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In any discussion of the environmental or
sustainability impact of packaging, we should first examine the
intended function of the design in question. Quite often,
protection is the primary purpose a package will be designed to
accomplish. If we aspire to reduce environmental or
sustainability impacts of a pack designed to protect a product,
we must first ensure that any changes we might consider do not
diminish the new package design’s ability to continue to protect
the product inside.
Recent studies show that quite often, the
product being protected requires greater investment in raw
materials, energy, and other resources far exceeding those
required for the package. If we intend to reduce packaging
materials or basic design requirements, we should be certain
that we do not make any change that will result in increased
product losses through damage occurring during shipping and
distribution operations. Small gains in some measure of package
sustainability at the risk of increased product losses will
nearly always result in a less sustainable outcome.
Also, in the process of developing a
packaging for new products, we must have some means by which we
can ensure that our designs represent the minimum amount of
packaging used for each circumstance.
The most widely accepted processes for
designing or developing protective packaging will usually
culminate in conducting testing to verify the designs, before
being accepted for production. This pre-shipment testing is
instrumental in verifying a package’s ability to protect a
product against the specific hazards that will be encountered in
the intended shipping and distribution environments. When
properly developed, this process can be used to validate a new
package design or a re-design for an existing package-product
system. The process is also a valuable tool in efforts to
reduce the amount of materials used, to substitute one material
for another and to reduce package dimensions for cube
optimization. Historically, these efforts have related to cost
savings in materials, labor, storage and distribution while
today they are recognized as important contributors to
increasing the sustainability of package-product systems.
Reducing the amount of package materials used
along with reducing weight and cube have become common elements
in addressing environmental impacts and sustainability
concerns. Typically classified as source reduction, this
approach often seems like a win-win strategy by saving money
while reducing the environmental profile of a pack design. It
isn’t all positive however.
Reducing packaging weight and/or size will
also often result in reduced packaging performance. If carried
too far, this approach can easily lead to higher damage rates.
Such circumstances can quickly offset any cost savings or
environmentally related improvements theoretically obtained
through packaging-related reductions.
The objective should be to balance these two
factors and to provide the means by which a package design can
be accurately assessed for its effectiveness prior to
implementation.
A key element in achieving such balance is
the selection of the appropriate pre-shipment package validation
testing protocols. Selecting inappropriate test standards can
result in packaging which provides more protection than is
called for or, on the other hand, packaging which passes
laboratory testing while proving inadequate for real life
distribution challenges. In either case, more costs and greater
environmental impact are the unfortunate results. The challenge
is selecting the most appropriate overall test procedure for the
application, one which best reflects those hazards the packaged
product will encounter in sequences and at levels which
represent the actual damage potential of these distribution
elements.
Several organizations provide standards for
this type of package evaluation. These can represent industry,
government or corporate concerns. One such association is the
International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) which develops and
publishes a wide variety of package testing procedures. The
range of transport and shipping scenarios covered by ISTA
Procedures is reflected in the “Guidelines for Selecting and
Using ISTA Test Procedures and Project” available at no charge
on the ISTA website,
WWW.ISTA.ORG.
An additional consideration for accepting
these protocols would be that there are ISTA Certified Package
Testing facilities throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Access to the desired appropriate test standards is consistent,
worldwide. Additionally, ISTA continuously strives to update
their existing protocols, develop new, more applicable standards
as developing circumstances dictate and provide training and
educational programs on a global basis.
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