How Dumpster Compaction Helps You Meet Your Carbon Reduction Goals

by | Feb 21, 2023

As a business, reducing your carbon emissions is beneficial for everyone. It’s a win for your business, your customers, the local community, and our environment. Carbon reductions can also lead to companies getting closer to achieving their ESG targets. Today we’ll discuss how dumpster compaction can help businesses reach these highly sought-after clean energy goals in a simple and efficient way.

What is Dumpster Compaction?

Dumpster compaction is the process of reducing the volume of waste inside an open-top dumpster with the aid of a mobile waste compactor or static waste compactor. These devices apply force or natural gravity to waste which in turn reduces the amount of air and overall waste volume inside the dumpster.

These services can be beneficial to businesses because they offer a way to add more waste in every dumpster and stretch the need to call a hauler. This leads to a decrease in the number of hauls per month, saving businesses money and drastically improving the carbon footprint of their waste process.

Vehicles Built for Energy Efficiency

A massive percentage of the attributed emissions from waste management is the trucks that haul the waste. On average, refuse vehicles are the third highest fuel consumers with the worse fuel economy of any major vehicle category. Roll-off refuse trucks average an abysmal 4.4 mpg and typically don’t plan routes efficiency due to inconsistent scheduling. This creates scenarios where inefficient fossil fuel reliant vehicles are traveling large distances to load and unload waste.

Part of what makes them so inefficient is their frequent stop and go schedule. GHG emissions (greenhouse gas emissions) generated by these trucks are a huge mark on a bigger environmental impact.

Meaningful improvements to this process aren’t possible without an improvement in the mobile waste compaction vehicles’ CO2 emissions. Smash My Trash (SMT) trucks are built with emission reduction in mind. Smash My Trash trucks pass California’s clean idle laws and drastically reduce CO2 emissions compared to their traditional hauler counterpart.

In a head-to-head comparison, SMT vehicles have a lower g/mile (grams of CO2 per mile) and g/hour (grams of CO2 per hour) basis than hauler refuse trucks. The emission reductions associated with waste hauling are proportional to the amount of waste generated. Businesses with significant amounts of waste require numerous waste collections. By utilizing SMT services, we see a reduction in the number of annual dumpster hauls reduce drastically. In turn, this keeps inefficient hauler refuse trucks on the road for less time.

When auditing a company’s involvement with clean energy initiatives, trash compaction is a simple way to show they are trying to hit carbon emissions goals. Reducing carbon dioxide in the air is a layered approach that cannot be fixed with one solution. Services provided by SMT offer a variety of solutions to drastically improve businesses’ waste management carbon footprint.

Clean SMT Truck

Fewer Hauls Equal Fewer Trucks on the Road

With the assistance of a dumpster compaction device, the need for dumpster hauling inevitably decreases. Bigger picture, what that means for hauling companies is fewer hauls. It’s not uncommon to see dumpster compaction leading to two, three, or even five fewer trips per month to the landfill depending on the company size.

When you have less demand for hauling, in turn, you are keeping massive, inefficient, hauling trucks on the road for less time. Trash compaction shortens their routes, leading to emission reduction and improved energy efficiency.

 

Compacted Materials Take Up Less Landfill Space

Less waste volume inside open-top dumpsters means less waste volume at the landfill. Bulky materials like pallets, construction debris, and other various breakable materials can take up a large amount of space in a landfill and may never see the same compaction opportunities once hauled off the premises. According to the independent study conducted by Trinity Consultants, a renowned environmental consulting firm, Smash My Trash services are proven to enhance the biodegradation of many of the materials smashed.

Additionally, in this independent study, Trinity Consultants evaluated and classified compaction results by a high, medium, and low compaction grade. Even low-compaction materials like scrap metal, demolition materials, and dirt can expect up to a 60% volume reduction. As we evaluate medium and high compaction materials, that number only goes up

Smashed Dumpster of Pallets
Smashed Dumpster of Glass

Meet Your Carbon Emissions Goals Using Dumpster Compaction

Carbon reduction strategies do not have to be complicated. The pressure to meet CO2 targets and execute carbon reduction programs is building against business owners. Implementing dumpster compaction into your business can lower carbon dioxide output and assist businesses in meeting carbon emissions goals. This is possible by limiting the number of reuse vehicles hauling away waste to facilities that compact their waste.

Estimate Potential Carbon Reduction

Auditing a business’s carbon footprint is a common practice today. It can lead to more effective carbon reduction strategies and executable plans that make a difference. Mobile waste compaction services have measurable results you can see within as little as a single visit.

Calculating potential emission reduction can be an intricate task. Fortunately, the experts over at Trinity Consultants developed an emissions methodology tool to quickly and accurately understand the potential impact “Smash My Trash” services can provide.

Based on a client compacting “medium compactable waste”, which is defined as waste with moderate compaction potential, SMT client was able to reduce their annual CO2 emissions by more than 8.8 tons. According to the study, we also see total emissions of pollutants associated with waste hauling reduced by an average of 65.2 percent.

When taking one baseline client into consideration and scaling to the entire SMT customer base, we can see some incredible emission reduction figures. The reduction of CO2 emissions is the equivalent of powering over 10,000 American households each year or removing more than 15,000 cars from the road annually.

Keep in mind, these figures were represented by a baseline SMT customer. To briefly summarize the methodology used to reach these conclusions, the baseline customer used in the research conducted 200 smashes a year. This was the settled-upon baseline because it represents the average number of smashes and an average number of hauls conducted by an SMT customer annually.

If we apply these baseline figures of 200 hauls annually, with medium compaction materials, and assuming 200 smashes were conducted, we see significant reduced haul savings. This equates to a haul reduction of 117 per year, making the new annual hauls with SMT services at 84 a year.

Implement Dumpster Compaction as Part of Your Carbon Reduction Initiative

Taking the next step and implementing a dumpster compaction service doesn’t require a hassle. SMT offers advanced calculation tools to help businesses track their carbon reduction. Our calculation tools can also assist in greenhouse gas emissions generated by your waste, before and after the service.

Every company’s trash situation is different. There’s no one size fits all approach. Here at SMT, we take pride in our ability to negotiate prices and solve companies’ needs. If our service isn’t lowering your overall waste costs monthly or annually, we aren’t doing something right.

Contact us to learn more about how our emission tools can help build a case for the necessity of mobile compaction services at your company. If you’d like to read more about the independent study conducted by Trinity Consultants, click here to receive a copy.

Communicate Success

Utilizing waste compaction services from SMT gives your company access to carbon emission tools that can be customized to your company’s results. If there’s a CO2 target your business is aiming for, we can assist in the findings that can show our service is making the impact you’re working towards. The path to net zero emissions is paved with success stories like ours implemented into your annual waste management plan.

Our goals need to align with our customers to get the most out of mobile waste compaction services. We are always highlighting the reduced operating costs associated with SMT and the positive environmental impact you can expect. We work in tandem with additional waste management services to ensure the process is as efficient as we can make it.

Take Your Next Step Towards Carbon Reduction with Smash My Trash

SMT is a modern solution to an outdated industry that desperately needed some change. It’s normal for questions to arise. Sustainable climate action is possible within commercial businesses. Take a step towards your Co2 emission goals and contact SMT for more details. If you need more time for consideration, visit our FAQ section for more details on how our service works. When you’re ready to give it a try, contact us call directly or fill out a brief form to speak with our team to set up a free demo or consultation.