The numbers, audited and unredacted.
Our 2025 sustainability report. We publish it every year and have it third-party verified by a Columbus-based environmental engineering firm. If you want the raw data behind any number on this page, email us — we'll send the spreadsheet.
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Live snapshot
19,166,400
Totes diverted from landfill
366,078,240 kg
Virgin HDPE not produced
735,989,760 kg
CO₂e avoided (cradle-to-gate)
Headline numbers, FY2025
| Metric | FY2024 | FY2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Totes diverted from landfill | 14,820 | 21,604 | +45.8% |
| Virgin HDPE displaced (kg) | 283,062 | 412,636 | +45.8% |
| COâ‚‚e avoided, cradle-to-gate (kg) | 569,088 | 829,594 | +45.8% |
| Wash water reclaimed | 89.4% | 92.1% | +2.7pp |
| End-of-life HDPE pelletized in-house (kg) | 41,210 | 58,907 | +42.9% |
| Regrind exported overseas | 0 kg | 0 kg | — |
| Truck miles per tote sold | 3.81 | 3.07 | −19.4% |
How we calculate the numbers
- Totes diverted — direct count from yard-management software, validated against weighbridge tickets.
- HDPE displaced — totes diverted × 19.1 kg average bottle weight (NA-IBC 2024 industry survey).
- CO₂e avoided — HDPE displaced × 2.01 kgCO₂e/kg HDPE (Plastics Europe Eco-profile, 2023).
- Wash water reclaim — flow-meter readings, calibrated quarterly.
- Pelletized in-house — output mass from the granulator + extruder line, weighed at exit.
- Truck miles per tote — total fleet odometer ÷ totes-out, including return legs.
Where we still need to do better
The full report doesn't dodge the ugly bits. Three honest gaps:
- Diesel. Our pickup fleet is still 100% diesel. We're piloting a single Class-6 EV in 2026, but the math has to work for the whole route, not just the photo op.
- Heated wash. The wash bay's hot-water loop is natural-gas fired. We're scoping an electric heat-pump replacement — capex is the holdup.
- Cage rust. A small percentage of cages get scrapped because the powder coat fails after years of road salt. We're testing a new conversion-coat process.
Detailed methodology — the audit appendix
The third-party auditor (a Columbus-based environmental engineering firm) reviews our raw data quarterly and signs off on the annual numbers. Here's the full method note that accompanies our annual report.
Boundary of analysis
- Included: All operations at our Grove City yard — receiving, washing, reconditioning, granulation, fabrication, dispatching, outbound truck miles.
- Excluded: Embedded carbon in the original manufacture of the tote (we account for the displaced new-tote carbon separately, but not the original embedded carbon of the used tote we're reconditioning — that's already spent).
- Excluded: Carbon downstream of our outbound truck (customer's facility energy, customer-side reuse cycles).
Data sources
- Yard-management software: All inbound/outbound counts, weight tickets, batch tags. Validated quarterly against weighbridge tickets.
- Wash-bay flow meters: Calibrated quarterly. Flow data tracked per cycle.
- Granulator throughput: Output mass weighed at exit, logged daily.
- Truck telematics: Mileage logged per route, aggregated monthly.
- Utility bills: Gas and electric usage from the local utility, monthly.
Carbon accounting standards used
- HDPE cradle-to-gate: Plastics Europe Eco-profile for HDPE, 2023 update. Value used: 2.01 kgCOâ‚‚e/kg HDPE.
- Steel cage cradle-to-gate: WorldSteel sustainability indicators, 2023. Value used: 1.95 kgCOâ‚‚e/kg galvanized steel.
- Diesel truck emissions: EPA SmartWay carrier averages for Class 6 trucks. Value used: 0.21 kgCOâ‚‚e per mile per ton freight.
- Natural gas at the wash bay: EPA emission factor 53.06 kgCOâ‚‚e/MMBtu.
- Grid electricity: EIA Ohio grid mix, 2024. Value used: 0.43 kgCOâ‚‚e/kWh.
What we deliberately don't claim
- Net-zero or carbon-neutral status. We are not. Diesel trucks and gas-fired wash water both still emit. We say so.
- Carbon offsets. We don't buy or sell them. We measure what we actually do.
- Full life-cycle including downstream customer energy. That's outside our boundary and would be speculative.
Five-year trend (2020-2025)
| Year | Totes diverted | HDPE displaced (kg) | COâ‚‚e avoided (kg) | Wash water reclaim |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2,840 | 54,244 | 109,031 | 71% |
| 2021 | 5,950 | 113,645 | 228,427 | 78% |
| 2022 | 10,400 | 198,640 | 399,267 | 84% |
| 2023 | 14,820 | 283,062 | 569,088 | 89.4% |
| 2024 | 18,206 | 347,734 | 698,945 | 90.7% |
| 2025 | 21,604 | 412,636 | 829,594 | 92.1% |
Five-year cumulative: 73,820 totes diverted, 1.41 million kg HDPE displaced, 2.83 million kg COâ‚‚e avoided.
Goals for 2026
- Pilot one Class-6 EV box truck on our shortest in-metro route. We've reserved capacity from a regional dealer; delivery slipped to Q1 2026.
- Replace gas-fired hot-water loop with electric heat pump. Capex is the holdup; we're scoping a 2027 install.
- Push wash-water reclaim above 95%. The remaining 8% is mostly evaporation and chemistry-laden discharge that needs additional treatment.
- Reduce truck miles per tote sold to under 2.8. Backhaul rate target: 90% (currently 84%).
- Add a second granulator shift. Currently single-shift; second shift would let us fully process incoming end-of-life within 48 hours instead of the current 5-7 day backlog.
What's outside our scope (and where to push)
We measure what we operate. There are bigger systemic issues that we can influence but not fix alone:
- Original IBC manufacturing emissions. The cradle-to-gate carbon of new totes is set by polymer producers and OEMs. We can reduce demand for new through reuse, but we don't make resin.
- Long-haul global polymer trade. The industry's exposure to ocean-freighted polymer pellets is a structural issue. Buying domestic regrind helps; eliminating import dependence requires policy and infrastructure investment.
- End-of-life accounting beyond our gate. Once our regrind is sold to a molder, we've lost visibility. The molders we sell to are domestic and audited, but ultimate disposition of the products they make is outside our boundary.