The packaging industry faces a unique struggle. Packaging is necessary for the safe transportation, sanitization, and overall care of many products. Consumers expect proper packaging, yet they also despise overpackaging, as it can be wasteful. Therefore, the packaging industry faces an eternal struggle of striking a balance between function and sustainability. The secondary packaging industry is no stranger to this dichotomy, it regularly faces the strain of getting products safely to consumers without overpackaging them.
Just about every industry imaginable that produces a physical product must invest in secondary packaging to safely ship their items, whether cross-country or even overseas. Shipping is a tricky thing to navigate. Products with too little secondary packaging are prone to toppling over during the shipment process and becoming damaged to the point of no longer being viable for purchase by consumers. This is a huge cost to the company and a large inconvenience to the stores that order stock and receive less than their ordered amount due to damage.
Too much secondary packaging, on the other hand, can lead to waste, excess costs, and even damaged products. Overpackaging can put strain on your products if they’re packed too tightly. It can also lead to a ton of wasted time and a decrease in efficiency, as it takes a long time to overpack goods and unpack them once they arrive at their destinations. Overpackaging goods is also an issue for waste. Packing products in more packaging than necessary is wasteful, and it can potentially pose a threat to the environment.
Discover the two main ways to reduce packaging waste for sustainable packaging without sacrificing your products’ safety.
Use the proper containment force when stretch-wrapping your pallets
Using the proper containment force is essential when it comes to reducing packaging waste for more sustainable packaging. Containment force truly is the key to a sustainable secondary packaging operation. Containment force is the amount of force applied to the stretch wrap in which pallets are wrapped.
Once your products are palletized, they must be wrapped in stretch film in order to remain stable on the pallet. Palletizing loads is a great way to increase efficiency, as they’re much easier to load onto trucks and into shipping containers. The key to proper palletizing is the right stretch film containment force, which keeps the products affixed to the pallet and safe during the rough ride that often comes with shipping routes.
Achieving the right containment force is hard work and nearly impossible when you’re wrapping pallets by hand. Hand-wrapping pallets is risky because it puts your workers at risk of injury, as it’s a physically demanding task. It also puts your products at risk because of human error and lack of consistency. To get the perfect containment force every time, investing in a Robopac USA stretch-wrapping machine is the best option. Our products make sure pallets are stretch-wrapped with the exact right amount of containment force every single time. This leads to safer shipments, less product damage, and, most of all, less stretch wrap being used.
With the proper containment force, you’ll always know you’re not using too much or too little stretch film, but the exact right amount. You’ll experience no more wasted stretch film thanks to a much more sustainable packaging practice.
Use the right technology in your automation
Using the right technology is another crucial way you can reduce your packaging waste and to make your secondary packaging operation more sustainable. A stretch-wrapping machine without the right technology could be making just as many mistakes as someone who’s hand-wrapping pallets, and you’d never know. When you make the jump to automation, make sure you do it right with Robopac USA’s very own technology. We equip many of our machines with our Cube Technology, which is only available on our products. Cube Technology reduces film costs by 30 to 55 percent. This is because it allows Robopac USA’s stretch-wrappers to use less stretch-wrapping film. Less film used means savings for you and for the environment, as there’s no longer excess packaging waste. An added bonus of our sustainable Cube Technology is that it’s known to reduce product damage by 40 percent.
The right technology is crucial to sustainability in your operation. Investing in technology for your company is the right move for efficiency, profitability, and, of course, sustainability.
Train your workers to identify and report any waste
Your workers are on the ground floor of your operation. They see things you don’t even know about. Your people are your biggest assets in a warehouse or large facility setting. When you’re working on the management end, it’s easy to lose sight of the actual day-to-day operations, whereas your workers live the day-to-day. They may have some great insight. Therefore, consider training your workers to identify places where waste is happening or where there’s room for improvement. Encourage them to bring ideas and problems to you or to their respective managers. Together, the entire operation can become a more sustainable and more profitable model. Once you’ve trained your employees on how to spot problems with sustainability, come up with an efficient and manageable channel for them to report and work to come up with solutions for identified waste.
Robopac USA creates machines designed to make your secondary packaging operation more sustainable. Sustainability in packaging translates to better efficiency and less costs for your business. There are many wonderful reasons to invest in increasing your operation’s sustainability and to reduce waste in an operation, from wasting less capital to increasing efficiency and helping the environment along the way. These are all positive contributors to your company and your environment.
Check out our line of machines that come with our superior built-in technology. R-connect and Cube Technology are designed with sustainability, efficiency, and profitability in mind. Consider our turntable stretch wrappers, which are designed to work with unique loads and fit the needs of your business and output. Browse our line of machines today to start your journey to a more sustainable secondary packaging operation.
