Engineers always seem to be constantly tweaking things to take costs out of the supply chain. So much of those efforts are spent on low-hanging fruit. But exciting developments left simmering on back burners are starting to come to a rolling boil – all aimed at that ubiquitous “last mile” – the most expensive mile…
Hot Topics In Sustainable Packaging
Sustainability in packaging is barely in its second decade, yet a dizzying level of innovations are radically transforming the industry. Packaging sustainability efforts address every facet – and every player – of the supply chain. Nearly every innovation takes into account each product or feature’s lifecycle, and its environmental impact and ecological footprint. Suppliers, contract packagers, and…
Innovative Packaging Techniques Are Invaluable Marketing Opportunities, Says Branding Expert
Our e-newsletters have often explored the importance of innovative packaging solutions, and the value of smart designs in promoting your company’s unique brand. Do you still need convincing? To Ted Church, principal, founder and branding specialist of Boulder, CO-based Anthem Branding, packaging and branding are not only essential marketing, but can go far in elevating…
What Good Is ‘green Packaging’ If Your Products Arrive Damaged?
As we noted in our newsletter a few issues back, corrugated cardboard is looking greener every day, bolstered by news like that from the Corrugated Packaging Alliance, whose recent industry life cycle assessment study uncovered significant per unit reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, due in large part to increased recycling efforts. Still, there’s a not-so-silver…
Cardboard In The News
Our latest installment of news snippets about the world’s most versatile and affordable packaging material…. Stiff Chinese tariff hikes hit OCC Just weeks after corrugated packaging and recycling industry groups mulled recommendations for increasing residential recovery of old corrugated containers (OCC), China in early August announced it will impose a 25 percent tariff on OCC…
Got Cardboard? Artists Hobbyists Limited Only By Their Imaginations
The versatility of corrugated cardboard continues to astound. And it shows how blithely we all toss cardboard into the recycling bin, or worse, a trash can, without imagining how amazing this material really is. To the novice, this popular packaging material is simply stiff, brown, heavy paper most well-suited as a shipping container, file box…
Oil’s Effect On Polybag Pricing; Occasional Volatility, But Mostly Stable
Some of you may have noticed recently that polybag pricing has been a bit up and down. As a packaging company, we pride ourselves in offering a large variety of these very versatile and widely used products. Some are heat-sealed, while others are “stitched” or adhesive bonded. Some incorporate zip closures while others are self-sealing….
That Muscular Packaging Miracle Called Corrugated
How is it that something as lightweight as paper can safely act as a receptacle for something more than 500 times its own weight? How is it that something made to ship a small printer ink cartridge from Amazon be the very same thing suitable to live and die in? After all, tiny houses and…
Think ‘outside The [corrugated] Box’
Remember the days of childhood, when a chance nab of a large empty furniture or appliance box became a playhouse, a castle, or a pretend car? Or when we stacked lots of big boxes of various sizes to make different rooms? Some of you may even remember a company designing a Gemini space capsule out…
A Case Of Expensive “air”
Vast amounts of money are wasted each year shipping air in corrugated boxes. Even two years after major commercial shippers implemented game-changing “dimensional weight pricing” across the board, many companies still inexplicably ship products in oversized boxes. What? You say? Most consumers, particularly those not in the freight or e-commerce business, likely have never heard of dimensional weight pricing,…