Resource Center
Republic Services is Keeping It Clean on America’s Roads
With more than 16,000 of our signature blue trucks on the road every day, Republic Services runs the seventh-largest vocational fleet in the nation and we’re working to reduce our carbon footprint and run a cleaner fleet.Byline: BTB Editor
October 8, 2018 / Time to read: 5 minWith more than 16,000 of our signature blue trucks on the road every day, Republic Services runs the seventh-largest vocational fleet in the nation. All of those trucks require millions of gallons of fuel and oil to operate, as well as a whole lot of tires. So we’re working to reduce our carbon footprint and run a cleaner fleet. That means finding innovative ways to reuse, recycle and refuel.
Let’s start with tires.
Instead of replacing a tire when it wears out, we can renew it by adding a new tire tread. In fact, a tire can be retreaded two or three times. Retreading tires is a complicated process, but we know the value of recycling resources wherever and whenever possible. These efforts save roughly 200,000 tires per year!
Motor oil also can be recycled.
Oil never really wears out — it just gets dirty — so recycling it extends the life of a valuable resource while preventing it from impacting our ecosystem. The Republic team partners with a leading oil recycling company to collect and refine about 1.2 million gallons of oil each year, which has reduced our consumption of oil resources by 50 percent.
But the crowning achievement of our clean fleet is our use of alternative fuel. Across the country, more than 2,500 of our vehicles are powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) or Renewable Natural Gas (RNG).
Both forms consist mostly of methane. CNG originates from natural gas wells or through crude oil production. RNG, on the other hand, comes from organic waste material, such as what’s found in dairies, wastewater-treatment plants and landfills. In some cases, the source for our RNG-powered trucks originates at our own landfills.
Using natural gas saves about 26 million gallons of diesel fuel a year. Replacing diesel trucks with vehicles that run on natural gas also helps reduce noise in the neighborhoods we serve and cuts air emissions. According to the EPA, each new CNG or RNG collection truck we deploy is equivalent to planting 600 mature trees each year.
Republic recently added 17 CNG trucks in the Denver area, which replace older diesel-powered trucks. Throughout Colorado, about 65% of our fleet now runs on CNG. And in California, about 93% of our fleet runs on RNG.
These changes are beneficial for our business, but more importantly, they’re good for the environment – or what we affectionately call our Blue Planet®. Our 35,000 employees are dedicated to making responsible recycling and waste services work better for everyone, minimizing our environmental impact and giving back to local communities. This is how we work for Earth.®
To read more about Republic Services’ sustainability efforts, go to
