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Business owners must find the best way to store their company’s inventory. Whether it’s for order fulfilment, organisation or the safe storage of your stock, you must have complete confidence in your storage choice. Read on to see why most businesses choose plastic storage solutions over cardboard.
Should I Choose Plastic?
Regardless of your business’s focus, there are several benefits to replacing your cardboard boxes with plastic storage solutions. First, every form of business, from industrial areas such as manufacturing and construction to commercial retails, eCommerce and logistics, will have transitioned from inferior cardboard boxes to superior durability, organised and reliable plastic storage boxes.
Plastic storage boxes are best suited to businesses that wish to reuse their storage or delivery boxes. For example, retailers will safely use plastic boxes to transport inventory from their warehouses and then send empty resealed boxes to repeat the process. Similarly, resealing cardboard boxes are far more difficult and often unsuccessful, as they can easily be damaged when opened.
Changing from cardboard to plastic will require a financial investment to make it seamless and not hinder your daily operations, but the return on your investment (ROI) will be more than enough long term.
Recycled Plastic Boxes Environmental Impact
Most businesses are choosing to recycle used cardboard to help the environment. Unfortunately, this positive decision creates the impression that continuing to use your existing cardboard boxes for storage and transport is the best idea, but this is incorrect.
It may surprise you that plastic boxes have a surprisingly low manufacturing cost to the environment. Plastic storage boxes have a more efficient process that uses roughly 60% of the energy needed for cardboard. This manufacturing process also creates less waste, and when using recycled plastic, the environmental effect is reduced further.
One factor that is easily missed is the weight of the boxes. Plastic has the durability and design to safely stack within the transport vehicle to use the space efficiently. This means designs such as our recycled plastic boxes result in fewer carbon emissions as fewer vehicles are needed to move them. On the other hand, cardboard boxes cannot be stacked as they lack the durability to protect the content stored, resulting in more journeys required and a significant increase in vehicle carbon emissions.
Cost Benefits of Plastic Boxes
Relying on disposable storage that will periodically need replacing leaves your business with unsure footing regarding your storage capabilities. Plastic storage is a reliable solution that will be there whenever you need it and will reduce your storage expenses significantly. They are also cost-effective when being transported.
We’ve already mentioned the compact, stackable storage of plastic boxes in transport vehicles and how it reduces carbon emissions. An additional benefit alongside this is that you pay for fewer journeys as well, whereas one level of damageable cardboard boxes would require extra journeys and increased expenses.
Plastic Storage Longevity
The durability of our plastic boxes is the first benefit most business owners see.
Cardboard boxes are susceptible to damage from mishandling and being stacked with too much weight, but one critical flaw of cardboard boxes is water damage. Being exposed to liquids will quickly damage a cardboard box beyond usability. This can occur either through a warehouse accident or repeated condensation from dramatic temperature changes, such as stored in a fridge. One way cardboard is exposed to unavoidable water is the weather. All deliveries will hand off outside, and the cardboard boxes will be exposed if it's raining. Even temporary water damage will drastically lower the integrity of the material, but plastic is immune to this problem.
Plastic storage can also be used for wider applications compared to cardboard boxes. However, some products will be contaminated when stored in cardboard boxes and need plastic. The main sector that needs effective plastic storage is food manufacturing.
Plastic Storage for Food Manufacturing
Food Manufacturing relies on reliable storage that will not only store the food items correctly but maintain the required hygiene for the product and workplace.
Our food-safe plastic storage is made with high-density polyethene (HDPE) or medium-density polyethene (MDPE), clearly labelled on the individual product pages. Choosing these materials provides your business with a safe, easy-to-clean storage solution for even raw food items. You can also choose colour-coded ones, such as our Euro Stacking containers, to assist with your inventory organisation.
At Alison Handling, we supply a broad range of plastic boxes with lids, including:
As the leading independent plastic storage supplier in the UK, we pride ourselves on the quality of our products and maintain the highest standards to comply with required health and safety regulations. Contact us today, and a member of our team will assist you in finding the perfect plastic storage solution for your business.
