HOW MUCH IMPROVEMENT IS POSSIBLE IN PAPER PERFORMANCE AND CORRUGATED PACKAGING?

摘要

Much of the corrugated packaging used is over specified, more costly than needed and heavier than required putting a load on transport, recovery systems and the amount of material sent to landfill. Although a majority of this packaging is re-used, much of it is not and finds its way into environmentally unsatisfactory solutions such as landfill. The surging use of packaging in on-line purchasing and shipment increases the environmental issues associated with this over packaging. Recent work has shown that up to 25% of the outer packaging in transport shipments consist of free space. From a purely theoretical analysis there is the potential of lowering box weights used in corrugated packaging by up to 50% for heavy paper grades by controlling paper strength variation, managing recycled streams and monitoring and lessening damage in the box plant. More realistically, in the short to medium term packaging weights appear to be capable of dropping by around 20% with only moderate investment, effort and care. Package weight can drop further by proper and applicable box designs that minimise unnecessary package volume.