How to Make the Choice Between Paper and Plastic Packaging Materials

We are living through a boom time for the shipping industry. Millions of packages are in transit right now, on their way to and from homes and businesses. But whether your concern is sending a gift to a friend or getting your business’s inventory out to your customers, you must make a packaging decision. Proper packaging can ensure that your shipment arrives at its destination in tiptop condition and can showcase your items to add some wow factor. But there are practical, environmental, and financial considerations involved. How do you decide?

The two largest categories for shipping materials are paper and plastic. Both have special qualities that make them the best choice in certain situations. Let’s break down the benefits and challenges for each of them to help you decide.

What are the Pros and Cons of Paper Packaging?

Paper packaging is sustainable. The trees that are harvested for paper production are replanted, and the cycle continues. If paper is not recycled but placed in a landfill, it will biodegrade over time. Even better, it can often be reused. Let’s be honest, we all have a few cardboard boxes squirreled away for when they are called back into service.

There is a level of standardization in paper packaging that is important to shippers. It’s easy to find a size and weight that meets your needs, and calculating the cost is straightforward. The durability of paper and the added space between box walls and your items provides for important cushioning during shipping. This is what makes corrugated cardboard such a popular choice.

There are two notable downsides to paper packaging. First, paper packaging can get wet and lose its strength. This may be especially important during the months when snow flies. Also, paper is the more expensive option. However, if you are trying to highlight the quality of your items, paper may help to give them the appearance of greater value.

What are the Pros and Cons of Plastic Packaging?

Two words that describe plastic packaging are durability and flexibility. Wetness and winter weather become much smaller considerations when your items are encased in plastic. Plastic packaging can sit on a shelf in a warehouse for long periods of time with little concern about possible damage. Also, plastic can be molded into any shape. If you are shipping items with unusual contours or size, plastic can be formed to do the protection job required.

Another major benefit of plastic is its cost effectiveness. Especially when purchased in quantity, it can be the more budget-friendly option. And while paper may have a certain air of quality, plastic packaging can dazzle the eye. The capability to use color and patterns in plastic, or to feature your company’s logo, could make your shipments extra appealing and memorable.

While plastic is not biodegradable, it is sometimes recyclable and often reusable. Depending on your operation, you may get multiple uses out of the same materials.

The Decision is Yours

When making your decision, consider sustainability, performance, and cost. Any of these factors may be the most important in a particular situation. And remember, it isn’t always an either/or choice. Perhaps a combination of paper and plastic packaging materials would best suit your needs.

Understanding the Use of Boxes

Have you ever had a birthday party for your kids? My how the times have changed. I have always thought that I went all out for my boys’ birthdays when they were young. But when I see social media and the posts of children’s parties nowadays I am blown away. They look as if the planning would take as much as planning a wedding! How did this all come about?

Is it really just all about keeping up with the Joneses? I don’t think so. I think it is partially like keeping up with the Joneses, but I think more important than that it is to make our own selves feel accomplished. Many times parents put in long hours away from their families so the over the top birthday party becomes sort of a payback for time missed? The reason I feel like this is because many of the parents that I know that go over the top are also parents that come across as the type of parents that don’t miss their children. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me and my opinion and it is wrong, but nonetheless it is my opinion.

For me it was loving my kids so much that I wanted them to have things I didn’t have yet wish I had. Birthdays were never big at my house when I was growing up, not to mention that my birthday was five days before Christmas. This meant that I always received a handful of wrapped cardboardboxes around this time of year, though not as many as I should’ve gotten. I remember an aunt though, who would send me a card every year and it always had a one dollar bill inside. In the early 70s a one dollar bill could buy a fun little toy so it was always a special gift that I remembered. Longing for my children to be doted on one day a year was the reason I didn’t want their birthdays to pass without a party.

But when I look at the parties that are being thrown nowadays I realize the parties I threw we’re nothing to brag about. After all I didn’t have my entire house decorated in a theme such as Harry Potter or Marvel comics.I didn’t have all the food themed around the decorations such as Quidditch ball cheese, or Diagonalley donuts, we did however have a themed cake!

My boys usually wanted a sleepover more than anything for their birthday. Well maybe not more than anything, after all they were true children so we know they had gifts pretty high up on that list of wants. So when I say I went all out, I meant that we invited five or six boys to a sleepover. We had the usual kids food hotdogs and macaroni and cheese or pizza and we had a wonderful birthday cake. The boys were allowed to stay up extremely late and sleep in extremely late. That was what I called going all out!

Nowadays families are renting venues for the seven-year-old‘s birthday party. They are renting limousines to take the 10 eight-year-old little girls to get the manicures and pedicures before they go off to a American girl doll factory. Other families are taking their children to Disney World and renting special rooms to have a birthday party with a princess. Wow the expense involved that these things must cost is way out of my range.

So, whether you go all out for the eight-year-old’s birthday the way I did or whether you go all out for the eight-year-old’s birthday the way most seem to be doing nowadays, it’s truly OK, to each is own, no one is right, no one is wrong. Just remember to wrap all the cardboard boxes as beautifully as you can, make the boxes as unique and suspense filling as you can! After all, you and your children both are making a memory that is truly unforgettable.

The Top Seafood packaging Types

There are a lot of options with seafood, and for many seafood processing companies, they may wonder what the best way is truly to package these items. Right now though, you don’t really have one specific way to do it, but you want to give them the best packaging possible. 

You want to make sure you get the right kinds, and here, we’ll go over the main kinds of sea food packaging for your catch of the days! 

Skin 

Skin packaging is done when you want to make fish fillets, and there is a film that’s covering the top, and then they add paperboard to the back of this. 

It may be heat sealed, and then it’s placed over the vacuuming. This is done with a vacuum seal too in order to ensure everything’s fitting tightly. You also see this in pork chops, beef, chicken breasts, and other meats. 

Flexible Pouches 

These are stand-up, resealable bags and pouches, usually made of foil, paper, and other plastic formulas. 

These are used for frozen seafood pieces such as scallops or lobster claws, but you also see tis with granola, coffee, liquids and powders, and other goods. They’re probably the trendiest of them all simply because they’re considered the most environmentally friendly of these varieties of packaging and are usually cheaper than the more popular kinds of materials out there. 

It also has a much lower carbon footprint, so it’ll take up much less space in the local landfill than other kinds of packaging. 

Polypropylene strapping 

This is probably more of the more ubiquitous ones, and there are a variety of different widths for this, strengths, and other factors to consider, and you can figure out the application oof such based on the packaging that you need. 

You can do this with a hand strapper or completely automated. 

Usually, this is used for seafood packaging bundling, along with appliances, mailers, and fabrics too. 

IQF 

This is individually quick frozen packaging where they have the smaller foods frozen before they’re packed up. 

The perks of this are simple. it can actually preserve it longer. The mileage does vary between products since freezing does vary. 

They use high-speed freezing in order to prevent the bigger crystals  in the packaging, and it also helps keep the shape, flavor, scent, and whatnot, especially when compared to other kinds of methods of freezing. 

Cans 

Finally, you’ve got cans, which is pretty much how most seafood is processed. 

This is usually sealed with a heat sealed top, so that air doesn’t leave, and it helps to process the food within the cans. 

You can typically store tuna fish and other seafood for about five years after it’s been canned. 

This is a process that’s been used for decades, but now it’s more costly than flexible packaging, or other kinds, so it’s definitely slowly phasing out. 

And there you have it, the main kinds of food packaging possible. 

You may not be sure of what kind of packaging is best or you, and you may be confused on the type of packaging to buy. 

Although it does vary, if you’re struggling to figure out just what kinds of food packaging that you need, the best way to go about this is to talk to someone, and to get the information needed to properly get the right food packaging, and also to help you truly improve your packaging so that you can get the right product to others. 

Remember as well that the quality does matter too when choosing how to preserve seafood products. 

The Hidden risk of Sourcing Packaging

Single source packaging is something which at first glance seems like common sense, since you can build a great relationship with a top supplier over time, becoming more and more reliant on them, offering more benefits as well. Just like trouble management and dispute resolution. A solid, long-term type of packaging supplier is great for business, but it also provides a huge risk. Recent events such as the trade war and the pandemic have started to cause huge disruptions in the chains that are there, and the impact has impacted the packaging supply especially in our global supply chains. Why? Well shutdowns and shipping delays as well have completely messed up the supply networks, causing more buyers to scramble for the supply continuity. This also is impactful because it means you’re relying on a singular source for the packaging, and it can put you at risk. 

This can put you at risk in multiple ways, which is where the supplier will go offline in some ways for whatever type of reason, forcing you to have to find a new one, which is a mess if the networks are totally upended. The second one, is not as obvious. That’s because you’re over-relying on more informal and undocumented types of processes, so if the supplier does go offline, it’s difficult to unravel this in order to set up for newer suppliers. It also may take a bit longer if the new supplier is not fit with the artwork and isn’t there with the right documentation. 

During lockdowns when travel is unable to happen, it also can put people in a big situation since you don’t know if your supplier is performing, even if it’s just in the next state over. 

The hidden risk is very dangerous to businesses, since it does cause delays when you need items to move quickly, and delays when you set this up do mean an interruption on supply continuity. So what can you do? The simple answer is to build flexibility in the supply chain. 

The flexibility of your supply chains

creating flexibility is important for virtually any business, so it doesn’t cause you to be caught with your pants down, eliminating the single sourcing risk, helping you when these problems does occur. The result of this is to ensure your chain of supply is as flexible as you can make it, allowing you to efficiently switch over the suppliers when it’s interrupted. To begin, you want to look at the key processes, and what components are needed. From there, you should also look to see if there is someone doing QA monitoring of the production and the press running in the event of a travel ban. 

Next, you want to simply find and consolidate the stakeholder communications, ensuring fast and accurate information is provided. You may want to replace the email along with the excel files for online collaboration tools for quick communication. The final thing is to move everything to an online workflow type of structure. The best way to do this, is to create a database of the formal and approved specifications along with the artwork in order to ensure that the assets are there when you need them. Try to automate everything to remove the reliance that’s there on the arrangements, enabling real-time monitoring of these processes. 

The bottom line to all of this is to have some options, otherwise, you’re going to be caught with your pants down, and that of course, is not something that you want to have happen, but instead, something you should try to avoid as much as possible. 

How to Effectively Pack and Move

Most people do not like to pack an entire home. However, early packing means less stress on moving day. Ideally, people should pack the contents of their home one month prior to the moving date.

Get Organized

First, people should collect all of the necessary cardboard boxes and packing materials. Hospitals and grocery stores tend to give leftover cardboard boxes to those who ask for them.

A folder that contains important paperwork like moving truck reservation and personal documents helps the moving process run smoothly. Additionally, each household member should pack a suitcase filled with several days' worth of clothing and toiletries. The folder and suitcases should be stored away from the moving boxes and transported in the car on moving day.

Pack Efficiently

Packing one room at a time is the most efficient approach. To speed up the packing process, people should create an open area to keep the moving materials and bring the items to be packed. Every box should be labeled with its room destination and number; the numbers let people easily calculate the total of moving containers. Also, people should take pictures of any piece of furniture as they take it apart. These pictures will be helpful when it comes time to reassemble the furniture after the move.

When packing, light items go on top of heavy objects, and fragile items should be wrapped. Each box should be filled to maximum capacity. Once the smaller household items are packed, furniture that must be taken apart can be disassembled. Sealed bags are ideal for storing screws, nails, hex keys and remote controls. It is helpful to have a box that will be the first box opened at the new house. This box should contain basic items such as paper plates, soap, a few towels, some utensils, toilet paper and a box cutter.

Complete the Job

After labeling, packing and taping each box, the boxes should be stacked in the room from which the packed items came in order to easily locate them later. A final box count helps people make sure every box makes it to the new home. After the movers clear out the old house, people should double check each room to ensure none of the boxes get left behind.

Professional Movers

Before the professional movers arrive, the old house must be completely organized. Although professional movers do not pack boxes, they do wrap and pad furniture, and they also reassemble the furniture once it arrives at the new home. Usually, movers load the moving truck in a way that snugly fits the most items, which reduces breakage and maximizes space. Typically, it takes two movers five hours to pack and load a house that is 1,000 square feet.

Many movers log each box and piece of furniture that goes into the moving truck. If the movers do not log the items, it is crucial that the customer makes an inventory to help prevent any objects from getting lost.

If an object is broken during the move, the moving company will be responsible, and the company must reimburse the customer for the damage. In some cases, customers must pay for a warranty, so it is important for people to carefully read the moving contract before they sign it.

Adaptive Packaging Stations

Do you ever waste time looking for folders, pens, papers, or paperclips, and you struggle to find it.  You may lose all of your productivity time, and it’s super gone. While not common for many, this is still something that does eat up time. dead batteries, warehouse pens and paper going missing, this all kills the efficiency of a warehouse. Adaptive warehouses are becoming the new innovation, and for a good reason. We’ll go over why that is here. 

Out with the barcode scanning 

Barcode scanning is something that a lot of people are super used to, especially when you’re looking at warehouse packaging, since they’re supposed to reduce the number of errors there, offer better quality assurance, and from there save you tons of time. But there is some lag between scanning this, waiting for it to show up, and then putting down the scanner. 

Even when you’re packing stuff at the critical stage, those couple of seconds eat up tons of time. this is something that some people wanted to make faster, since they wanted options to scan and fulfill orders that make it faster than ever. That way, they’re not wasting time, and not breaking the bank. 

Gaming? 

Gaming is the solution to this. This is actually a solution that fixes the issue. Where did it come from? The gaming community. A few years back, Xbox put out a controller that’s adaptive, which is made for those who don’t have as much mobility, and motor skills that they struggle with. This is something that could be used for this, and when combined with some buttons and open-sourced software, a new solution came about. 

How did it work? This involved some buttons, where packers would print the invoice and label to finish the order. This system used boxes of all kinds of sizes, and the barcode was then scanned, with literally a button touch, rather than a scanner for the barcode. 

There are different buttons that offer different codes. You can use them for printing a label, invoicing, and also finishing the order.  This is something that also doesn’t offer a ton of costs. It’s actually cheaper than one scanner, which most people use in the warehouse. The biggest hiccup is that it’s hard to find these due to supply chain issues, and some places may want to get a wave of them installed immediately. 

Why this works? 

You may wonder why this works. There are two reasons. It’s actually more efficient, and even those packers who are good at this job do it even faster than before. The second thing, it doesn’t break the bank. It’s actually cheaper than a lot of the socket scanners that people have, and this is also much more durable.  This is something that doesn’t wear out too, even after months of use. 

It also is a lot more fun, and packers who get tired of the same old same old can absolutely eat this one up. This is something that warehouses are currently looking into, as this is something that a lot of people can benefit from. Plus let’s face it, the current generation loves gaming. They eat this one up so much, and it’s not just a fad that’s passing, and it offers satisfaction as well. 

You can even create a board for the top packers too, which also makes it more like a competition that’s friendly, rather than just boring old packaging. For a lot of businesses, this is the future. This is something that’ll make the current scanning and coding a thing of the past and bring businesses forward.

Vacuum Sealing Bags

Vacuum sealing is the best way to boost the shelf life of anything that's consumable, and items that aren’t as well. It also reduces the food waste that’s there improving the storage, so it’s attractive to consumers and the business too. 

The bags Matter 

Your first thing you need to do with vacuum sealing, is that you need the right bags. The correct bag that you use is super important. Oxygen barrier bags are those that have the molecules kept inside this type of packaging.  They also can have the inside of these modified in order to utilize the atmosphere on the outside of this container. The oxygen is then removed, and it won’t come out once there’s been a seal created.

Poly bags or normal plastic does not work, since this does have a higher transmission rate of oxygen to get to the seal once it’s completed.  Some vacuum sealers that are used at home might use co-extruded or textured bags. The process usually involves two or even more types of materials. The poly and nylon combination is used with this too, creating a major barrier of oxygen, allowing this to hold when it’s stored. 

This also blends to lower transmittal types of rates rather than the poly and the nylon types. Any of the foil that’s co-extruded with this has a lower transmission rate of oxygen, offering a more premium kind of storage. Some barrier bags might be used when you’re packaging some coffee, and that foil lining is then used to create an oxygen barrier. 

Inserting your Bag 

Before you put the bag into this, you’ll want to leave a couple inches of extra near the top, in order to remove the air, and to seal this too. Some vacuum sealers come in to help with this and are used by different markets. There are some home vacuum sealers that you can buy too, and they’re considered edge sealers. 

When you open the lid, there’s a liquid that’s seen there. you can insert this into there, by opening the bag within the middle of where this is, offering a vacuum that’s full, in order to drain any contents that are there, during the process of air removal as well. 

Sometimes, you can get nozzle sealers too, and when the vacuum starts, the nozzle takes out the air from this. You can keep the bag from stopping the suction through pulling on each side in a tight manner to ensure that there is full removal of the air.  Once the seal is fully activated, it’s held in place when it’s sealed, and then cooled down.

There are also chamber vacuum kinds of sealers, where the bag is placed there. These chambers typically have more than one specific side open on each end of the bag. 

Once the lid gets closed up, the machine starts up, and then, the vacuum forms within your chamber, getting rid of the air from the bag itself. 

Removal and Seal 

Once this is placed into your sealer, the air gets removed. Some require the users to close or clamp on this before it gets removed, with the time fully determined by the way the bag size is, and the compressor size is as well.

Larger bags for barriers take a bit longer to fully remove them. For those who are using them in the home, it can take up to 10 minutes. Then, once the seal is made, you then close it, in order to keep anything external out.  You can use a home sealer to make this fully sealed.