Environmental Sustainability Initiatives
Chemicals
- To prevent unwanted products from entering the waste stream or disposal process, chemical shipments deemed unacceptable by a shipper or consignee are recovered and disposed of through a qualified environmental disposal vendor.
- Our comprehensive emergency-response capabilities include a 24/7 emergency hotline available to Reimer Express facilities.
Tires
- All tires are disposed of through provincially regulated tire stewardship programs. Many go to tire recycling companies for further use as energy sources, playground mats and chips, mulch for landscaping, and road construction material.
Fuel
- We voluntarily use biodiesel fuel at select locations across Canada and the U.S., in addition to locations in the U.S. where use of biodiesel is mandated. Our corporate parent has voluntarily purchased well over 3 million gallons of biodiesel for use by YRC Worldwide companies.
- ULSD (ultra-low-sulfur diesel) is used at all fueling locations, which enables cleaner emissions of NOx (nitrogen oxides) and particulate matter. We introduced 15 linehaul tractors and 28 city tractors with new low-emission engines into the fleet in 2007, with 56 low-emission linehaul tractors on order for 2008.
- We continue to use and evaluate new engine oil and lubricant technologies to allow extended service intervals, greatly reducing waste product generation.
- We continue to evaluate fuel-savings initiatives and policies such as the use of computers to automatically shut down an idling engine, tractor speed governance, fuel efficient tires and tread designs, and aerodynamic modifications to tractor and trailer configurations. Our practices to reduce emissions include lodging drivers in hotels to eliminate overnight idling and capping tractor speed at 102 kilometers per hour.
Recycling efforts
- Oil filters are generally drained of oil and crushed at all garage locations, and the garage properly disposes of the canisters.
- Most Reimer Express locations purchase new batteries through a national distributor who properly disposes of the used ones.
- Recycling parts washers clean fluid for continuous use, minimizing the amount of waste generation.
- Each garage has a scrap metal hopper to separate scrap metal from other garage waste. The metal is purchased by a recycler for further use instead of going to a landfill.
- Most antifreeze is recycled and reused. The small quantities generated are picked up by a qualified waste hauler and further recycled.
- Waste motor oil is collected at the garages and picked up by a qualified oil hauler and recycled.
- In addition to office paper, oil, antifreeze, cleaning solvents, tires, and batteries, all Reimer Express facilities recycle aluminum, steel, and unusable cardboard dunnage.
- Over 50% of our copy paper waste is recycled.
- To reduce energy consumption in our buildings, we are replacing current fluorescent lamps with low-wattage lamps.
Services and the environment
- The use of e-commerce tools offered by Reimer Express to create electronic bills of lading, invoicing, and other documents in shipping transactions reduces paper consumption for all supply chain partners.
- Our transportation services for product returns and reverse logistics enable Reimer Express customers to prevent pollution and minimize waste in the movement of their shipments. For example, the use of reusable totes for chemical shipments eliminates the need to manufacture steel drums and dispose of used drums.
Affiliations
- Reimer Express is an active partner in the Canadian Trucking Alliance's (CTA) Clean Air Act.
- As a YRC Worldwide company, we partner with several organizations to provide safe transportation of hazardous materials. These include Haz-Mat One, Cooperative Hazardous Materials Enforcement Development program (COHMED) of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), and Chemtrec.
- As a YRC Worldwide company, we participate in the SmartWaySM Transport Partnership. This voluntary program between various transportation industry sectors and the federal Environmental Protection Agency addresses key national concerns to improve energy security and energy savings.
