New Report Documents Environmental and Health Impacts from NYC's Food Carts, and Assesses a New Design that Could Shift Them to Positive Ones

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May 11, 2015, 11:19 ET

NEW YORK, May 11, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The national environmental non-profit Energy Vision (EV) today released a report entitled "The Food Cart of the 21^st Century." It assesses environmental and public health impacts of New York City's existing food cart fleet vs. a new innovative clean-energy mobile food vehicle developed by MOVE Systems, called the MRV100. The report's release coincides with an event unveiling the MRV100 New York's City Hall Park with members of the New York City Council.

EV's report documents surprising impacts from the City's food carts, which account for over 1.2 million transactions a day. Over 60% of the City's food carts use polluting gasoline or diesel-powered generators.

"Food carts have long been a great feature of City life," said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, Dean of Global Health at Mount Sinai Medical Center. "However, this report describes how emissions from their heating and cooking systems pollute our air and put food vendors' health at risk. The redesigned carts assessed in the report and introduced today use clean fuels, which will protect cart operators and mean cleaner air for New Yorkers."

The EV report found that if MRV100 vehicles with efficient hybrid natural gas/solar electric systems replaced carts with gasoline and diesel generators, it would virtually eliminate their carbon monoxide emissions (currently hundreds of times above EPA limits), cut smog-forming nitrogen oxides by 95%, particulate pollution by 75% and greenhouse gas emissions by 60%. It would also cut operators' energy costs.

The report notes the MRV100's generators can run on renewable natural gas (RNG) made from food and other organic wastes, which New York City's new Zero Waste program seeks to divert from landfills. That could offset up to 4 million gallons of gasoline and over 20,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

"RNG can help achieve the City's sustainability goals," said EV president Joanna Underwood. "It can actually be net carbon-negative, preventing more carbon from entering the atmosphere over its lifecycle than burning it emits. Using RNG produced from the City's huge organic waste stream to power food carts and vehicles would not only help meet waste reduction goals; it could also shrink the City's overall carbon footprint."

Contact: Stephen Kent, [email protected] 914-589-5988

SOURCE Energy Vision