Why You Should Reuse Your Plastic Shipping Container
Help the environment by reusing your containers
Environmental benefits:
The key benefits found in package reuse are:
- Waste minimization.
- Conservation of resources, including materials and energy.
Economic benefits:
Reuse of packaging offers you savings by minimizing the cost of:
- Protective packaging.
- Disposal of packaging.
- Product damage during shipping and storage.
Additionally, quite a few companies report that they have uncovered additional savings associated with integrating a reusable plastic container system, including reduced expenses for:
- Labor.
- Freight.
- Storage.
Four key features found in reusable transport systems:
Four primary features are typically conducive to the reuse of protective shipping containers:
- Materials travel a short distance.
- Frequent deliveries are expected.
- Few parties are involved in production.
- The company owns or uses dedicated shipping vehicles.
Four potential obstacles preventing container reuse:
- A large initial investment.
- Fees for the return trip can be difficult to control.
- Many facilities lack adequate storage space for empty containers.
- It can be difficult to get distributors, suppliers and customers all on the same page.
Options to promote reuse of shipping containers:
The difficulty or ease a company will encounter in reusing plastic shipping containers will depend on the complete supply chain through which a container will be required to pass and the total expense of:
- Distribution.
- Packaging materials.
- Transport through the supply chain.
- Handling and labor.
- Storage and disposal.
Options to overcome obstacles associated with reuse include:
- Industry-wide standardization.
- Accessibility to third-party container leasing.
- Cooperative efforts across all links in the supply chain.
- Manufacturing containers that can be nested and stacked.
- Government shipping guidelines that promote container reuse.
