In addition to significant supply chain cost savings compared to corrugated boxes, IFCO’s Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) offer dramatic benefits to the environment. In a landmark study* conducted by Franklin Associates, world-renown for pioneering in the field of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) studies, the environmental benefits of RPCs as compared to corrugated boxes were documented. The findings were validated in 2006 in an international peer review.**
Since the study’s publication, additional benefits have been identified, including a reduction in truck miles when shipping produce in RPCs. Because RPCs protect produce so much better than corrugated boxes, less product is wasted (industry estimates are 8-11% of all produce shipped is wasted due to shrink), hence fewer shipments are necessary.
Equally as impressive are RPCs’ social benefits. Due to their ergonomic design, RPCs are much healthier for workers to use: vast reductions in pulls, strains, and other injuries have been documented when retailers switch from corrugated to RPCs. The result is a produce transport packaging system that’s healthier for consumers, workers, and our world.
RPCs Require Less Energy
In almost every product application studied, the benefits of the closed-loop RPC system more than offset the benefits of lighter container weight and a high recycling rate for corrugated containers. As a result, total energy requirements for RPCs are 39% lower than corresponding DRCs in all average use scenarios.
RPCs Produce Less Waste
RPCs produce 95% less solid waste than corrugated boxes in all produce applications and scenarios. This is due to several key factors:
• The burdens for production of RPCs are allocated over a
(large) number of useful lives,
• RPCs that remain in the closed-loop pooling system are
recycled when they are removed from service,
• Losses of RPCs from the closed-loop system are smaller
• Corrugated boxes make only one trip before they are
recycled (repulping and remanufacture) or disposed.
RPCs Produce Less Greenhouse Gas
RPCs’ reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are mainly due to lower fossil fuel consumption, since that is the source of the majority of GHG emissions. In 18 of 20 scenarios involving 10 commodities, RPCs produced an average of 29% less GHG.
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