Recent findings from a Greif internal analysis found that conical steel drums have a significantly lower carbon footprint – up to 35 percent – than standard cylindrical drums.
The significant reduction comes from two main factors. Firstly, conical drums are often lighter than standard cylindrical drums so fewer raw materials are required to manufacture them. Secondly, because of their size and shape conical drums have considerable transportation efficiencies; the conical shape enables empty drums to be stacked which leads to better space utilization when they are being transported in trucks (typically 2,000 conical drums with lids versus only 288 classic cylindrical drums).
Using set parameters, the analysis compared the climate change impact of 10,000 conical drums compared to the same number of standard cylindrical drums. The conical drum saved up to 103,997 kg CO2e emissions – equivalent to driving ~650.000 km in a car (or 16 times around the globe).*
Greif has been producing conical steel drums for more than 25 years and has factories in Portugal, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Italy, Chile and Egypt.
Used around the world to safely store and transport various commodities including tomato paste and fruit concentrates, they come in a wide range of specifications – capacity from 60L to above 220L; thickness from 0.5 to 0.8mm; internal coating; external paint; UN approved version for liquids and a choice of lids including plastic, metal, galvanized and aluminized steel.
Greif’s sustainability program and 2025 goals detail strategies to address the various aspects of our environmental footprint across the business and supply chain in order to create sustainable value for our customers, stakeholders and the environment. For our efforts in 2019 we were awarded the Gold Rating in sustainability performance by EcoVadis for the second consecutive year, an A- score for environmental leadership by the non-profit organization CDP for the second consecutive year and the CDP’s Supplier Engagement Rating (SER) of A as a part of their annual climate change assessment of companies globally, an A rating for sustainability performance by MSCI ESG Research, and named to the premiere list of America’s Most Responsible Companies 2020 by Newsweek for our corporate social responsibility and citizenship efforts.
To find out more about Conical Drums and download further information click here.
You can read more about our sustainability commitment here.
*Environmental impact transfer calculations to driven miles and substitute cars are based on the following inputs/assumptions:
An average modern passenger car often has a CO2 emission of approx. 160 grams/km; what is 0,56672 lb./mile. [Source: http://www.dat.de/leitfaden/LeitfadenCO2.pdf] The average annual miles per driver in the US is 13,500 miles p.a
The world range is 40.075 km or 24.891 miles (equator length). [Source: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm]
