Reducing Packaging Material & No Overpacking
Less Is More! Reducing Packaging Material and Overpacking – Everybody buys (pretty much) everything online nowadays. Therefore, just about every item imaginable comes shipped in a corrugated box, and it needs to withstand the stresses of being flung around from warehouse to truck. That includes items that are delicate, fragile, breakable, and often irreplaceable, or at the very least, quite expensive to be dropped by the UPS guy. Naturally, this need to protect everything that goes on a delivery truck created a huge demand for cheap and lightweight packaging for every possible shape, size, and weight of items. EPS foam has long filled this void, and it’s more or less done the job, but it’s come at a tremendous long-term cost to our planet. EPS is “recyclable” but not considered curbside recyclable material. Meaning the consumer needs to take the EPS foam and find a recycling center that will accept it in order for this material to stay out of the landfills. EPS currently makes up about a third of the total volume of all landfill content. Did we mention that it takes hundreds of years to completely biodegrade?
So, what do we do?
We’ve spent years examining, testing and experimenting with a wide variety of ways to replace EPS, and we’ve discovered a game-changer of a solution. As it turns out, there is a packaging solution that can provide better product protection without paying the price of polluting our planet.
EP3 is a custom engineered polyethylene solution that is 100% reusable, recyclable and sustainable. EPE has developed a solution that uses the exact amount of material required to protect your product during transit. Because of this design philosophy and design innovation much less of it is needed to protect items that previously required massive amounts of single-use EPS foam. How much less, you ask? In some cases, up to an 80% reduction in material. This translates to substantial cost savings. Because less packaging material is needed, your cost of material is reduced, your volumetric carton got smaller, so your dim weight to ship the product is lower. This savings translates to an increased pallet and container yield. Anyone who is in supply chain or understands the movement of material understands that freight bears most of the cost burden.
How can less packaging exceed EPS in protection? Simply put, PE is a more durable material that has cushioning memory, which allows for repeatable impacts. When you combine better material and place it exactly (and only) where it’s needed, it can provide critical protection without a need for excessive overpack.
We’ve been around for more than 50 years and have helped companies, both large and small, completely revitalize their packaging and shipping processes to become more sustainable while reducing costs where it matters! We’ve developed proprietary packaging designs to protect your product during transit at the lowest possible cost while changing our environmental world. If you’re interested in learning how your business can reduce damage and packaging costs, contact our team today.
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