In the most recent article from CNN Business, Mark Schlossman, VP of Sales and Marketing at Accurate Box, is featured talking about the progression and recyclability of eCommerce packaging. See below for an excerpt from “Amazon’s incredible, vanishing cardboard box” by Lydia DePillis.
July 16, 2019 – Mills have gotten better at making recycled cardboard that stands up to wear and tear, so it’s usable for longer shipping routes. Mark Schlossman is the chief operating officer of Accurate Box, a manufacturer in Paterson, New Jersey, that produces boxes to order for companies ranging from PepsiCo to Jimmy John’s. He says his company’s boxes have gone from 70% virgin paper five years ago to 70% recycled today.
“The recycled liner board world has made tremendous strides in the last number of years, both in its availability and its pricing, and in the quality of its paper,” Schlossman says. “In the box world, strength can be very very critical.”
Even recycling, however, has an environmental impact — it requires huge amounts of water and energy. That’s why shippers are also trying to use less cardboard in the first place.
In the early days of e-commerce, retailers would order large numbers of a few sizes of boxes, throw whatever needed to be shipped into one that seemed big enough, and fill all the empty space with bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts.
No longer. In consultation with shippers like UPS — which in 2015 started charging by volume, not just weight — companies are shrinking their boxes by using algorithms that can tell them the precise dimensions they need to get an order from point A to point B.
