How Waste Haulers Can Reduce Their Carbon Footprint By Rethinking Their Reliance on 55-Gallon Steel Drums

When it comes to curbing carbon emissions, most people identify sustainable manufacturing processes as the key to creating a more eco-friendly industrial landscape. While a green approach to modern manufacturing can certainly help reduce carbon emissions, companies in the waste hauling space can take a large leap forward in reducing their carbon footprint by rethinking their packaging and logistics solutions.

For example, imagine that you could fit more hazardous waste packaging units on a standard truck. Not only would this help reduce emissions of harmful gasses, but it would also help optimize your fuel costs, increase productivity, and enhance the efficiency of your waste hauling processes. 

With this in mind, let’s look at a couple of ways waste haulers can reduce their carbon footprint by moving away from traditional 55-gallon steel drums, and moving toward a more versatile waste hauling solution.

Choose a hazmat packaging solution that helps you minimize the number of full truckloads (FTLs) to meet demand

Waste haulers know one of the biggest culprits in greenhouse gas emissions is the number of full truckloads (FTLs) it takes to meet customer demand. This is because of the space constraints and lack of flexibility associated with using traditional 55-gallon steel drums. For example, a standard 53-foot truck has a maximum capacity of just 208 units, which, for high-volume waste haulers, means facilitating a large number of FTLs. 

Couple this with the fact that the standard 53-foot truck produces about 22 pounds of CO² emissions per gallon of diesel fuel, and you have a recipe for creating a carbon footprint that is severely detrimental to the environment, and one that also hampers your ability to operate with maximum efficiency. 

Minimizing the number of trucks on the road not only reduces the amount of CO² created by your individual waste hauling processing, but it also helps you make the most of your operational costs. With Gorilla Drum™, waste haulers can fit 80 unfilled units per pallet for a total of 4,160 per standard semi. This represents a 20x increase compared to traditional steel drums, and this increased capacity means a more cost-effective way of hauling waste from A to B.

What’s more, this increased capacity doesn’t mean you’re sacrificing strength or durability. Gorilla Drum™ is rated for use with the three major packing groups of hazardous material: 

• Packing Group I, which consists of materials presenting a high degree of danger
• Packing Group II, which contains materials presenting medium danger
• Packing Group III, which consists of materials presenting low dange

Plus, Gorilla Drum™ is UN and DOT certified for a wide variety of waste hauling applications, and our corrugated plastic frame design offers a maximum weight capacity of 453 pounds to help you handle whatever waste comes your way.

Partner with a hazmat packaging solution partner that prioritizes flexibility

There’s nothing flexible about 55-gallon steel drums. They’re heavy, cumbersome, difficult to transport, and costly to maintain, particularly when it comes to the intense cleaning procedures required to reuse steel drums. Plus, these washdown protocols often require harsh solvents and chemicals, and these are often damaging to the environment. 

What’s more, the Environmental Protection Agency recently issued the Used Drum Management and Reconditioning Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to better understand and assist with future recommendations about the environmental impact of reconditioning steel drums for repeat use.  

This is where opting for a flexible, versatile steel drum alternative can not only help waste haulers prepare for what the future of their industry may hold, but it can also help them optimize their use of resources now. Additionally, a steel drum alternative that prioritizes flexibility can also help you simplify and accelerate a number of processes, including loading, unloading, drum preparation, and storage. 

With Gorilla Drum™, waste haulers can decrease the amount of time and resources necessary to prep a unit for use. A recyclable plastic liner can be installed quickly and easily, and a zip top lid helps ensure the safety and security of the hazardous materials contained inside the unit. In addition, our innovative lifting loops, dolly strap, and belly band make loading and unloading Gorilla Drum™ a snap. 

Gorilla Drum™ is also completely foldable to make it easy to store unused units, and the lightweight design — each unfilled unit weighs just 7.5 pounds — helps you optimize your warehouse storage space and reduce the personnel and equipment required to inventory units that are not in service.  

With this enhanced level of flexibility, waste haulers can better future-proof their packaging and logistics processes. And the ability of Gorilla Drum™ to help you reduce your carbon footprint helps create a more sustainable approach to hazardous waste hauling that puts environmental responsibility at the heart of your business model.  

Want to learn how Gorilla Drum™ helped a global package handler save time and money by conserving warehouse space and streamlining waste hauling processes? Download our new case study to read the full story.