Closing the Loop with Multi-Use Packaging

The journey of a box isn’t always simple. Depending on your product and industry, a box can be transported between manufacturers, shops, and customers multiple times. If right, multi-use packaging can create a successful closed-loop network, that efficiently delivers goods back and forth within your business operations or to your suppliers and customers.

The Packaging Journey

From design to the last mile, a lot goes into your goods arriving in one piece. The same packaging can be passed throughout your supply chain several times before it reaches its final destination.

Ecommerce packaging is handled around 20 times more than traditional retail, creating more touch points where goods can be damaged. In some cases, if a product is unwanted, the customer will use the same packaging that their goods were delivered in to return them. This increasingly drives the number of times one piece of packaging is handled throughout its lifetime.

In the automotive sector, goods are transported between various manufacturers, who often develop segments based on their specialities before the final car is produced. In the automotive sector, a standard box would not suffice the intricate and heavy parts that are shipped locally or overseas. High-value goods within any industry need a suitable box that can withstand the multiple journeys that the product may have within its lifetime.

The Role of Packaging in International Logistics

If you regularly send parcels, you know how frustrating it can be for you and your customer when a product arrives broken. It’s even more concerning when shipping across the globe. The number of parcels crossing borders has dramatically increased over the years. Every second, 2,760 parcels are shipped globally, creating a constant flow of goods being delivered and returned. International delivery means products must withstand the conditions involving sea, land, rail, or air freight. Get it wrong, and incorrect packaging can put your contents at risk, leading to delays, damages, frustrated customers and increasing costs.

Multi-Use Packaging

Multi-trip packaging is exactly what it says on the tin. Using one box for your product that can withstand multiple journeys throughout your supply chain. Multi-trip packaging can often be overlooked., causing huge impacts on your business and supply chain if they are not fit for purpose. Get it right, and you have a recipe for success. Here’s how:

• Minimise Costs

To maximise your profit, it’s important to keep packaging costs low, by using as little as possible. Eliminating single-use packaging can significantly drive down costs for your business. Using one box for a product throughout your supply chain, means you don’t need to repurchase high quantities of packaging and reduce your waste disposal costs. A strong, high-quality box can protect your products, so you don’t incur costs for replacing the product or packaging.

• Improve Productivity

Protecting your goods with efficient packaging will aid you in getting products to the production line quicker. Reusing packaging eliminates the need for goods to be re-boxed several times when shipping to and from suppliers. The strength of one box can withstand the multiple times the product is handled and the journeys it makes. Ultimately it reduces the time of shipping and returning.

• Efficient use of Storage

Less packaging means you won’t need to purchase endless amounts of boxes that take up critical inventory space.

• Convenience and Ease for you and your Customers

Products that arrive damaged due to bad-quality packaging will need to be replaced, costing you time, money, and your reputation. Cardboard packaging that’s high-quality and fit for purpose will keep your goods safe and secure, withstanding the numerous journeys it may take, until it reaches the end user.

• Environmental Benefits

 In 2021, 12.6 million tonnes of packaging waste were created in the UK. Paper and cardboard contributed to 5.4 million tonnes. This statistic alone should make you want to reduce packaging usage within your business. Using good quality packaging such as our sustainable cardboard solutions means you can use less packaging, promote reuse, and stop your packaging from ending up in landfill. Other key environmental benefits include reducing your carbon footprint and the energy consumption associated with handling and processing. High-quality cardboard boxes can keep your shipping emissions down and maintain fuel efficiency during transport due to its lightweight nature.

Reusable cardboard boxes should be in rotation throughout your supply chain, due to the distinct advantages it brings to your business and the environment. When recycling or reusing cardboard, 70% of the total energy used in the original cardboard production is saved.

Single Box, Multiple Uses

The reusability of packaging creates a closed-loop supply chain and transforms packaging from a single-trip to a multi-trip asset. With our help, one of our clients has been able to do exactly that…

For years now we have provided one of our glass manufacturer clients with large pallet box sets. These pallet boxes allow themselves and their customers to store divider sets, which are reused over and over again in production (we probably don’t need to tell you how many they go through). The empty pallet box sets are sent out from our client to their customers, who on delivery of an order can fill these up with their discarded divider sets and once full can be sent back to be reused. Previously the dividers were used just once and then wasted, but the introduction of this new sustainable pallet box set is a cost-friendly solution and helps them meet various environmental and economic targets – what’s more to love!

Our designers are on hand to create bespoke sustainable multi-trip packaging, that’s tailored to your specific product and supply chain. If you are looking for robust multi-trip packaging, to create a closed-loop packaging process, please get in touch.