Corrugated plastic, also known as plastic corrugated, is growing in popularity in the returnable packaging industry. This versatile material has uses beyond duplicating traditional paper packaging. One of the newest uses of plastic corrugated is as a replacement for wood crates. Wood crating has been used for years in the packaging industry. What made it so attractive was not only its strength and durability but the ease of constructing one as needed. However, many companies made the mistake of depending solely on wood instead of exploring other packaging products such as corrugated plastic when their business expanded or they received a larger than normal order. This resulted in delayed shipments and / or damaged products as they had to rush to make their own packaging using the same wood material that had served them so well in the past.
One of the main reasons companies used wood for their returnable packaging applications was because they could create a container that had fork-lift access, something that until recently was not able to be duplicated using corrugated plastic. Having fork-lift access mean a company could move a wood crate using a forklift instead of picking it up by hand, a major factor in ergonomic related injuries. Because of recent advances in plastic corrugated technology, steel rod can be threaded through the internal corrugated plastic flutes for improved strength and stack-ability. Because of this a plastic corrugated tote can be made with two bottoms, one that supports the weight of the product in the container and the other bottom can be used for fork-lift access. The end result is a plastic corrugated returnable container that is incredibly strong and durable, amazingly lightweight, and most importantly has forklift access.
In conclusion, while plastic corrugated and corrugated plastic can be used to replace paper corrugated boxes and other paper packaging, companies are finding this is just the beginning. Replacing a staple such as a wood crate while maintaining its strength in addition to having fork-lift access, proves corrugated plastic is here to stay.