The Pitch

We were told how bartering can help turn inventory when you sell, and how it enables you to make purchases without cash when you buy. It all sounded like a great deal, and who could possibly resist an opportunity for immediate sales to eager new customers?

The salesperson was quick to reduce the enrollment fee of $200 to a bargain $100 because he wanted us to see “how wonderful the program can be.” The monthly fee to belong (whether you buy and sell, or not) and even the commission (6% when you sell and 6% when you buy) seemed reasonable because as a new member, you really don’t understand the true costs or how quickly they accumulate.

The Reality

As soon as we signed up, the orders started coming in. We were thrilled that the other members really wanted our green products. But that wasn’t the case at all. It did not take long to realize the people calling us were stuck with dollars and looking for a way, any way, to get rid of them. Realizing how the dollars were quickly accumulating, I asked my sales support person for help. The 6% commission we owed the company was adding up, and I was having a difficult time finding ways to spend the dollars that we were “earning.” Keep in mind, these earned dollars I speak of are not gifts, awards or even free. They are real dollars that have been converted from sellable product you bought and paid for (with cash) into dollars that accumulate with no obvious way to use them.

Furthermore, when we found something we could buy, the purchase price of the items we were buying seemed inflated while our selling prices were not. My rep advised me confidentially to raise the price of our products enough to cover my “selling costs.” In other words, he was suggesting we inflate our prices to cover the commissions we had to pay him and his company. It became obvious that he and his company did not care whether members received value, because the more the product sold for, the greater their commission.

The whole thing was beginning to sound messy and fishy to me, so we put our account on hold, which essentially means we stopped selling. BTW, it took almost two years to get rid of the dollars we were stuck with. And I won’t even go into the details of a non-member selling reconditioned electronics as new or an organic beef vendor who was offended when I asked for his certification.

Our Mistake

As new, inexperienced business owners, we have made several mistakes, but joining a barter company was definitely one of our biggest. If the barter company’s success was determined by buyers’ and sellers’ satisfaction, they would probably go broke, but in this case, the house (bartering company) always wins regardless of who loses. The best part of this scheme is that each transaction will reproduce itself indefinitely. When we finally found places to spend the dollars we had, they did not evaporate or disappear. Those dollars now belong to another member who paid a 6% commission for making the sale (to me) and will pay another 6% when he eventually finds someone else to unload them on.

Imagine if I sold a corrugated shipping box and was able to collect a commission if the box was resold. Or it was a reusable container and I was able to collect a small, reasonable commission each time the container was reused?

Sour Grapes?

Not really. I can complain in great detail about their endless turnover of sales support reps or the ridiculously inflated prices some members charge for their products under the blind eye of the barter company. I can also tell you about service-providing members (landscapers, plumbers, printers, etc.) who won’t even return calls if you leave a voice mail message and mention you are a barter member. I learned this is because most of them have accumulated dollars they can’t unload and/or have also put their accounts on hold.

Shame on me, because I forgot the most basic and true advice any of us have ever received, which is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably and usually is. I also now know that good things really do come to an end, but bad things can indeed go on forever.

Domestically produced boxes, even boxes like our 100% recycled content Globe Guard® boxes, are better and stronger than the vast majority of corrugated boxes that are used to ship the imported products we all purchase. It is widely accepted that when the US buyer negotiates a lower price with a foreign manufacturer, one of the areas that is most easily cheapened is the packaging used for shipping it here.

Corrugated Boxes Must Be Application Specific

I can never defend the poor quality of corrugated board we often receive from overseas manufacturers, but in the interest of fairness, I also have to admit in many cases we are misusing the boxes they provide. The corrugated case shown in the photograph above is a perfect example.

At first glance, you can see the corrugated used to make the box is of poor quality; the board is very thin and the partition is even worse. You can actually see the thin board used to make the partition is delaminating, with the three layers of paper separating. The partition was cut short, adding no top-to-bottom (vertical) support, and it also has no air cell around the perimeter to provide additional protection to the bottles it contains.

All of these obvious design deficiencies become much more crucial when the box is used for a purpose other than the one it was originally intended for. In this case, the client is experiencing shipping damage when the cases are shipped individually via UPS or FedEx. This is not surprising, because the box was minimally designed for bulk shipping on pallets, and in ocean freight containers I am quite confident the manufacturer would be the first to admit his packaging was never intended or designed for the way our client is using it.

A Few “Take With” Points

If you are importing products, we offer these three suggestions:

1.) Establish specs for your secondary packaging and make it as eco friendly as possible, especially if you are selling green product to green consumers.

2.) Ask for samples of the packaging you will be receiving and compare what you were promised to what you actually receive.

Last, but definitely not least –

3.) Make sure your packaging is designed for how you plan to ship the product, NOT for how it is being shipped to you.

We have redesigned, recreated or in some cases made repairs to a lot of imported secondary packaging. The right or best solution for you depends on a lot of factors including what, where and how many you are shipping. Please contact Salazar Packaging if you would like a no cost/no obligation review of your specific situation.

DIE CUT BOX WITH BUILT-IN PARTITIONS

“What makes one package greener than another?” It’s a rather simplistic question that does not permit a brief or concise answer. It was recently asked of me by an intern working for a governmental agency, and I began by telling him that my response was only my opinion, but one that would hold up in most circles. I added that when we attempt to answer that question we look at packaging in three critical areas:

1. SOURCE – What is the packaging product and where does it comes from? For example, recycled content, PCW percentage, FSC certified, etc.
2. LIFE CYCLE – Where is the packaging material likely to end up after its initial use? Is it reusable, recyclable, biodegradable, compostable, etc?
3. USE- How is the packaging material used and does it eliminate or minimize the use of a different and perhaps less eco-friendly product?

Packaging Often Requires Innovation to Make It Green or Greener  

I promised myself years ago I would never use the cliché “thinking outside of the box” in my writing because it is just so often used and in many cases misused. However, I believe the third point above (USE) is potentially the most immediately beneficial in regards to the environment. How to use the products we currently have more efficiently may be the most challenging, but it is the difference between selling green packaging solutions and simply selling boxes, tape, etc.

“Source” and “Life Cycle” in most cases are relatively black and white and much easier to accomplish than many people realize or are willing to admit. There are some excellent, extended life cycle packaging products being created on an almost daily basis, and we work very hard to keep up with that ever-changing market. We put equal effort into offering products that simply use less packaging overall, ideally of more eco-friendly materials. This line of thinking may not be revolutionary, but it works and will usually substantially reduce labor and material costs.

Examples of New or Rarely Used Green Packaging Options

These are material or packaging type combinations that create the desired green results and in many cases eliminate the need for more expensive or less eco-friendly interior or cushioning products like EPS foam or plastic bubble packaging. BTW, you won’t find these working with the large, national catalog or internet packaging companies, but don’t let the words “design” or “custom” intimidate or discourage you.

Die Cut Boxes with Built-in Partitions

Pictured above, these provide product separation without having to buy, stock or utilize separate packaging SKU’s. The built-in partition also dramatically increases the box strength, minimizing the possibility of damage in shipment. These are custom-designed for each application, so some tooling may be required, but if you have to use a lot of cushioning or void fill material, the savings can be huge.

STOCK MAILER WITH CUSTOM DIE CUT INSERT

Combining Stock Boxes and Custom Die Cut Inserts

There are an almost endless number of possible combinations, but it is a great way to minimize initial expense on a new product line, test product or limited promotion. Some companies try to make everything a custom project, and others will attempt to force everything into one of their stock products. Neither of those approaches is necessarily bad, but it may not be the best or definitely not the least expensive.

Molded Pulp and Custom Boxes

MOLDED PULP CLAMSHELL WITH RETENTION DIE CUT BOX

This one was created by one of our favorite manufacturing partners and it is a stock molded pulp clamshell designed to fit 12- to 27-ounce glass jars commonly used for candles and decorative food containers. The loaded clamshell fits snugly into a custom box that is designed with die cut top flaps that hold the tray and product in place. Since both of those products (molded pulp clamshell and die cut box) are stock, no expensive tooling is required.

What is most encouraging is that many of these custom design innovations like the molded pulp retention pack are becoming stock items for eco-focused companies like ours, making them more available and affordable, even for low-volume applications and situations.

My best advice is never to assume you can’t afford or justify custom-designed or custom-printed green packaging because you probably can. Sometimes it is just a matter of talking with the right people.

Sennco Solutions Custom Printed Tape

Chris Marszalek, the president and co-founder of Sennco Solutions, has become a close friend as well as a valued customer. Anyone who has ever met Chris will tell you he is a savvy business man, a loving husband and father, and an incredibly hard worker, but what is most notable is that Chris is a devoted Christ follower. His faith and God are important to him and he does not hesitate to allow his faith to influence his business life, in fact he would be the first to tell you, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

That is why we were not totally surprised when Chris told us he wanted to print one of his favorite Bible verses on his box sealing tape. Proverbs 16:20 – “Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD”. Certainly a request we don’t hear every day but one not totally unexpected from a man like Chris.

Sennco Solutions is a leading designer and manufacturer of retail, anti-theft devices so you could say they are in the business of keeping honest people honest. If his new tape was going to communicate a marketing message, he could have easily selected a different Bible verse directed at dishonest behavior or even printed the quite appropriate Eighth Commandment on his tape – Thou shall not steal. That would have been clever and eye catching, but this was not about marketing or being clever, it is about communicating who Chris is and what he believes.

Who Are We?

Chris’ step in faith has made us think about who we are and what message we communicate to others.

My wife Lenora and I accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior years ago, long before we met Chris and way before we started our company. We are far from perfect people and I admit my personal behavior does not always reflect the presence of God in my life, though in business we are adamant about dealing honestly and fairly with our vendors as well as our customers.

Those who are closest to us and people who know us personally are aware of our faith and beliefs but the real question is – is it obvious to even the most casual business acquaintance that our faith is important to us? In the age where “transparency” is trendy is our faith as apparent as it should be, or as transparent as Chris has made his?

It is not a contest or competition, and the most faithful are typically the most humble, so rather than make a series of promises I may not be able to keep, I would rather make a personal commitment to make my faith more evident in my daily business life. I’m sure it won’t always be easy and in some cases it may even be unpopular, but if that is who I am and we are as a company, we have an obligation to communicate it consistently; day in and day out, regardless of the situation or business climate.

Rather than just being firm believers of messaging and branding, we should follow the example Chris has shown us and insist our messaging and branding reflect the fact that we are firm Believers.

The packaging for a new Canon desk top printer we recently purchased is a perfect example of this.

What Canon Used in Terms of Packaging

To get the printer from Thailand to us, Canon used a virtual smorgasbord of packaging and unfortunately most of it is not very green by today’s standards. The products they used are shown in the photo below and included:

• Almost 2,700 square inches of heavy-grade corrugated (4.9 lbs. worth)
• 4 molded poly styrene corner protectors
• 4 paper board tubes
• Various corrugated pads and inserts
• A few flexible foam surface protectors
• A wide variety of high density polyethylene sheets and bags

To their credit, everything that was not a paper based product included a recycle code, even the polystyrene corner protectors. They were clearly molded to show their PS, #6 recycle code. Good luck with that since there are few facilities able or willing to take in polystyrene in any form.

Current and Greener Alternatives

We know enough about interior, protective packaging to know that the molded EPS could have been easily replaced with die cut, ideally high-recycled content, corrugated inserts. The outer shipping box did not have to be a heavy duty box with a five color printed virgin grade litho label. Most of the plastic bags and flexible foam pads could now be made with plant based, oxo-biodegradable or other more eco friendly formulations.

As a company that does this for a living, the most startling fact is that most of these product alternatives would REDUCE the packaging cost, not increase it.

Green Beyond Words

The most ironic thing we noticed was Canon’s “Generation Green” emblem proudly displayed on the box. It states: Environmentally Conscious Products with the Next Generation in Mind.

That is a great, green marketing slogan but the packaging is not consistent with the message or mission. For that matter, how about offering some help figuring out what we can do with the old Canon printer we are replacing? You see we love the products, but the packaging? Not so much.

Today’s Society and Market Pressures

In addition to truly hating the games and negotiating involved in the purchasing process, today we also have to deal with the questions of “hybrid or not” and “ foreign or domestic brand”? I realize the line on imported or domestic has become incredibly fuzzy with foreign car makers doing assembly in the US and we all know American car manufacturers are building their cars in other countries but we still tend to think of some brands as US made and others as imports.

Perhaps for us the question of hybrid or not, is a much more difficult decision because we own and operate a high profile green business and because we truly believe we should minimize our own carbon footprint if we are going to guide others in doing so. Late last year I wrote a blog post about my wife’s new Honda Insight and how much she enjoyed it and I admit we really appreciate the mid forties MPG the car delivers. We set out on our car buying trip, with a hybrid as the ideal, likely choice for us.

Auto Makers – To Green or Not to Green

Our first two stops were at Chevy and Ford dealers because my wife and I had already decided that our preference would be to buy a U.S. brand this time around. However, we were both shocked by the lack of inventory at the Chevy dealer we visited and NO hybrid cars to offer.

We went to the Ford dealer across the street and I immediately took a liking to a Ford Escape hybrid model. We were disappointed to determine that we probably knew as much about hybrid autos as the salesman who tried to help us. In addition, the floor model we were looking at was the only one they had in stock and the answer on anything we asked was NO! No deals, no financing, no incentives, no kidding. “We have a lot of great deals and promotions going but our hybrids are not included”.

When we stopped in at Honda and Toyota, we found the opposite – much to choose from, (literally) lots of inventory, great incentives and excellent financing deals. There seems to be a market war brewing between Toyota’s Prius and Honda’s Insight, so American consumers stand to benefit from the competition. The salespeople we spoke to at both dealers were well trained and they quickly and correctly answered all of the questions we asked.

The End Result of the Experience

We did not make a final decision on Saturday and in Illinois all auto dealers are closed on Sunday so it forced us to sit back and process what we had learned. Even though we came home without a car, my wife and I agreed the day had resulted in some valuable lessons for any green business, like ours:

• Know what you’re talking about in terms of sustainability. Buyers, especially B2B buyers, are better informed and educated. “Basic” product and environmental knowledge is no longer enough.
• Consumers see and feel your commitment to sustainability and they quickly see through a green smoke screen or feeble attempt to be green. Do potential customers see us as sincere or just “me too” bandwagon jumpers?
• If you truly want to sell green products in today’s economic climate, you have to incentivize the buyer.
• What is your green competition doing and how do you compare? That market continues to grow more and more competitive with (thank goodness) no signs of letting up.
• You can turn off even the most committed environmentally conscious buyer if you make it difficult to buy green.

Which make and model to buy remains a tough decision but we were grateful for the valuable lesson learned. Perhaps a zero percent financing or rebate deal on our Globe Guard 100% PCW boxes or our Globe Guard oxo-biodegradable bubble packaging would be a good idea?
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Dennis Salazar, Sustainable Packaging Speaker

Green Expectations versus Deliverable

It is not easy to speak for an hour or less on a subject as broad and complex as sustainable packaging. I also realize in many cases the audience can vary from the incredibly well studied and knowledgeable to someone who is just beginning their search for answers.

Sustainability can also be a very emotional topic for many people and they often come to a presentation hoping if not expecting a speaker to confirm their own firm position and opinion about a specific product or process. Anyone expecting easy, simple answers is likely to be disappointed because there are few to be found in the many complicated and constantly changing areas of packaging and sustainability.

The Cost of a Green Speaker

In most cases, the cost is minimal to free. Like anyone else I have a speaking fee chart but rarely does it apply. I often deviate from my “price list” based on the following variables:

• Who is paying the bill? Is my client a large corporation or a non for profit?
• Who is the audience and are they paying a fee to someone to be there? If they are there at no cost, I am not likely to charge for my services.
• Is the event being held in a city that I can travel to economically and does it work in conjunction with my other travel plans?
• If not, are travel expenses being reimbursed?
• Is there an opportunity for me to engage with members or participants at a conference or meeting? Picture me at a roadside holding a 100% PCW corrugated sign that reads: “I work for contacts”.

If you have an event coming up and are interested in having a green speaker as part of your agenda, give me a call. If the “fit” is right for both of us, I think you will find my thoughts and content a little different from the usual approach to the important but somewhat dry topic packaging sustainability.

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Too Much Packaging!

We ourselves are helping to lead the charge on reusable and recycled content packaging products but often times we all over look the easiest sustainability “R” of all and that is reduce. Packaging reduction opportunities are usually very simple to identify and almost always even easier to correct.

A Perfect Example – A Recent Shipment from Zappos.com

Zappos.com is a terrific company and one of my personal favorites but the recent order (photo) we received from them caught my attention. The box they used to ship our order of baby shoes is obviously more than two times larger than it really needed to be.

To be fair, it could have been almost any internet retailer, shipping almost any order and most of them are indeed guilty of this same sustainability crime. I realize it is possible the packer simply selected the wrong size box but having reviewed and assessed many order picking and packing stations; I know the correct size box is usually not available for the packer to utilize.

“Use the smallest box available” is the common direction a packer receives but the smallest box available is frequently not the right size for the application and product being shipped. Using an oversized box obviously adds packaging material cost as well as much more difficult to calculate costs such as storage space, shipping cube space, fuel costs, load inefficiencies, etc. Perhaps even more important, it just plain looks wasteful to an ever vigilant eco conscious consumer.

Keeping Up and Staying Green with Changing Customer Needs

Monitoring how customers buy is a never ending process, especially in e-commerce where packaging and shipping is such a crucial portion of the order processing cost. Primarily due to the economy, most analysts will agree customers are ordering in smaller quantities and more often. ISP offered a post two months ago on this very topic.

Adjusting your packaging and box sizes to accommodate these smaller orders makes economic and environmental sense. In the case of Zappos.com, how often do customers now buy just one pair of baby shoes at a time? Has that changed over time? What is the percentage of the overall total? Does the volume justify the addition of a new, smaller shipping box? Add to this the fact that most people who order baby shoes are probably in their twenties and thirties, an age group who is passionately green and scrutinize everything for its relative greenness.

Good Fit Is as Important as Good Looks

You’d think anyone in the shoe business would understand that. I see a Zappos.com box and have to question why it has to be white. After all, they are not in the medical, pharmaceutical, or even meat packaging industry, so why use boxes that are white on the outside and require the use of virgin paper?

White boxes are likely to look even more beat up and scuffed upon their arrival, compared to brown boxes, and as much volume as Zappos.com does, they could save a lot of trees if they opted to use natural Kraft colored shipping boxes. Of course, they could save even more trees if they utilized a 100% recycled content or 100% PCW box but a good start or baby steps in the right direction, would be using the correct size shipping box.

Remember, “right sizing” applies to packaging as well as shoes.
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What the Green Supplier Wants You to See

We’re not going to get into the bag manufacturer or even the exhibitor that was handing the bags out, because it could have been one of many different suppliers who put a bright spotlight on the green speak and intentionally places the questionable details in the dark.

What the bag supplier chose to make highly visible is “80% post consumer waste” which was printed in large, bold letters on the side panel of the bag. “Pretty impressive,” I thought, knowing that rarely are non-woven reusable plastic bags made out of that high a recycled content, especially of PCW recycled content. “Certainly this bag must be domestic”, I guessed, knowing that as bad as we are about recycling our post consumer plastic waste, other countries are even worse.

I walked the rest of the show, carrying and displaying my “eco friendly reusable bag”.

Green Should Be Beautiful on the Inside, Too

The following day when I emptied my bag, I looked at the two small labels inside and the incredibly tiny print on them. At very close inspection I realized the bag was made of 100% polypropylene and that it was manufactured in China. “Hmmm. That doesn’t sound right,” I thought, recalling the 80% PCW claim printed on the outside of the bag.

I have been told by people who import low cost plastic bags on a daily basis that many Chinese and other foreign manufacturers will gladly sew in any labels you want with any message you want. They are not inclined to allow the truth to get in the way of a good, green message. Their job is to manufacture products as inexpensively as possible and deliver it on time.

It does not take a chemist or mathematician to figure out that if this bag is 100% polypropylene and 80% post consumer waste as they claim, 80% of the polypropylene waste was something else before it was collected, re-processed and re-extruded into a reusable, non-woven polypropylene bag. Here in the US, polypropylene is used mostly for drinking straws, yogurt cups, medicine bottle, ketchup bottles, and other food related packaging uses.

What is the Truth about Plastic Recycling and Use?

I cannot claim to have the answer and I wish there was something for plastic like FSC certification on paper products. Until then, none of us will be able to trace back the source of the raw materials used to manufacture this bag but I can tell you that it is very unlikely to be 100% factual. The people in China would have to eat a lot of yogurt and recycle a lot of cups to make it out of their own domestic waste. OR, they would have to import our waste to China and bring it back in the form of these 100% post consumer waste plastic bags? Both scenarios are unlikely, probably uneconomical and definitely not very green when you consider the carbon footprint left behind.

The clincher for me is calling their bag “recyclable” but not telling us where or under what conditions. A manufacturer truly green and concerned about the environmental impact of the product they make would understand that providing that information is not optional and part of their responsibility. In my mind, the importer is even more responsible because they are the ones eagerly marketing the products’ relative greenness.
I used to say, “don’t believe what eco minded suppliers say, believe what they are willing to put in writing, on their product, web site or brochures”. Today however I find it increasingly difficult to believe the black and white people write about green because there is little or no accountability, especially when the product comes from overseas.

As consumers of green products we have to be incredibly vigilant and as suppliers of green products, even more so.
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You Can't Reuse Poor Quality Packaging

Reusable Green Products Deserve Reusable Green Packaging

A quick look at the Eco Bags website shows a wide variety of reusable and eco friendly products designed to help heal and preserve our planet. They offer beautiful stock and custom products in many shapes and colors from domestic manufacturers as well as other parts of the world.

Importing product makes the reuse of factory packaging a challenge because the quality and standards in other parts of the world of some packaging products such as corrugated shipping boxes, are not high as ours. Importing also means the product and packaging have to make a long trip by boat with additional handling at both ends of the voyage. The end result is that in some cases (photo shown above) the poor quality packaging does not hold up nearly as well as the high quality products Eco Bags imports.

Keep in mind that even when the foreign packaging survives the trip to Eco Bags, it will likely require additional shipment to a distribution point, fulfillment house, or even to a retailer. The product may also be custom printed which typically results in additional handling, shipment and repacking.

When Reusing Packaging Is Not Possible

At some point it is no longer practical to reuse packaging when the product’s security or cleanliness becomes at risk. The people at Eco Bags are experts at extending the life of packaging but there is a time when the packaging patient has to be pronounced dead and requiring replacement.

At that time the challenge is to utilize new packaging that is consistent with their green mission and does minimal harm to the environment. After review of their options the good people at Eco Bags selected Globe Guard boxes as their domestic supplier. They liked the fact that our boxes are 100% PCW recycled content. They also appreciate our competitive prices and our ability to help them brand their boxes with their popular logo and web address.

We are pleased to be suppliers of green, cost competitive and custom branded shipping boxes to some greenest companies in America. Companies like Eco Bags tend to be very selective about their packaging and suppliers and we appreciate it.

A Sales Message on Every Globe Guard Shipping Box