30 Apr 2009 Hey Green Business Owner, Your Boxes Are Talking about You
Posted at 06:28h
in Sustainable Products
I have come to believe that every box has a story to tell about the person or company who sent it. I am quite sure that together with the other packaging/shipping materials being used, the box sends a silent but powerful message to the recipient about the shipper.
- If you are utilizing “used/recycled” boxes are they saying you are conservative and considerate of the environment or are they screaming, cheap and uncaring about the image you project to your customers?
- If you are using boxes that are obviously too large for the product(s) being shipped, are they communicating your lack of knowledge and/or concern about the correct use of packaging materials?
- If your customer’s product arrives damaged, are your boxes saying that you would rather save a few cents than to develop a long term relationship with them?
- If you are using a standard corrugated box with any percentage of virgin fiber, are your boxes admitting you are willing to sacrifice a few trees in a misinformed effort to save some money or time?
In the last week I’ve spoken with two people, one from a very large, green company and the other from a very small, green company. Both had very strong opinions about 100% PCW content corrugated boxes.
“I must have 100% PCW or as close to 100% as possible,” one said. The other said, “I recently tried 100% PCW but it failed miserably”. Both comments demonstrated a basic misunderstanding about corrugated, how it is made and how even 100% PCW it can be modified to satisfy almost any application.
I sincerely believe that the “100% PCW” requirement has in many cases become at best an ineffective guideline, and at worst a crutch for people who want to make a difficult decision, as simple as possible. Corrugated made of PCW material is an excellent sustainable packaging solution and a critical part of a long term environmental solution, but it has to be combined with some basic product knowledge to be cost effective as well as performance effective.
Corrugated Fun Facts. OK, not fun but good to know
For over a hundred years, almost since it was first used to line and support men’s’ tall hats, corrugated board has been made virtually the same way. A sheet of corrugated board is made up of three approximately equal (by weight) components, two face liner board sheets and the medium (the fluted layer) in between the inner and outer sheets.
If you make one of those three components 100% PCW, your board is approx. 33% PCW, two PCW components would result in 66% PCW, etc. Once you go below 100% PCW content on any of the components, the recycled content gets fairly “gray” but if someone is claiming 90% PCW, that is not only unlikely, it is virtually impossible. Since there is no accurate scientific way after production to verify the recycled content percentage or type (PCW or post production) of each component, a vendor is fairly free to claim almost any PCW percentage they care to. 
In fact our green idea is fairly small and is only 15.75” X 14.25” X 9” high at its greatest dimensions. Some might even call it compact, so it can more easily be utilized in a small home or business office environment.
What we offer is a rather unique recycling tote constructed out of Globe Guard 100% recycled content corrugated. It is neutral, natural brown Kraft colored in color so it does not clash with any décor. We realize competitive products are often bright colored plastic but ours is not designed to double as a highway traffic control device. Furthermore, if you are one of the many people who advocate the limited use of plastic, isn’t it a bit inconsistent to utilize a plastic recycling bin for your paper waste?
If you are a regular reader you know we like to have fun with our topics and we are most definitely enjoying this one. In fact I am going to state that when designing our recycling tote, we strictly adhered to the following three R’s: 
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. 
Both materials can be excellent eco-friendly packaging. Paperboard packaging is what you see on a FedEx or USPS style flat mailer envelope, or a typical cereal box. By comparison corrugated board has fluting and is what a standard brown box is made of.
The line used to be fairly clear – paperboard was used for primary/retail/display packaging and corrugated was used strictly for secondary packaging such as for shipping boxes simply expected to get products from point A to point B.
As paperboard has become thicker, while corrugated has grown thinner, and both materials are engineered better and more visually appealing, you now see paperboard being used often for shipping purposes such as in mailers, tubes and other structures. There is also growing trend to use corrugated for retail packaging for its “greener look” (see image below). 
Somewhere along the line, corrugated (and chipboard) partitions fell out of favor as an inner packing material. A lot of it had to do with a desire to reduce corrugated usage and unit cost - both good objectives.
However, corrugated partitions can sometimes reduce overall packaging usage and unit cost, while providing a number of other important sustainable benefits. 
Most industries have a standard for measuring or describing the construction of a particular material. However, in the corrugated industry, there are two standards - the Mullen Test and the Edge Crush Test. This leads to quite a bit of confusion in the marketplace.
The Mullen Test, which has been used for many years, tests the bursting strength of corrugated board - how much pressure is required to rupture the wall of a piece of corrugated material. Boxes conforming to the Mullen Test standard are identified as 200# Test, 275# Test, etc. The higher the number, the stronger the corrugated box.
The Edge Crush Test, which was developed in the 1990's, measures the stacking strength of corrugated board - how much top to bottom pressure a box can withstand before crushing. Boxes conforming to the Edge Crush Test standard are identified as 32ECT, 44 ECT, etc. Again, the higher the number, the stronger the corrugated box.