Is your packaging costing you too much in damaged goods and even reputation? Could a switch to different packaging materials help, or even moving from one-way use to multi-use? Are you finding that disposing of B2B packaging a costly pain in the neck? And what could changes in your current packaging do to cut your overall distribution costs?
Environmental issues are obviously behind legislative changes that are forcing businesses to re-evaluate their current uses of packaging but that does not mean that cost-saving issues are not important when considering changes. Remarkable transport savings can be made, for example, by just switching from heavy timber pallets to lightweight, recycled paper pallets like those from Pallite, especially in export markets.
While the debate still rages between plastic versus paper as a packaging medium there is no doubt that there is a switch from plastic to 100% recyclable paper packaging but a distinction should be made between B2B and B2C operations. For the latter there is no need to use plastic to pack goods inside a box because paper is equally effective and totally sustainable. Plastic stretch and shrink film in B2B operations, however, will remain a favourite material for stabilising pallet loads and provided that plastic pallets, containers, crates, etc, can move over from one-way to multi-way then their business case is much enhanced. Convincing users of that, however, is not easy.
A leader in this field, Schoeller Allibert, believes it can make a convincing case for such a switch. At first glance that may seem a daunting task given that the initial cost of a returnable transit pallet is considerably more than a standard wood pallet. To do that the company will work with all customers to create a closed loop system, which includes mapping the supply chain into a ‘green’ RTP stream with a dedicated supply team to control return of assets. But what about the payback issue you might ask?
The company says that its customers want a payback no longer than three years and is confident it can meet that target. Highest market contenders for this conversion to plastic in a circular loop are agriculture, automotive, food and beverages, retail and industrial manufacturing.
Over on the B2C side, Pregis does a similar exercise of convincing users to move from plastic packaging to sustainable paper packaging by auditing businesses to show them how to make cost efficient step changes. As part of the business case Pregis will also provide customers with a Sustainable Packaging Certificate which shows them the number of new trees that they save each year by using its 100% recycled paper packaging.
Disposing of large amounts of B2B paper board and plastic for recycling remains a big issue with grocery retailers, in particular, and while compactors/balers have been around for decades to ease the problem, relative to a new solution about to burst on the scene they are less efficient. A new invention that allows roll containers to be filled with used packaging and placed in a special compactor will release much badly needed space and slash transport costs. Watch this space for further news.
Innovation in one field can have seismic implications in another, a good example being 4-D printing, which uses 3-D printing but with one important difference: it adds the dimension of transformation over time so it can change products’ forms through agents like humidity, temperature, electrical currents, etc, and thus is a type of programmable matter. Think of having boxes that can flatten themselves and what it means for local manufacturing that will slash demand for container ships. Time to sell your shipping and ports shares, perhaps? Welcome to the world of disruptive technology.
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