Stretch film is recyclable. When I worked at Costco, we used a bailer to compact all the used film, and a recyling company truck (I think Pacific Steel) picked the bails up once a week.

OK, so what the lesson here should be is 'recycle the shrink-wrap plastic' right? While dubbed a 'silent killer' it is a good solution to a shipping problem. It is extremely tough, very light, and easy to apply to almost any shipping item, reducing the need to have mulitple solutions that would require more infrastructure and materials to support.

What is the alternative listed here? There isn't one. It is a flag being waved at something 'bad' but it is a great solution when you stop and look at what would happen without it. More damaged goods, longer loading and unloading times (for a store that would mean more heating costs in the winter and cooling osts in the summer while the dock was open, plus man-power, fuel for the trucks and power for the fork lifts).

When companies are trying to reduce their fuel costs in shipping cargo they need something strong and light. Weight and size equals fuel consumption. If can get multiple products shipped to a central warehouse, have those pallets broken up, and then reloaded to multiple stores (ala hub-and-spoke) I can save on labor and fuel costs. To mix and match products on a pallet (used for speedy loading) this 'silent killer' shrink wrap does the job.

On the topic of peanuts, yes they suck, but there are times when they are the best and lgihtest solution. Oh, and they are made of cornstarch so they biodegrade wonderfully... isn't that what this site is about?

The gripe on corrugated on corrugated... is he refering to things like Ikea packaging? Um, again, goo solution to a difficult problem. Heavy and double layer corrugation applications are usually for a reason. Why would a company waste time and money on packaging something if they didn't need to. Places like IKEA do it to protect the goods. In fact, a box I recently brought home would make this guy furious if he saw it as there was a 'pointless' piece of cardboard glued to the outside. If he had been inthe store with me however, he soulw have seen the 'pointless carboard' was being used as a substitue for.. wait for it... 'Silent Killer Shrink Wrap' dun Dun DUN!!!

So basically, recycle your packaging folks.
-Lego

Another route for foam peanuts, when something does arrive encased in them--run a search at the Peanut Hotline, which can help you find a place nearby that will reuse your packing peanuts. If nothing very close to you is listed, it's worth calling around--a UPS Store just a couple minutes away from me (which isn't listed) takes peanuts for reuse, so I was able to drop off a couple years' worth of accumulated peanuts rather than just tossing them in the trash.

Another route for foam peanuts, when something does arrive encased in them--run a search at the Peanut Hotline, which can help you find a place nearby that will reuse your packing peanuts. If nothing very close to you is listed, it's worth calling around--a UPS Store just a couple minutes away from me (which isn't listed) takes peanuts for reuse, so I was able to drop off a couple years' worth of accumulated peanuts rather than just tossing them in the trash.

over-packaging is a huge problem. Items for supermarkets come packed within packs, packed on pallets wrapped in cling film - supposedly all recycled, but at huge energy cost. We have to try to resolve these issues. Some standardization on packaging sizes would help hugely.

I work at a big box store and I've wanted to take pictures for a while of just how much over packaging is done, what really disgusts me is at my store we don't recycle and there's not interest in doing so from the management. We trash so much card board its unbelievable

I thought it was fairly easy to recycle plastic wrap film - now I am much wiser. Maybe someone makes up an enzyme that can be put on cardboxes and then make them recycle them at home and put the liquid content in our cars instead of gas?

Although I agree with much of what Lego has said, I must say that defending the use of plastic wrap will not solve the problem.

I purchase Dennis's book and read it, and although I must say that it really did not teach me anything new, there are some great examples of changes occuring in industry and stories about how small changes balloon.

I believe the correct response to Dennis's comments should not be directed at defending the use of cardboard and shrink wrap, but to ask what is necessary.

Lego has an ability that not too many people have, he can REDUCE the amount of shrink wrap that his employees use. Instead of arguing over the use of it (because at this point there really is nothing better) he should be asking: how can we cut back 10% on the use of it? Maybe this is just one extra roll of wrap every month, but it gives employees a goal and empowers his employees to make responsible decisions.

Beyond that, to aruge that the best methods for transporting and storing goods have already been developed and are currently being used, is an arguement against change.

That is why companies hire consultants, not because they do not have intelligent and responsible people, but because they do not see what can change. These people fight against the change because they did not think about it first and if affects the process they had worked hard to develop.

Freight consolidators and second tier distributors are big on shrink wrapping, which helps them ensure that a truck load is full as possible. Thats'a positive tradeoff.

There's also an occupation safety dimension: when you shrink wrap a pallet the contents can be stacked three pallets high without fall offs. Another positive.

SO yes, recycling the poly is the answer.

My employer recycled this stuff back in the 80s and still does today....it's bailed at stores and backhauled to the warehouse along with cardboard bails.

Most of our shrinkwrap (grocery industry) is recycled as well as all non-wax cardboard. The shrinkwrap is necessary and i have yet to see anything comparable that does the job. There is always areas of improvement (ie- overuse, 100%recylable). As for the cardboard, its been bailed and recycled for over 20years(we used to store it outside in the loading dock...until people started to steal them)

ok, both on and off-topic:

what gives with that fake foil that so many "organic" products use? there are the mylar covers on Newman's Own cookies, on organic chocolates, etc. and the foil-lined cardboard boxes that the soups, soymilk, chai tea, etc. come in. none of that is recyclable, which makes it somewhat insane as packaging material for "conscious" products, doesn't it?

thanks,

I'm in Cheltenham in the UK. We're a small company & we've just started having all our stretch film recycled. I'm amazed that since we started segregating our waste to recyle stretchfilm & cardboard we now completly fill a 1100ltr waste bin each week of both.

We had previously asked our supplier of these products if they would take used product back for recycling & they had refused, so have now found a local recycling company to take it away from us, and it's costing us less to recycle these two products than it was to have them taken away by the local council for landfill. (The local council were also completely useless when we approached them about recycling!)