 58,000 the first in Florida to run a fully electric residential recycling and waste collection fleet. The two announced the launch on August 21, 2026, pairing it with the return of curbside recycling to the city.

What launched

According to the joint release, the six Volterra EVs now handle Coconut Creek's residential recycling and waste routes. The trucks carry 360-degree camera systems, lane-departure sensors, automated emergency braking, and audible alerts for pedestrians and nearby drivers. Republic calls them the industry's first fully integrated zero-emission collection vehicles: the chassis and body are designed as a single unit rather than an electric drivetrain dropped into a conventional frame.

Coconut Creek Mayor Jeffrey Wasserman framed the launch around the return of curbside recycling, with a series of community events to reintroduce the service. The release positions the city, which markets itself as the "Butterfly Capital of the World," as one of the first communities in the country to adopt a fully electric residential fleet.

Where the trucks come from

The Volterra line traces to February 20, 2023, when Republic and Oshkosh's McNeilus unit unveiled the design. At the time, Republic operated about 17,000 collection trucks and said it expected EVs to represent half of all new truck purchases within five years. The first two prototypes went to work in Phoenix in fall 2023, with early deployments following in California and Oregon.

Republic says the trucks cut emissions about 85 percent compared with its diesel units, and that it now operates North America's largest electric collection fleet. Its own electrification page puts that fleet at more than 100 EVs in operation as of 2025.

A first for Florida, a second for the country

Coconut Creek is following a template. The City of Louisville, Colorado became the first US municipality with a fully electric residential collection fleet, also running McNeilus Volterra trucks under a Republic contract, according to the company's electrification page. Six trucks is a modest number against a 17,000-truck operation; the notable part is a whole city's residential routes running electric at once, with no diesel backup in the rotation.

Garbage trucks are a natural early fit for electrification. Routes are short, fixed, and stop-heavy, the trucks return to the same depot every night, and regenerative braking recovers energy from a duty cycle that brakes at every driveway.

Outlook

At the Volterra unveiling in 2023, Republic projected EVs would be half of its new truck purchases within five years. Two and a half years later, its published count is 100-plus EVs in a roughly 17,000-truck fleet, and the deployment pattern so far is city-scale showcases: Louisville, Colorado first, Coconut Creek now. If that pattern holds, more single-city firsts are likelier in the near term than a wholesale fleet turnover, and the pace of Republic's Volterra orders through 2027 will show whether the 2023 purchasing target still stands.