Cardboard recycling looks set to benefit from a national grocery distribution scheme, which aims to minimise the use of packaging in the distribution and in-store process.

Known as "the Retail Ready Packaging" scheme, the development could help the industry to better compete against the use of plastic containers for moving many products.

This relatively new type of packaging provides significant opportunities throughout the supply chain. It has the potential to eliminate the need for secondary packaging and unnecessary waste.

Andrew Barnetson, CPI The Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI), which covers industry sectors including manufacturing and recycling, says that the scheme is producing "a welcome increase in demand for corrugated packaging and therefore the industry is enthusiastic about venturing into this new field".

The focus of retail ready packaging is the production of corrugated boxes of various shapes and sizes. These can be used for transport of retail products from production and distribution centres right through to the store. Then the containers can be placed directly on the shelf in the supermarket.

Traditionally, cardboard boxes were often used for transport of many products destined for the supermarket shelf. These then had to be taken out of the box and placed in new forms of packaging or display containers, thereby increasing the amount of packaging used overall.

IGD

The concept of the transport-to-shelf packaging has been developed by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) with support from the CPI.

Andrew Barnetson, corrugated sector manager at the CPI, said: "This is producing a welcome increase in demand for corrugated packaging, and the industry is enthusiastic about venturing into this new field. The corrugated industry is therefore pleased to confirm its support for the new ‘Retail Ready Packaging Functional Guidelines’.

"This is a free guide that was recently published by Efficient Consumer Response UK, through the IGD, with the aim of defining what makes effective Retail Ready Packaging."

Mr Barnetson went on: "This relatively new type of packaging provides significant opportunities throughout the supply chain. It has the potential to eliminate the need for secondary packaging and unnecessary waste, and can significantly reduce the time required on the shop floor for shelf stacking.

"It also brings about an exciting change for the corrugated industry, as the focus expands beyond that of the conventional brown box, intended for behind-the-scenes transit packaging, and onto a high quality customer focused product that offers brand image that is central to the shopping experience," the CPI's corrugated sector manager said.

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