Single-use packaging3 / 4

On parcels the decision turns on whether the container comes back. When it does not, a reusable container's cost cannot be spread over trips and every shipment carries its full price.

Do not assume pouch performance alone; compare complete packouts with temperature records on route.

Whoever places packaging on the market is responsible for its waste. The role definition, registration in the Packaging Information System and the recovery contribution declaration make packaging choices an accounting matter.

Being recyclable and being recycled are not the same thing. In 2023 only two EU countries met the 2030 plastic packaging target; the collection route decides where a box ends up.

The EU generated 79.7 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2023, 177.8 kilos per person. The largest item is paper and cardboard, which means boxes and cartons.

In a fruit and vegetable transport study 4.2 per cent of single-use cartons broke in transit, while reusable plastic crates stayed at 0.12 per cent. The gap shows not in the price of the packaging but in the bill for the goods inside the broken ones.

The figures measured at each stage of making an EPS box, from the roughly 40-fold expansion of the bead to moulding, and the difference in compressive strength and insulation between three density grades.

An EPS box has no fixed number of uses; the test is whether it can be cleaned and is dry on every return. How moisture changes insulation, what sets the life of a box, and how to measure the real number of trips.

Litres are the inner volume; the choice runs from outside in. First a base that fits the 1200 x 800 mm Euro pallet layer, then wall thickness and the litres that remain.

With meat, the time is how long the product stays under its legal upper limit: 7 °C for red meat, 4 for poultry, 2 for mince. The box delays that moment; it does not remove it.

An EPS box has no fixed number of hours; wall thickness, outside temperature and the amount of ice give the time through a calculation. In the example box at 30 °C the ice is gone in about 14 hours.

A foam box has no hours of its own; wall, coolant and outside air decide it. Worked example: a 46-litre EPP box with 31 mm walls stays cold for about 7 hours with 2 kg of ice at 25 °C.

According to the EPS industry association EUMEPS, the EU recycling rate for post-consumer EPS packaging is about 40 per cent. That is industry data; your own site's rate comes from monthly records.

EPS is a good insulator but the box does not set the duration. We work out the ice a 30 mm wall box needs for 24 hours, then look at the three variables that remain.

Do not bury breakage and cleanup in general overhead. Log damaged boxes, recovered fragments and cleanup time by incident.

Do not treat a reuse claim as proof of environmental compliance. Measure one-way and returnable packaging on the same basis.