Carton board is 40-year-old logistics solution that is the future of now. It’s another Scandinavian obscurity that makes perfect sense on a “normal” level. It’s time to learn more.
A greener approach to packing goods
How many times have you seen wooden packing crates go into the dumpster? Almost all of them could be re-used-they could even be disassembled and stored, but where? Furthermore, who has time to deal with that? In your lean logistics environment, you barely have time to dump the cardboard and plastic into the recycling bins.
There’s a solution to this problem: stop using wooden packaging. Does it sound like a crazy idea? Once upon a time, mobile phones were a sci-fi subject. Back when mobile phones were only mobile if hard-wired into cars-we’re talking circa 1975, and back then they were only in the most-expensive cars-a Finnish company called Eltite was experimenting with the idea of using plain old carton board-the light-brown stuff we see on the cores of rolls of labels, rolls of tape and countless other things in our warehouses and factories-to make packing containers.
Imagine really being a facility that honestly did recycle 100% of its waste. Yes, we all know about zero-waste factories. That term really only applies to production waste. We’re not saying that such an accomplishment isn’t very impressive and deserving of compliment-but let’s face it, it’s only a partial truth. Anything you receive that requires a container more rigid than a conventional, corrugated box comes in some odd-ball container that can’t easily be put into the recycled waste stream.
If you’re lucky, some enterprising employee is willing to give up his lunch break to tear apart a packing crate that he’ll take home in his truck to build a chicken coop, a kid’s club house or some other useful project. If that’s not the case, it’s going in the dumpster. The compactor will crush it enough to make it out of sight and out of mind.
Carton board saves green on the balance sheet as well
Carton board isn’t just for packing crates. It is strong enough to be used for pallets in a number of logistics applications. Swedish consumer retail giant IKEA has saved millions of Euros by shipping many of its goods on carton board pallets. There isn’t much since to the savings. These pallets weigh a lot less and therefore it costs less to ship your load since the overall weight is lower.
Shippers will be more willing to work with your load size specs if your loads weigh less, since they may be able to use smaller trucks and will save money themselves by shipping lighter loads the same number of miles and spending less on fuel in the process. So until the whole world switches to carton board, you’ll be a favored customer among shipping agents.
There is 40 years of history behind the success of carton board used for shipping materials. The future of efficient logistics is starting now on the ground floor of every warehouse where carton board pallets can be used instead of heavy wood or environmentally-unfriendly plastic.
