Image by tomsaint11 via Flickr We spend a lot of time talking and writing about eco-consistency from a marketing and customer relations perspective, especially in how it relates to secondary packaging. We are convinced that boxes, tape and other packaging materials say something about our green...
The standard width of pressure sensitive box sealing tape is 48 mm (2"). The standard width of paper box sealing tape is 72 mm (3"). These standards are both compromises, and as a result, they lead to an unnecessarily high amount of packaging material entering the waste stream.
Extreme Pressure Sensitive Tape Solutions
1. For machine applied PST applications, use 36 mm (1-3/4") wide tape. Unless the box is particularly heavy and/or subject to rough shipping conditions, the reduced width will not compromise box integrity. When in doubt, test. It is worth the time to test, though - the payoff is a 12% reduction in the amount of material entering the waste stream.
Some of our readers may be too young to remember but seeing the Tylenol poisonings back in the news has brought back some very profound, mixed feelings.
The Tragedy
For those who may not be aware, in September of 1982, seven people in the Chicago area were poisoned and died after ingesting tainted Tylenol. This horrible event literally hit close to home since several of the deaths occurred within miles of where my family and I lived at the time. Investigators quickly determined the product was being tainted and then placed on the retail shelf for innocent people to buy and take home. There was of course an immediate recall and this product was quickly removed from the shelf. From that moment on food and drug safety, and packaging would never be the same.
Cornerboard is that L shaped laminated paper board product usually placed on the vertical corners and or possibly on the horizontal top corners of a strapped or stretch wrapped pallet.
Some may wonder why we chose that particular “ancillary packaging” product to highlight on a blog focused of sustainability but cornerboard is indeed functional, and offers benefits in several key areas. Even though it usually results in a better looking, “squarer” pallet of product, it is anything but decorative or excessive. We believe corner board can be very sustainable in its construction and in its use.
Reducing Corrugated with Eco Friendly Cornerboard?
Customers are often able to substantially reduce the thickness (and cost) of their boxes by adding cornerboard to their pallets. Board weight of corrugated boxes is usually determined by the “worst case” scenario, even though those challenging circumstances (for example, double stacking of pallets) do not always occur. Why not use a lighter board for your boxes and add the support with corner board when it truly is necessary?
If you are shipping any quantity of merchandise it all, packaging automation is worth taking a look at. Automatic corrugated case sealers, shrink wrappers, and stretch wrappers are excellent places to start. Besides the many sustainable packaging benefits of automation, you may find that equipment will -
Image via Wikipedia
The above photo from one of our best vendors, Automated Packaging Systems, is a personal favorite because so rarely does a picture truly demonstrate a product benefit as well as this one. The message of course is that the box of inflatable void fill is the equivalent to the bags of packing peanuts behind the model. Translate that into shipping cost and effectiveness, as well as carbon footprint and you have an overwhelmingly positive advantage for inflatable void fill.
Sustainable Packaging Must Be Application Driven
Readers, customers and vendors know we offer a wide variety of void fill products because the great range and diversity of applications demands it. What you ship, how you ship, where you ship, and how much you ship are all important factors to consider.
I believe however that from a green packaging perspective, the majority of people would agree the most eco friendly void fill solution is probably any form of paper. What’s not to like? It is relatively low cost, dense for shipping and storage purposes, compostable, recyclable, and typically made from recycled materials. There are only three reasons why some customers avoid paper:
Can Plastic Box Sealing Tapes Be Eco-Friendly?
From a sustainable packaging perspective, when you manufacture a packaging product made from plastic, you come to market with two - or maybe three - strikes against you.
Still, polypropylene box sealing tapes continue to be popular, even if shippers are buying them reluctantly. Here are some key points from an article from the Pressure Sensitive Tape Council that makes the environmental case for its products.
Source reduction - It takes less plastic tape material than paper tape material to seal a box, reducing shipping and disposal/recycling costs.
We have been very successful recently helping customers convert from plastic to paper box sealing tape, especially custom printed paper tape. These conversions are usually quite painless after the customer invests in a good water activated tape dispenser and concludes that 3” wide paper tape is NOT necessarily more expensive because it is wider, than the obviously narrower 2” plastic tape they are accustomed to using.
How to Compare Radically Different Packaging Tapes
The normal tendency when comparing paper to plastic tape cost is to determine a common unit of cost for easy comparison. Since plastic tape is sold in cases of rolls that usually specify yards per roll and paper tape is typically sold in cases of rolls that are measured in feet per roll, a little math is required, but very little. It is relatively easy to arrive at a cost per foot for both tapes but that is only part of the story. The real cost is yet to be determined because the person using the products rarely uses the same amount of both products.