Consumers continue to base purchase decisions more and more on purpose – not just price.  Companies are doing the same, striving to prioritise environmental and social considerations as well as profits.  In truth, environmental packaging reviews became a matter of profit either way, as the government rolled out the plastic tax.  Interestingly, an immediate assumption is made that moving to environmentally friendly packaging means paying more.  Whilst that can be the case it isn’t a given.  The environmental issue has been around for a long time and many innovations have been made – if companies are willing to take a look.

 
 
Taking a look is easier said than done of course. In the case we are looking at here, bubble wrap was the main packaging item.  Our customer’s goal was:

"To switch to 100% paper-based packaging for on-line orders".

At last count, there are over 15 bubble alternatives in our catalogue in varying pricing, levels of protection and meterage’s. Does anyone in your company have time to review and test all of the alternatives, price match it and ensure that the solution gets goods from one place to another safely? But at Plus Packaging, we do – because that’s our job and whilst we aim for the very best on-line experience, our people are still out and about, giving advice and ensuring customers are using the packaging that provides full protection of their products AND aligns with your companies’ environmental goals. One of those initiatives is the environmental assessment.
 

A large wholesaler (I know we could say the name, but realistically, would you do that publicly if it was a good client 😉) began that process.  By the end of the process 290km of plastic per year (the equivalent of driving from Liverpool to Bristol), in the form of bubble wrap was removed from the packing process. 

This was to be replaced by a paper-based product – Honeyflo. Watch our video demonstrating this product.
 
 
 

Assessment 

Step one in an assessment is always to make sure the solution gets product to customer as safely as the previous item did.  Too often, random alternative items are thrown in the mix because they are environmentally friendly – but irrelevant to the product, packing, transit and unboxing requirements.  In this case, packed items varied in size, could be high in value, but didn’t really need scratch protection due to the method of transport and outer packaging.  Bubble wrap covered all of these needs – the bubbles meant good protection, it was flexible and tearable to suit varied product size.

Paper sheets – or varied forms of paper sheets are often put forward as direct bubble replacements – and in many cases they can be effective.  For this wholesaler, paper sheets, even embossed products like Boss Paper, would tear too easy in transit as they were not as flexible as plastic.
 
 
The right solution was Honeyflo – 5mm thick once taken from the dispenser to replicate the protection of Bubble, extremely flexible and on a roll so perfect for varying product dimensions. This customer also benefitted from huge storage space savings as Honeyflo comes with a handy desktop dispenser. Fancy a bonus? Its over 30% less in price.

“The desk top dispenser is very easy to use compared the rolls of bubble which they had to store on the floor by the desk“.

Execution

Outcome is all that matters, and, in this case, they needed to be clearly demonstrated to all manner of stakeholders.  For customers, in some cases changing to paper was an outright requirement.  For other customers of this wholesaler reporting on the changes made gave them a strong competitive advantage.  Their Marketing department were able to showcase sustainability on a much wider and more credible scale, helping to align with their ISO14001 compliance.  In the bigger picture, the company was on an overall sustainability drive and packaging was a large part of eventual success.
 
  
 Plus Packaging were able to provide fortnightly reporting through a Key Account Manager.  Our KAM’s are appointed to accounts to ensure stock levels are maintained across all products – but are also able to provide reporting on packaging weights, product detail for certification and product usage.  This enabled the client to clearly demonstrate savings to all stakeholders.
 
  
Whilst we are throwing bonus wins in – Honeyflo contains 250m of protection whilst taking up around 1/10^th of the space of Bubble Wrap’s 100m protection.

“Saving on storage space is a big one for the warehouse team.  From 100 rolls of bubble a week to 2 pallets of Honey Flo a month.  (Reducing transport emissions along the way 😊)”.

 
 Summary

 Large scale sustainability benefits are not as difficult, expensive and time consuming as you may think.  Hold that thought – they are if you try them alone.  Some companies have indeed withdrawn personalised advice and presence in assessment – but some have not.   Innovation is aggressive in the packaging world with the high level of competition – it’s very likely that there is a product for your application that you may not even know about!
  
 
Get in touch today if you’d like to experience a personalised environmental assessment, our email reply time is less than 35 minutes and we'll answer the phone under 10 seconds. 0151 486 4800.