How plastic RTP reduces product damage in the supply chain

The movement of goods between suppliers, manufacturers and warehouses is essential to the supply chain, but the cost of damages during transportation and storage can eat away at your bottom line. This blog explains how plastic returnable transport packaging (RTP) – including pallets and pallet boxes – can reduce product damage in the supply chain and why it is a superior choice.

Monitoring, managing, and optimising every aspect of the supply chain is essential for business success. With shipping costs at an eighteen-month high, it is critical that businesses address avoidable waste and expenditure.

Now more than ever, businesses must establish how much product damage costs and what can be done to mitigate it. Every touch point in a product’s journey can present a potential risk.

What is returnable transport packaging (RTP) and why use it?

Returnable transport packaging (RTP) is extensively used across various industries, including manufacturing, automotive, pharmaceutical, retail and more. This type of packaging comes in many forms, including pallets, pallet boxes, containers, crates, and trays. While RTP is typically made from plastic, it is also commonly crafted from other durable materials such as wood or metal. Unlike single-use packaging, RTP is designed for repeated use over many years, making it a more sustainable and cost-effective option.

Despite a higher upfront cost, the extended lifecycle of RTP (unlike single-trip packaging) can offer a lower cost per trip overall. A wide range of benefits include:

Minimal secondary packaging – single-trip packaging often requires shrink-wrapping and band strapping, whereas plastic boxes with integrated lids and bases do not need tape
Quick to assemble and dispatch orders
Enhanced strength and increased transit protection
Uniformity in shape and size
Foldable RTP offer space savings when not in use or during return journeys
Most RTP can be fitted with RFID tags for real-time tracking
RTP can be printed with owner identification and instructions
Improved hygiene – industrial washing processes for plastic containers and pallets adhere to the highest standards
Sustainability benefits – fully recyclable at the end of the assets useful working life

Studies show that RTP is a financially viable alternative to single-use materials. For example, a European study on the economics of reuse systems found that reusable secondary transport packaging showed a return between years two and three and that the user costs were similar. Another study in Germany found that reusable transport packaging had an 80% lower breakage rate than single-use packaging.

RTP in the supply chain is also crucial for minimising waste, which is especially significant for the food industry. Research from the Fraunhofer Institute found that instability issues lead to 36,000 tonnes of damaged goods/waste when perishable goods are exclusively transported in disposable packaging. This is estimated to cost businesses up to €68 million per year, compared to just €2 million for goods exclusively transported in reusable transport packaging.

How products are damaged in the supply chain

The most common way products become physically damaged in the supply chain is when they shift during movement. Therefore, the construction, material, and strength of packaging are crucial.

If you’re regularly shipping large quantities of products, there’s a lot to think about: How robust are the boxes, pallets or containers that your goods are shipped in? Can they be stacked safely and securely? Is your packaging/equipment appropriate for heavier items?

Ideally, products are stacked onto a pallet and positioned tightly with zero space in between. Individual pallets and the load are then further wrapped with shrink wrap and anchored to prevent movement.

However, gaps inevitably occur, leaving the integrity of each pallet and load to chance. Sudden braking in transit, rough terrain, or jerky forklift operation can cause packed products to move and become more susceptible to damage. Packaging Digest suggests that “stiffer trailers combined with rough roads can magnify the compressive stress on boxes by a factor of 10”.

Product damage as a result of wooden pallets

Wooden pallets can also directly contribute to product damage. Overloading can cause these pallets to weaken and break during transportation, and excessive moisture can also weaken them. The inherent flaws of wooden pallets include:

Gaps in deck board spaces
Wood expansion and contraction from heat and humidity
Can break and splinter easily
Nails becoming loose – posing a risk to products, and when being handled
Poor durability – even quality wood can deflect under weight

In addition, wooden pallets can often be a weak link in an automated warehouse. Damaged or inconsistent pallets create issues within an automated system. Minimal deflection of a pallet is important to allow safe long-term storage and efficient retrieval of the goods without any compromise of the stored products/materials.

How plastic pallets and containers can prevent damage in the supply chain

Plastic pallets address many of the shortcomings of wooden pallets that lead to product damage.

Significantly, unlike wooden pallets, which can have gaps between deck boards, the deck of a plastic pallet provides support across the entire width and length of the pallet, which means products and external packaging can’t slip into gaps.

Plastic pallets and containers have the following advantages over wood:

Robust construction: High-quality plastic pallets will absorb any impact rather than potentially splintering or cracking like wooden ones. Plastic pallets are (often, but not always) moulded individually as one piece with easy to clean surfaces; they don’t consist of any nails, and there are no boards to pull loose.
Stable and resistant to damage: Plastic pallets are highly stable, allowing for an adequately packed and balanced load and higher stacks.
No overhang: A dimensionally stable and well-constructed plastic pallet helps shield product edges and prevent overhang, keeping goods safe from passing machinery.

You can read more about the advantages of plastic pallets over wooden ones here.

CabCube: A next-generation folding container for maximum protection of goods

If you’re looking for high quality RTP to enhance your supply chain, then look no further than our range of CabCube products – a collection of lightweight, durable and sustainable foldable large containers.

For example, the CabCube 3.0 3R has a unique, injection-moulded closed base and lid for supreme strength. Measuring 1235mm x 830mm x 954mm, this innovative product has a 722-litre capacity, and, when collapsed, saves 75% height.

The CabCube 3.0 3R offers considerable benefits compared to metal cages. Firstly, it is 50% lighter than a metal cage. Secondly, when folded, the CabCube takes up 40% less space on trucks and in storage compared to metal containers. Best of all, it protects goods more effectively and can be adapted to automatic packaging lines. goplasticpallets.com is the exclusive UK provider of CabCube products.

Our range of folding large containers also includes the CabCube 1210 9F 2.0, measuring 1210mm x 1010mm x 990mm, and the GoFLC 980 (1200mm x 1000mm x 980mm) – an extremely robust, UK-sized, folding pallet container – perfect for long lasting stock protection even in demanding environments.

Summary

Damage prevention is a significant aspect of building a resilient and sustainable supply chain and the cost of not addressing this can escalate. Plastic returnable transport packaging offers a viable long-term solution that meets environmental standards, prevents damage to goods, saves money, and boosts the bottom line.

For all of your plastic pallet and container needs, please browse our website (we have the UK’s most extensive range of Plastic Pallets, Plastic Pallet Boxes, Small Containers, Crates, and Trays) or call our team of experts on 01323 744057 or email sales@goplasticpallets.com.