14 Oct 2010 Minimizing the Unexpected Costs of Green Die Cut Boxes
Posted at 08:03h
in Sustainable Products
We enjoy creating eco friendly printed, die cut containers, but they are not exempt from many of the same potential costs and problems of non-green die cut designs and solutions.
During a recent phone conversation with a potential new client, I could hear the disappointment in my contact’s voice when I informed him he would probably have to invest several thousands of dollars in printing plates and cutting dies even before his first box was cut or printed.
This situation was unique and extreme because we were talking about an oversized, 12” tall, stackable display tray that would be palletized for a large retailer. The two-color copy the customer wanted printed on each panel of course added some cost, but not as much as you might expect. As I have said many times, ink is cheap, but set up time and plates are not. This unfortunately also holds true for cutting dies for new package designs, whether the container being designed is a counter top display, tuck mailer, tray or special shipping box.
The new box that eBay has created for their customers to reuse is an excellent concept and it could not come at a better time. People are more focused than ever before on all of the “three R’s” of sustainability,” but especially the one I often refer to as “the other R” or “the forgotten R,” which is “reuse.” Don’t be surprised however if it is not necessarily accepted and heralded in the packaging community as it already has been in green circles. Even though I agree it is a great idea whose time has come, it also is a perfect example of how difficult it is to create a truly green package.
What’s Wrong with the eBay Reusable Box?
Too Much Packaging![/caption]
The nouveau green packaging industry loves to talk about biodegradability, recyclability, compostability, recycled content, PLA, PCW and a constantly growing variety of green acronyms. They are also just as eager to debate which product or process is best for the customer and for the environment.
We ourselves are helping to lead the charge on reusable and recycled content packaging products but often times we all over look the easiest sustainability “R” of all and that is reduce. Packaging reduction opportunities are usually very simple to identify and almost always even easier to correct.
What the bag supplier chose to make highly visible is “80% post consumer waste” which was printed in large, bold letters on the side panel of the bag. “Pretty impressive,” I thought, knowing that rarely are non-woven reusable plastic bags made out of that high a recycled content, especially of PCW recycled content. “Certainly this bag must be domestic”, I guessed, knowing that as bad as we are about recycling our post consumer plastic waste, other countries are even worse.
I walked the rest of the show, carrying and displaying my “eco friendly reusable bag”.
Green Should Be Beautiful on the Inside, Too
The following day when I emptied my bag, I looked at the two small labels inside and the incredibly tiny print on them. At very close inspection I realized the bag was made of 100% polypropylene and that it was manufactured in China. “Hmmm. That doesn’t sound right,” I thought, recalling the 80% PCW claim printed on the outside of the bag.
I have been told by people who import low cost plastic bags on a daily basis that many Chinese and other foreign manufacturers will gladly sew in any labels you want with any message you want. They are not inclined to allow the truth to get in the way of a good, green message. Their job is to manufacture products as inexpensively as possible and deliver it on time.
It does not take a chemist or mathematician to figure out that if this bag is 100% polypropylene and 80% post consumer waste as they claim, 80% of the polypropylene waste was something else before it was collected, re-processed and re-extruded into a reusable, non-woven polypropylene bag. Here in the US, polypropylene is used mostly for drinking straws, yogurt cups, medicine bottle, ketchup bottles, and other food related packaging uses.
What is the Truth about Plastic Recycling and Use? 
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Eco Bags is one of our newest customers but I think most would agree they are not band wagon jumpers in the area of reusable or sustainable packaging. In fact, they are often credited as having helped to build the wagon for others, because they’ve been suppliers of reusable shopping bags and other green products for over twenty years. They know green and live it on a daily basis including reusing packaging as often and in every way possible.
If you are a regular ISP reader you know how much I enjoy meeting and interviewing people who are making a difference in this world. I also truly like being on the opposite side of the interview and freely sharing green facts and opinions.
