Packaging Waste Reduction

Workshop Notes: Industry Session 1
Packaging, Shipping, Logistics: What makes sense for you?

With the numerous options available to package and distribute products, trying to determine what works best for your own business can be a daunting task. This industry session focused on the various issues when considering efficient packaging and distribution.

Panelists: Jorge Marcondes, San Jose State University Packaging Program; Herb Schueneman, WestPack, Inc.; Michael McCartney, QLM Consulting; Peter Kolotouras, United Parcel Service; Paul Rankin, Assoc. of Container Reconditioners.

Jorge Marcondes, PhD, San Jose State University Packaging Program

Currently, the Packaging Program at SJSU can assist medium and small size businesses to manage their packaging issues, especially if there exist product damage or excessive packaging. The SJSU Packaging Laboratory is instrumented with a variety of equipment to test packages and ensure they will provide product protection at minimum cost.

There is an urgent need for more students to enter the Packaging Program. The demand for graduates is enormous (about 200 requests per year). The same demand exists for student interns. There is a need for a campaign in high schools to educate students about possibilities of a career in packaging.

Industry, University, and Government should team up together to establish a Science and Technology Center in the Silicon Valley, to assist especially small businesses and start ups with their packaging. This center would also conduct research and promote technology transfer through seminars and workshops. There is federal funding for such a center (National Science Foundation)--but there is a need to get a solid proposal written, including all partners interested.

Herb Schueneman, WestPak, Inc.

How do we focus on efficient delivery and take care of the environment? Focusing on packaging alone is too narrow. The focus has to be on the quality delivered. The product must be delivered to the customer in a quality condition.

1. Define the distribution environment. How will the shipment be handled? What does the shipment have to go through? What may the product be exposed to? (For example, altitude, temperature, shock, and vibration.) What packaging does the product REALLY need?
2. Define ruggedness of the product. Define its sensitivity to distribution. What protection is needed from the package?
3. Define characteristics of packaging materials.
4. Design the package.
5. Test the package.

The best package is no package at all. However, this cannot occur without rugged products. Packaging is 1/4 to 1/3 of all solid waste. Inefficient use of materials increases distribution cost. A key question is how do we get people to use existing tools to optimize packaging?

Michael McCartney, Quality Logistics Management (QLM) Consulting

Mr. McCartney's presentation focused on companies that built packaging partnerships that led to cost savings, increased sales, and operations that are more efficient. He described a project with James River that involved, Walmart/Sam's Club, truck and rail transporters, and Stone Container. James River was competing with Proctor and Gamble and they needed to reduce costs to increase their market share. A team was formed to look into the feasibility of creating an innovative solution to meet the expectations of Sam's Club. It took several months to find the right people. They ended up with a group of 40 to 50 people and of this, about 12 served as the core team. This project team met continuously for two years to refine the project as it developed.

The goals were to reduce the costs of towels and tissues. They looked at the product, its container, and the pallets used in shipping. Cost savings were accomplished through several packaging changes:

• The towel and tissue cores were strengthened so they could handle more stacking strength. The team found that the box they were using had not been looked at for 30 years and by cutting 2" off the flap, $326,000 of cost savings was achieved at one plant.
• For some products they added corner posts and shrink wrap.
• They replaced the GMAC pallets (wood) with cardboard pallets, designed to be oversized to take advantage of increased truck capacity and used a low profile design.
• They the made pallets strong enough to used two times and developed the closed-loop system to collect pallets for reuse.

The results were very positive. Sam's Club increased orders for James River product. The team built a lasting relationship through actively participating in a process from start to finish. This commitment to change required patience and perseverance from James River, the distribution center, transportation partners and Sam's Club.

McCartney shared another example of how to build recycling and packaging partnerships. This one involved Sears Logistics Services of Benicia that was handling 33 truckloads of white goods per day and generating 5 tons of corrugated per day. No one had looked at closing the loop. By setting up a corrugated collection program and a comprehensive reuse and recycling program for metal bandings, plastic packaging materials, wood waste and other types of packaging materials they reduced their waste disposal costs by 70 percent. The company received the California WRAP award for this effort and its ongoing program to reduce waste and costs throughout its operations.

To summarize, McCartney presented characteristics of success. Building partnerships to improve packaging and logistics requires a commitment for change from top management, the ability to work outside of the box and persevere through the errors that arise.

Peter Koltouros, UPS

Koltouros described the small parcel environment and factors one should consider to ship efficiently. Many UPS customers are small businesses with 5 to 10 packages per day.

Factor to consider in shipping are:

• Appearance. Boxes get dirty when they are shipped. This is an important factor if the shipped item will be on display. One company switched from a brown box to a white one thinking it would help market their product. However, the white boxes got dirty and they ended up switching back to the brown box.
• Fragility.
• Weight and size of carton. Containers move on a train cart, then to an outbound trailer, and back to a train cart at the other end. Customers can ask account executives to describe the type of environment a container goes through.
• Value of the product. Many customers insure high value packages. These packages are shipped differently. They are marked and checked step by step.

Packaging Tips:

• Make certain the closure is secure.
• Use proper labeling. Labeling is misunderstood. There are new codes that look like inkplots (rather than bar codes) that fit in a ½" by ½" square. This label contains information for the shipper.
• If problems arise, be creative. Gateway 2000 has a set of containers that need to arrive to the customer on the same day. The set of boxes are designed so when stacked together they make a cow. This makes it easy for the shipper to know that they have all the boxes together.
• It costs you more money to send out your product in non-reusable packaging. Kaltouros said when cardboard is shipped it loses 50 percent of its integrity.

In response to a question, Kaltouros said that UPS handles reusable packaging. This is referred to as reverse logistics. UPS is a service provider and can work this out with customers. UPS also is testing reusable envelopes. They have added another adhesive strip so the envelop can be used twice.

Paul Rankin, Association of Container Reconditioners

Mr. Rankin said the members of the Association of Container Reconditioners recondition between 35 and 40 million steel drums annually in the U.S., and approximately 3 to 5 million in the State of California. These numbers represent about 90 percent of all drums reconditioned in the U.S. every year.

He also stated that the traditional packaging hierarchy, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" should be revised to place "reuse" at the top of the list (i.e., reuse, reduce, recycle). By emphasizing reduction, many companies have been encouraged to reduced the weight of packaging which, in the case of many reusable containers, including steel drums, weakens them to the point of non-reusability. Thus, while the drums may be recyclable, they are not reusable.

Recycling is less environmentally beneficial than reuse from an energy and waste production standpoint, and it is generally less cost efficient than reuse. Therefore, to the extent that state policies support weight (i.e., material) reduction, they discourage reuse which is the more environmentally sound approach to packaging.

Rankin also noted that the Board and other state waste policy managers tend to group all packaging together--consumer, commercial, and industrial. He suggested that these packaging types are inherently different, and state policies should differentiate between them. To this end, Mr. Rankin offered to work with the Board and other interested groups to develop a definition of "industrial" packaging. Such a definition will ensure that future policies will be properly directed at specific packaging types.

Rankin stated that companies can save substantial amounts of money through the reuse of packaging, particularly steel and plastic drums and intermediate bulk containers. He encouraged firms to review their current packaging strategies, consider opportunities in which reusable packaging may replace non-reusable types, and work closely with suppliers to ensure that adequate collection and cleaning systems are available.

The question was asked if plastic drums are reusable. Rankin said that plastic drums are both reusable and recyclable.

These notes are from the workshop titled "Saving Money and Improving Efficiency of Packaging in Distribution Systems" held on October 9, 1997 at San Jose State University. This document is a compilation of notes taken by several different people, such as student volunteers and CIWMB staff, who attended the workshop.

These notes are not intended to be direct quotes. Participating panelists were given the opportunity to review these notes for clarification. The identification of individuals, companies, and products in this document does not constitute endorsement by the Integrated Waste Management Board and is provided for informational purposes only.

Workshop Notes