No, I haven’t just seen the latest Star Trek movie. I really do believe space is the new frontier for packaging. In fact, no discussion of the environmental performance of packaging is complete without fully exploring how space is used. Right now, across the corrugated industry, designers are finding new ways to maximise the use of space. The potential gains are enormous.
In some ways, discussing space is an abstract concept. It means asking ‘what isn’t there?’ Much discussion of environmental performance is focused on the sustainability of the packaging materials, and not on how the packaging is deployed. We should broaden the debate to describe how corrugated packaging can make the most efficient use of space and generate significant economic and eco benefits. After all, design skills in the corrugated industry have now reached a point where they can make a very big contribution indeed to improving customer profitability.
For example, corrugated trays can make better use of space on pallets than plastics ones. A recent study showed that standard large corrugated produce trays (600 x 400 mm) outperform plastics ones in terms of space efficiency by 91-98 per cent utilisation against 66-81 per cent. What’s more, because the height of corrugated trays can be calibrated to specific products, it is possible to carry more on a pallet. More products per pallet lead to greater efficiencies, lower costs and fewer trucks on the roads.
Look at this specific example for sugar snap peas in the table ('Corrugated Efficiency' - right). It shows that, for exactly the same number of items per tray, corrugated is 33 per cent more space efficient, making 141 truck journeys unnecessary.
One argument often made in favour of plastics trays is that they are re-usable, but re-use is not always better than recycling. Indeed, the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), which has just been published, recognises the ‘reduce-re-use-recycle’ waste hierarchy, but importantly identifies that there may be situations when recycling is better than re-using. The transport of fresh produce is one of those situations, especially as the supply of corrugated is more easily calibrated to seasonal demand.
The principle of increasing space efficiency applies to all types of corrugated packaging, not just for trays. Boxes need to be designed to fill lorries from floor to roof. If every lorry on the road was filled to complete capacity, the savings in fuel costs and CO2 emissions would be huge. Corrugated can adapt itself to product after product. No other packaging material has such flexibility.
The battle for space is even fiercer on the shelf. Imagine if you could use all three dimensions fully. With corrugated you can. More and more retail-ready designs are aiming to exploit to the maximum the height, depth and breadth of the display space. Using today’s sophisticated design technologies, the size of the corrugated display pack can be related to the shelf dimensions and the rate of sale. By optimising space, retailers can increase availability, which means more sales.
Corrugated remains the UK’s favourite packaging material and represents just over 30 per cent of all packaging. One major reason for this is its total flexibility both in design and manufacture. As awareness grows of the benefits to be gained from exploring the better use of space, more and more companies will take this into account in their assessment of supply chain efficiency and environmental performance.
The environmental debate is producing arguments of increasing complexity. Corrugated packaging suppliers are stepping up to the mark and offering their customers new perspectives on how corrugated can make their supply chains more sustainable. The recycling argument is already well advanced. With over 80 per cent of all corrugated currently being recycled, and with all corrugated boxes containing an average of 76 per cent recycled material, the outstanding recycling performance of the corrugated industry is widely acknowledged.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure” is an old management saying. Designers and other technical colleagues in the corrugated industry are increasingly using predictive tools to establish the best use of materials and move towards packaging that is designed for optimal efficiency in its particular supply chain. There is an intense focus on innovation, sustainable design and ‘rightweighting’.
Corrugated’s design versatility means that it has moved on a long way from its traditional role as a brown outer box. Corrugated packaging can now be virtually any shape. What’s more, the industry offers the benefit of short lead times and the flexibility of any shape and any number on demand. It must be the summer sunshine, but I’ve suddenly remembered that famous Martini campaign, which I think would work well for corrugated – “any time, any place anywhere”. When it comes to choosing packaging materials, corrugated is definitely “the right one”.
Andrew Barnetson is the corrugated sector manager of the Confederation of Paper Industries
Corrugated efficiency Andrew Barnetson TablesCorrugated efficiency
