The new bin lorry is among 125 new vehicles, plant items and equipment worth £6.1m the council hopes to purchase in 2022-23. The eRCV has an estimated capital cost of £450,000.

The council’s waste collection crews recently carried out a successful trial of the eRCV, which will be primarily used to collect commercial waste.

Cllr Chris Lamb, cabinet spokesperson for environment and transport, said: ‘Making greener choices in the vehicles we use as a council is helping reduce carbon emissions and decrease our reliance on fossil fuels.

‘We’re working towards reducing our carbon emissions to net-zero by 2040, and sooner than that if we can. One of the challenges is how we can shift away from diesel when it comes to the larger vehicles and machinery we need to use in some of the work we do as a council.’

The council’s fleet is made up of 443 vehicles, plant and equipment and has a capital value of over £15m. The new eRCV will join the local authority’s other 33 fully electric vehicles.

In March, the council also started trialling the use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as an alternative to diesel.