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The following case studies describe programs that reduce distribution packaging:
Selling used corrugated cardboard boxes Umanoff and Parsons, a baker and wholesaler of cakes and pies in Brooklyn, accumulates a large quantity of corrugated cardboard boxes from the deliveries of their ingredients. Through New York WasteMatch, a local materials exchange broker, Umanoff and Parsons found a nearby business that was interested in purchasing the boxes. United Shipping and Packaging (USP), a packaging, crating, and shipping company in Long Island City, periodically purchases nearly 3,000 of Umanoff’s leftover corrugated boxes at a time, saving roughly $2,500 in purchasing costs. Umanoff makes roughly $300 or more on each sale, or about 10 times what they would get from a recycler. Source: New York WasteMatch, winter 2003 ALSO SEE waste exchanges in waste less at agencies & schools resources for links to other materials exchanges. Replacing cardboard boxes with reusable totes Hudson News operates a number of newsstands in NYC airports, bus depots, and train stations. Because of the high purchasing cost of cardboard, Hudson News decided to switch to reusable totes (made from recycled plastic) to deliver and retrieve magazines from their retail operations. In the past, magazines were bound with plastic strapping or shrink wrap and shipped to retail stores in cardboard boxes. Some stores would return the unsold magazines in the same cardboard boxes, or buy new cardboard boxes to ship returns back to the distribution facility. Making the switch to reusable totes eliminated the use of plastic strapping, shrink wrap, and cardboard. As a result, Hudson News lowered its disposal costs by 20 percent. In addition to saving money, the use of totes prevents product loss, since totes are sealed at the plant and remain unopened until they reach their destination. Mike Bartow, Operations Manager at the North Bergen, NJ, wholesale facility, performed a “back of envelope” cost/benefit analysis to confirm the decision to change to reusable totes. Based on the cost of cardboard alone, he described it as a “no-brainer.” Although eliminating cardboard would also eliminate the revenue generated through cardboard recycling back at their distribution facility, Bartow determined that the switch was cost-effective and a good decision. Source: NYC WasteLe$$ Business Newsletter, Retail Issue 3: Waste Prevention A & H Sportswear, Miron Lumber, and Serig Fashions are companies based in the same area of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Following an introduction by New York WasteMatch, each month A & H collects surplus pallets from one or both of its neighbors. A & H saves $500 or more a month on the cost of pallets, and the other companies each save an average of $210 a transaction on their carting costs. Source: New York WasteMatch, Winter 2003 ALSO SEE waste exchanges in waste less at agencies & schools resources for links to other materials exchanges. Pallet exchange lowers purchasing and carting costs U.S. Airways, a domestic and international passenger service airline, operates a cargo operation at LaGuardia Airport. Incoming cargo arrives on pallets, and after it is distributed, a large surplus of empty pallets remains. Although the cargo facility possesses two 30-cubic-yard, open-top containers — one for pallets and another for trash — both containers were largely (approximately 90 percent) filled with surplus pallets. The facility’s carter charged $450 to pick up the pallet container once a week, and $600 to pick up the trash container. Due to the co-mingling of garbage and pallets in the designated pallet container, U.S. Airways was continually charged $600 per container per pickup. Through participation in the NYC WasteLe$$ Business Project, U.S. Airways staff learned that their trucking operation at JFK International Airport was in need of pallets. LaGuardia cargo staff now store usable pallets (approximately 80 to 100 pallets weekly) for pickup by JFK trucking staff. This has reduced container collection at the LaGuardia cargo facility from once a week to once a month. These efforts have annually saved U.S. Airways roughly $12,950 in waste disposal and operational costs, and $28,000 in pallet purchasing costs. Source: NYC WasteLe$$ Summary Report, spring 2000, p. 70 Replacing wooden pallets with reusable plastic pallets Dan River Company, Inc., a textile manufacturer and charter WasteWi$e partner, eliminated 175 tons of corrugated cardboard per year (6,700 pounds per week) by switching to reusable packaging. This Danville, Virginia, manufacturer of sheets and comforters received weekly yarn shipments in corrugated containers. In 1994, the company converted to reusable plastic pallets enclosed by stretch wrap. Different parts of the pallets are used anywhere from 60 to 540 times before being recycled, and only 5 tons per year (195 pounds/week) of stretch wrap is used, all of which is recycled. Source: USEPA’s WasteWise Update: A Fresh Look at Packaging, p. 12 National pallet pooling system In 2000, Home Depot began asking its vendors to ship products to all of its U.S. stores and distribution centers using an environmentally sound and money-saving alternative to conventional wood pallets. The alternative is a nationwide pallet “pooling” system provided by CHEP USA. The system works as follows. CHEP USA delivers uniformly sized pallets to Home Depot vendors, who load and ship them to Home Depot retail locations and distribution centers, which then return them to the pooling service’s centers for inspection and repair. Pooling is like a form of renting or leasing, where the burden of pallet tracking, repair, and recycling is put on the pallet supplier, rather than on the end-user. According to Wayne Gibson, Home Depot’s senior vice president for imports and logistics, “The typical Home Depot store uses more than 30,000 pallets in a year. On average, nearly 10,000 of those pallets currently end up in landfills after only one use, mainly because they are of such low quality.” CHEP offers higher quality, longer-lasting wood pallets than what Home Depot was previously receiving and is able to offer a level of recycling that Home Depot cannot. Uniformly sized, higher-quality pallets also reduce supply-purchasing costs, minimize shipping damage, and enhance the ease of loading and unloading trucks. Source: PR Newswire, April 13, 2000
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Materials Exchanges and Distribution Packaging Case Studies
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