Better shipping boxes?

[bekko]

The high price is a disappointment, but not a deal breaker. I am actually looking for a small liner about one-third to half the size of a regular box. Perhaps an AirLiner 014. My plan is to start retailing goldfish and I need something to accommodate a retail order.

I am a card-carrying tree hugger, but when you do the math the environmental savings are not that dramatic. EPS foam weighs 1 pound per cubic foot. Double-baffle Airliner material weighs 1.1 lb/cu.ft. The fossil fuel and energy inputs are probably comparable. Their web site data is based on thermally equivalent materials. Since the AirLiner system provides better insulation they are not directly comparing a EPS liner to an inflated liner. The solid waste disposal issue is real because EPS does not readily collapse and takes up a lot of land fill space. I will say though that ornamental fish shipping boxes are seldom sent to the landfill in Hawaii. The brokers/jobbers pick them up at the local pet stores and reuse them for shipping fish to the mainland. Storage remains an issue.

-ste veh opk

[dizzyfish]

Quote: Originally Posted by bekko The solid waste disposal issue is real because EPS does not readily collapse and takes up a lot of land fill space. I will say though that ornamental fish shipping boxes are seldom sent to the landfill in Hawaii. The brokers/jobbers pick them up at the local pet stores and reuse them for shipping fish to the mainland. Storage remains an issue. -ste veh opk

Steve,
These Airliners could be reused just like styros.
We try to send the stryos back with local wholesalers or home with cutomers, which is just switching the disposal responsibility to others. The problem is that a great number of the boxes end up split and broken. We might get in 6-10 boxes of fish a week and at least half will be damaged to the point of not really being reusable. The styro also tends to flake and chip apart everytime it is put into and taken out of cardboard boxes. I know we end up with a lot of little balls of the stuff floating in our coral and live rock tanks. It forms a scum like ring around the top of the tanks, which is not unlike what you see washing up on shore in many places.

Ok so we throw the broken styro boxes in the dumpster. This styro tends to fill the dumpster quickly and results in a larger dumpster being required, which is an additional monthly charge. Then the garbage truck comes and picks up the dumpster and dumps it. Then this hydraulic arm in the truck compresses the load. Well somehow this process tends to break the styro into small pieces, some of which get out of the truck and onto the ground where they are carried by the wind to points unknown. Something just sort of urks me about seeing little styro chips blowing across my lot and toward my koi pond. You can put all the styro in plastic garbage bags, but that can add to the total plastic going into the landfill and they break or puncture easily. I do try and use the plastic shipping bags for this purpose if possible. If I'm not mistaken the recycle guys will accept the Airliner type plastic, but not styro which cannot be recycled. If I'm correct here it would be a huge environmental advantage to the Airliner over foam.

I did get some clarification from Kevin on how the European Union deals with the styro issue. They still allow its use, but charge a tariff, which may make the cost equal or higher than the Airliners type packaging. I personally hope our government sees the wisdom in this and follows suit.

Ultimately I agree with Larry that environmental aspects will not be the deciding factor as whether or not people use these boxes. The question is how many people would be willing to pay an additional $5-10 to insure that their $500-1000 worth of koi arrived less stressed and less bruised?
Mitch

[PapaBear]

Using neither I can't personally compare shipping costs, but it is another factor to consider. How many new styrofoam boxes come on a pallet and what is the shipping cost? Compare that number with what I would assume to be a much smaller frieght bill for an equal number of collapsable airliners... That could help to offset part of the $2 per unit cost differential.

[Vogata]

Hello
Hope some of you are looking into normal Japanese shipping boxes also. Last box dimension received before x-mass if memory serves me right ~35x35x80cm.

I would love (more like demand and ship the stuff down my self) to
1. received my shipments with a 3.8cm airbag all around
2. not to worry that much about temperature swings as that’s another side effect off insulation

1+2 would probably = lower general stress on Nishikigoi. If the at the same time fit box size normally used for air cargo, to some degree is reusable (are inflation/deflation) I really can’t see way we don’t have a winner her.

Please keep us informed pm/e-mail or what ever.