Making the right decision

25 March 2009



Should fresh produce be distributed in plastic trays or corrugated board? Andrew Barnetson, Confederation of Paper Industries, gives his perspective.


When companies choose to distribute fresh produce in plastic trays rather than corrugated board, they make themselves subject to the law of unintended consequences. The result of their decision can be a negative impact on the environment in the form of higher transport costs.

There are few black and white answers when it comes to developing packaging logistics, and the issues are more complicated than many people realise. However, I’m sure we are all agreed that environmental arguments about packaging should be worked through on the basis of fact and applying scientific methods. Despite this, the use of plastic trays to replace corrugated is in danger of becoming conventional wisdom, despite being unsupported following careful examination of all facts.

Doubt at the present time

When they are properly examined, particularly in the context of environmental impact, the facts cast doubt over current practices. Let’s just take one big fact to start with - when using corrugated, it is possible to vary the height of trays instead of having ‘one size fits all’. This leads to far greater efficiencies and lower costs, as corrugated trays make much better use of space on pallets. For example, a recent study showed that standard large corrugated produce trays (600×400mm) outperform plastic trays in terms of space efficiency, with 91-98 per cent utilisation, versus plastics at 66-81 per cent.

For example, the transportation of cucumbers in a plastic 400×300mm tray typically uses a fixed height of 135mm, much of which is not used. Corrugated trays for cucumbers are only 80mm high, which means the full height of the tray is used. A pallet might typically have 10 trays per layer. With corrugated, it is possible to have 20 layers and 200 trays on a pallet, compared with 10 layers and 100 trays using plastic. The stacking of greater amounts of products per pallet increases efficiencies, reducing costs and the amount of trucks on the roads.

It is not always understood that some produce arrives at the retailers’ distribution centres packed in corrugated trays, thereafter being decanted into plastic trays for the journey to the retailer. The corrugated is sent for recycling after the produce has been counted out into plastic trays. But the impact of decanting is that there can be up to four times more truck journeys for the onward journey. The retailer may have good commercial reasons for this action, but it has a big impact in terms of CO2 emissions.

Recycling or reuse?

Another argument often made in favour of plastic trays is that they are reusable, but reuse is not always better than recycling. Indeed, the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) recognises the ‘reduce-reuse-recycle’ waste hierarchy, but importantly establishes that there may be situations when recycling is better than reusing. In many situations, the transport of fresh produce is one of these cases, especially as the supply of corrugated is more easily calibrated to seasonal demand. If everyone is really signing up to reducing environmental impact, such considerations should be factored into the design of sustainable distribution systems.

Factoring the impact in

We realise the potential complexity of calculating the full environmental impact of packaging choices, but we argue that companies need to take fully into account the transport implications of using plastic trays which may counter the benefits of returnable systems. Indeed, the unintended consequence of constantly circulating plastic trays on lorries may well be more cost and more pollution. We call for re-examination of all the facts before any more decisions of this type are made.


Andrew Barnetson Standard large corrugated produce trays (600x400mm) outperform plastic trays in terms of space efficiency

Standard large corrugated produce trays (600x400mm) outperform plastic trays in terms of space efficiency Standard large corrugated produce trays (600x400mm) outperform plastic trays in terms of space efficiency
Andrew Barnetson Andrew Barnetson


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