there’s the aesthetic appeal. Reusable packaging usually
looks better and often takes up less warehouse space
because it is generally stackable and collapsible.
But for all the positives, reusable
packaging does not make sense for
everyone. Reusable packaging is not
cheap, so to get a return on these
assets (or to justify the fees if the units
are rented from a pooler), a company
has to make sure that it can get the
packaging back. “You’ve invested the
capital, the time, and the labor
resource,” points out Lisa Knight,
director of marketing at Container
and Pooling Solutions (CAPS). “If you
are not able to get those [assets] back, you’re going to be in
some trouble.”
For that reason, reusables tend to work best in a closed-
loop system, where the units are exchanged among the
same few parties, says Knight. She notes that there are cir-
cumstances under which reusables can work in non-
closed-loop environments—for
example, if all of the end users’ facili-
ties are located close enough together
that you could set up a regular milk
run to retrieve the units. But even
under such an arrangement, it would
still be necessary to have a tightly
controlled supply chain with a limit-
ed number of participants, she says.
But even if you have a tightly controlled supply chain, a reusable packaging program is not always a slam
dunk. You have to put some thought into the program’s
setup. What follows are some steps you can take to make
reusable packaging work for your company:
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How to handle your used corrugated
For all reusable packaging’s benefits, it’s hard to beat
the allure of cardboard. The cardboard box is cheap,
easy to obtain, and easy to recycle. It’s also versatile:
According to Jack Ampuja, president and CEO of the
packaging advisory firm Supply Chain Optimizers, a typical corrugated cardboard box will work extremely well
for two-thirds of all packaging applications.
But if you do use cardboard boxes, you have to have a
plan in place for handling the excess (also known as old
corrugated containers, or OCC). If you don’t, it can cre-
ate serious bottlenecks in an operation, says Mike
Connell, sales manager at Balemaster, a manufacturer of
balers. “A distribution center usually requires several
people to handle its excess corrugated,” he explains.
“Boxes are cut down or flattened and bundled on pal-
lets. It can be a very labor-intensive task.”
In most cases, Balemaster says, you will need a baler at
your site so that you can create bales that will be sold to
a paper broker for recycling. “With an automatic baler,
the boxes are simply fed into the baling chamber, where
they are compacted quickly into a tight bale that can be
recycled,” Connell says. “The benefits of using a baler in
a DC include generating revenue by selling bales to a
recycling company, eliminating the cost of hauling the
excess corrugated to a waste yard or landfill, and being
environmentally friendly.”
But you have to choose your baler carefully. There are
several different kinds of machines on the market, so
selection is not always a simple matter, warns Tade
Mahoney of American Baler Co. The wrong choice could
prove costly, he adds. “You have to be really careful
because balers are expensive to put in, and they’re
expensive to take out. So operators of distribution cen-
ters have a responsibility to provide [their baler vendor]
with accurate information.”
That information includes what type of boxes the baler
will be handling (for example, whether they’re single-
wall or double-wall corrugated), the size of the boxes, the
carton-per-minute flow rate (both during average and
peak times), and the percentage of broken-down boxes
versus setup boxes that will be tossed into the baler.
“From that, we determine how big a baler you need, how
big a charge box (the chamber below the hopper and in
front of the ram that holds material before it’s com-
pressed) you need, and how fast the ram (the plate that
compresses the corrugated) has to cycle,” Mahoney says.
Many DCs can get by with a 60-inch charge box, an
eight-inch cylinder, and 50 to 75 horsepower, according
to Mahoney. “But that’s not good for everyone,” he
emphasizes.
Companies may want to consider other features for
their balers, depending on their operation. For instance,
a high-volume operation might want a baler that can tie
bales automatically (which can save two to 10 minutes
of time over manually tying a bale), while a site looking
to cut its energy costs might want a baler that turns off
when idle. Alternatively, a baler with dual pumps and
motors might be a good fit for a DC that can’t afford a
total work stoppage—that’s because if one of the pumps
or motors breaks down, the machine can continue to
operate (albeit at a slower speed). Finally, a really large
DC may find that a baler cannot keep up with the
amount of excess corrugated it churns out. In that case,
it may want to install a shredder over the baler.
