Deliveries without packaging material

probe

My fridge/freezer broke down yesterday. A terminal case.

I bought a replacement in a discount electrical shop, and the delivery agent phoned at 8 this morning confirming the rendez-vous for delivery at 14h. (The salesperson in the shop had real-time access to the delivery logistics system from their sales terminal, enabling them to agree a suitable delivery time with me yesterday).

To my pleasant surprise the replacement fridge-freezer arrived without any packaging - they just wheeled it in, uninstalled the old "frigo", slotted in the replacement, and took the old one away for recycling.

No big boxes or styrofoam or other nasties to get rid of. No waste of time. No waste of natural resources. The éco-participation tax was €10,87 - well worth it for the convenience - aside from environmental considerations.

Green and efficient. How all businesses should operate!

pumpkinsoup

Packaging has a purpose. It's meant to protect goods in transit. Delivering white goods without packaging is very risqué. Most reputable transport companies wouldn't countenance it. Any environmental advantages quickly disappear if the goods are damaged and have to return to the manufacturer.

We got a Miele washing machine delivered recently, with appropriate packaging. The packaging was removed by the delivery guy for recycling. He also took away the old machine for recycling.

The retail cost of every new appliance includes a charge for recycling your old appliance. This has been the case for several years.

probe

pumpkinsoup wrote: »

Packaging has a purpose. It's meant to protect goods in transit. Delivering white goods without packaging is very risqué. Most reputable transport companies wouldn't countenance it. Any environmental advantages quickly disappear if the goods are damaged and have to return to the manufacturer.

We got a Miele washing machine delivered recently, with appropriate packaging. The packaging was removed by the delivery guy for recycling. He also took away the old machine for recycling.

The retail cost of every new appliance includes a charge for recycling your old appliance. This has been the case for several years.

My frigo arrived in perfect condition. This company has a chain store operation and are very organised, and no doubt have given much thought to the end to end process. They couldn't afford to deliver scratched or damaged appliances.

Perhaps they are using delivery trucks with pallets of white goods with simple protection blocks between each item of merchandise? Or a truck divided into "padded cells" - the size of a full height fridge - which would also be capable of accommodating a cooker or washing machine etc.

If you look at any Carrefour or other hypermarket, most of the stuff comes in and goes on display without cardboard boxes - eg pallets pre filled with the merchandise in the factory get forklift trucked into the display in the store. Or green plastic boxes with collapsible sides that are used for display, and these go back to the distribution centre or factory to be refilled with new merchandise. Assuming the customer is using a "green bag" the entire end to end delivery process uses a minimum of packaging.

I have bough several Miele appliances over the years, and from memory they come with minimal packaging - eg low quality wood to protect the base, sides and top in a cage type structure. If the delivery end of the chain has thought through the transport method, they wouldn't need any packaging if they can replicate how this retailer operates. From memory, Miele deliver direct to the customer from their distribution centre - the retailer has nothing to do with the physical delivery.

10-10-20

probe, I would have to think that your new washing machine was shipped fully packed, but that this was removed in the truck before it was offloaded. Or if not, it was removed before it was placed on the truck!
I know from working in IT manufacturing, systems get rejected by customers for the slightest scratch. It's just not possible to supply large devices such as washing machines without protecting the sides with plastic bumpers/wraps/cardboard.

I know that reusable packaging has been mooted on occasion, but this is hard to manage in the supply chain as the return of the packaging is often dependant on the end-user, and they prefer to dispose rather than return.

Thinking about consumable products; look at any product which is delivered in a plastic bottle, for example softener for washing. That bottle is well capable of being reused many times but isn't. They tend to be discarded but also tend to be difficult to compress, so take up excessive space in the recycling bin. There are options to purchase refill packs, but I see these less and less these days.
In my mind the issue is that the consumer is too comfortable in purchasing what he has done so for years previously, so there are few options to sufficiently replace the standard offerings.
Refills tend to offered in smaller bags, are often foil-lined, so are not easily recyclable.

So, change customer expectation and you'll reduce wastage.

probe

10-10-20 wrote: »

probe, I would have to think that your new washing machine was shipped fully packed, but that this was removed in the truck before it was offloaded. Or if not, it was removed before it was placed on the truck!

While I can't discount that possibility, (I haven't done a walk-thru test on their logistics system) it is far preferable to receive the goods "in the nude" than having to mess about with useless packaging materials afterwards. As I said previously I was pleasantly surprised with the experience of opening the door and seeing my frigo, naked!

I know from working in IT manufacturing, systems get rejected by customers for the slightest scratch. It's just not possible to supply large devices such as washing machines without protecting the sides with plastic bumpers/wraps/cardboard.

My thinking is that they have a mechanism to protect them in the truck. They specialise in delivering "white goods" most of which are roughly similar in size. Big trucks are not allowed in most cities on the continent, so the stuff has to come from a local distribution centre on a 7.5 tonne or smaller vehicle.

I know that reusable packaging has been mooted on occasion, but this is hard to manage in the supply chain as the return of the packaging is often dependant on the end-user, and they prefer to dispose rather than return.

No it is not - if you take the re-usable packaging out of the end-users' hands.

Thinking about consumable products; look at any product which is delivered in a plastic bottle, for example softener for washing. That bottle is well capable of being reused many times but isn't. They tend to be discarded but also tend to be difficult to compress, so take up excessive space in the recycling bin. There are options to purchase refill packs, but I see these less and less these days.

I presume you are referring to fabric conditioner? You shouldn't be using this stuff! :-) It is unhealthy and a waste in my view. Like air freshner rubbish. If there is a smell in your house, you have a problem of dampness or similar - no point in using air freshner. If your fabrics aren't soft enough, select a different softer material next time! :-)

In my view plastic bottles are best rinsed and physically recycled if that option exists in your area. Otherwise, they should be incinerated and the heat recovered in a CHP system. The bottles are made from oil, so turning them into energy on the second cycle of their life is a logical option. It is cleaner to burn oil products in an incinerator with its scrubbers than in a home central heating system. Ultimately the bottles will have to be made from something that is renewable.

Rinsing is important before recycling. Bottle banks are infested with wasps in Ireland in the summer, because the filthy idiots who use them thoughtlessly throw unrinsed wine and beer bottles into the units - attracting wasps. You never see this problem on the continent. It never arose in Ireland either in the past when people had glass milk bottles which were rinsed and returned every day.

In my mind the issue is that the consumer is too comfortable in purchasing what he has done so for years previously, so there are few options to sufficiently replace the standard offerings.

Poor education system. Crap tabloid media. Yet another aspect of Ireland in need of an overhaul.

Refills tend to offered in smaller bags, are often foil-lined, so are not easily recyclable.

One presumes that people are too lazy to pour their detergent from the plastic pouch into a bottle and happy to pay the extra cost of the bottle.
Perhaps there should be a €1 tax on plastic bottles of detergent and similar, and a tax credit of -€1 on the pouch of product which wastes less raw material and is easier to transport? If that doesn't work increase the tax to €2...... It might take a tax of €20 per bottle for some ejits to wake up - but ultimately they will when they start running out of money.....

The CO2 tax on cars works on this basis in France. Buy a guzzler with high CO2 emissions and you end up paying a subsidy ("malus") to the guy who buys a low emissions vehicle who gets a bonus.

The Swiss have an excellent public transport system and you can buy unlimited use of same for a year for around €3,000 with an AG ticket.

They could reduce the price of the AG ticket by slapping a tax on gas guzzler car owners and giving the credit to the AG ticket holders - further increasing the use of public transport - improving service frequencies (it is boring waiting 4 mins for a tram in Zurich!).