Three actionable ways to reduce your company’s reliance on expanded polystyrene and environmental footprint in the plant and throughout the supply chain.
Increased numbers of manufacturers and retailers are undertaking initiatives to eliminate or significantly reduce their use of expanded polystyrene over the next decade (for example, see Target’s goal to eliminate expanded polystyrene by 2022).
Much of this push is sustainability driven, as there are limited recycling streams for EPS. However, if you’re ever purchased a flat screen TV or similar large product, you’ll find it doesn’t take much of the bulky, blocky EPS foam to quickly fill up your garbage container at home. So there’s additional motivation to reduce EPS stems from unfavorable feedback that can negatively impact your Net Promoter Score or “Star Ratings.”
Recyclability concerns aside, EPS can meet multiple requirements for an optimized packaging system including: cost, protection, and ability to fit around complex geometries. With some of these large scale initiatives in place to reduce or eliminate expanded polystyrene foam, companies need to rethink their approach to protective packaging and evaluate alternative approaches and solutions. Here are three strategies to steer your packaging team towards reducing or eliminating EPS foam: [Full Story]
