A Glance at Three Award-Winning Reuse Innovations

Truck engine manufacturing giant Cummins has taken on a major project to lessen its packaging waste after discovering that 75 percent of inbound materials and goods traversing between facilities used expendable packaging.  

The OEM has launched program to keep materials out of the waste stream and in circulation that leverages RFID tracking. The system follows assets as they move between suppliers and manufacturing sites. Key components are overhead readers set up at dock doors and connected software that provides insights such as where bottlenecks happen and the time it takes to move assets from one location to another.

The project, which initially focused on the Columbus Dodge Ram engine plant, now includes 257 installations set up across multiple Cummins operations, suppliers, and container management centers.

“Our returnable packaging program contributes significantly to several of our sustainability goals, including generating 25 percent less waste in our facilities and operations; ensuring we are adhering to circular economy practices; and reusing or responsibly recycling 100 percent of packaging plastics,” says Todd Farwell, global packaging director, Cummins.

Moving from a more traditional barcode system to an automated process has also cut labor costs while reducing scanning time from about 20 minutes per container to a few seconds.  The savings in money, time, and waste add up considering that currently over 90,000 returnable packaging pieces are tagged for inbound and outbound operations.

Onboarding suppliers was critical to achieving full transparency and to scaling, Farwell says. So, Cummins chose to foot the bill to install tracking devices at these partners’ locations too.

Near-future plans are to deploy the tech-driven returnables system in Europe and extend the North America program to include 60 suppliers— then to take the technology to other parts of the globe.

The initiative, brought to life with technology partner Surgere, earned a Reusable Packaging Association award. Theirs was one of three winning innovations.

Award recipient Niagara’s project is an automated pallet washing system—a design and build undertaking the 90-year-old manufacturer took on to help a client aiming to clean 1,000 pallets per hour.

Using reusable storage systems, such as returnable plastic containers and delivery packaging, is an excellent way to cut costs and environmental impact. However, reusable containers can become a liability without proper cleaning, potentially leading to cross-contamination and product damage, says Danny Wilkinson, director of sales & marketing, Niagara Systems and South Shore Controls.

Niagara’s automated washing system, leveraged by companies that  handle machining oils, medical waste, and food production byproducts among materials, addresses multiple pain points. For one it eliminates the need to continually retrain workers on proper washing and sanitation protocol—the positions turn over rapidly. Operators do not have to take on the laborious tasks of moving, orienting, unstacking, and re-stacking reusables; robots and other automation take care of these jobs.

Then there are the sustainability benefits.  
“Many companies wash reusables with a fleet of pressure washers that utilize one-pass [single use] water.  But many stages in our equipment [depending on the application] are fully recirculated, meaning we utilize the wash and rinse water multiple times, sending less water down the drain,” Wilkinson says.

While return on investment depends on the application, Niagara says on average customers recoup costs in one to two years.

Over the years, the company has fielded a huge upsurge in inquiries for these types of systems due largely to labor issues associated with COVID-19. 

“Today, we are seeing equipment and automation needs throughout the production, manufacturing, and operations world. With companies being more cognizant of environmental health and safety, quality, employee retention, regulatory standards, and automation we have been and will continue to design and build solutions in this space,” Wilkinson says.

Reusable Packaging Award recipient ALPAL teamed with a manufacturer to redesign a bulk container that could collapse for efficient return transport while maintaining the strength to stack them, optimizing storage space. They can be stacked eight units high, while collapsing in a 5-to-1 empty return ratio.

This is achieved by combining the benefits of a flexible intermediate bulk container (collapsibility) with the benefits of an intermediate bulk container (rigidity).

With this design, ALPAL aims to displace bulk corrugated boxes on a wooden pallet. The product can easily be switched in to replace corrugated boxes without any other changes required, says Bianca Robinson, chief innovation Officer, ALPAL.

It’s basically a combined pallet and container, though marrying the two applications was not the original objective; rather it was a beneficial by-product of the design. That being said, a single unit streamlines and simplifies packaging management, Robinson says.

“ALPAL’s components drive automation potential and ease of handling. They are easy to repair and maintain, aiding circularity and further enhancing the lifetime of the unit (already in excess of 10 years),” she says.

The unit’s needed to be interoperable to smoothly transition packaging fleets over time.

“Over that transition period, ALPALS and corrugates operate seamlessly alongside each other. The interoperability is not only for the investment challenges inherent in changing to reusables, but for change management pain points. If an ALPAL can fit into an existing system, the pain of change is reduced and barriers to adoption limited,” Robinson says.

Since the target market is companies that today use bulk corrugated boxes on a wooden pallet, the system can serve a wide range of industries. But the company’s current focus is the vegetable seed, frozen, and fresh produce markets.

Introduced more than a decade ago, the Reusable Packaging Association’s Excellence Award initiative recognizes visionaries to include primary (end) user companies and suppliers who innovate and advance reusable packaging. Submissions are scored based on narration of the reuse opportunity, demonstrated business or economic improvements, and quantification of environmental impacts.