Credit: ToscaTosca, a provider of reusable packaging and supply chain solutions for products such as eggs, case-ready meat, poultry, produce, seafood, and cheese, announced that it has diverted a million metric tons of corrugated cardboard from the perishables supply chain by offering its reusable packaging solutions (RPCs) to food suppliers and grocery retailers. Corrugated cardboard is not recyclable when it is wet or soiled, which means much of it used for perishables ends up in landfills.
The company says that for every RPC used, a pound to a pound and a half of corrugated is prevented from entering the supply chain. This means that a single RPC can divert hundreds of pounds of corrugated cardboard in its lifetime before being recycled and turned into new packaging, according to Tosca.
The company calculates the sustainability benefits of a packaging change to RPCs via proprietary tools that compare changes in GHG emissions, fossil fuel use, water use, human impact, and more, between one-way corrugated cardboard packaging and its own RPCs. The company provides partner companies with sustainability impact reports to help give them an understanding of the “environmental improvements it can make when switching to Tosca’s reusable containers,” the company says.
The company claims its RPCs are “revolutionizing supply chains with more sustainable and cost-effective reusable packaging solutions.”
Tosca also says that its RPCs reduce food waste and lower labor costs. International retailer Ahold is one company that uses the RPCs to improve its bottom line in dairy. “The two biggest opportunities I had to impact our P&L were shrink and labor,” Todd Patti, founder and CEO of NextChapter Sales and former executive with Ahold, told Tosca. “Ultimately we saw the largest opportunity with eggs since they are the worst shrink offender in the dairy category and also require excess labor to stock and clean display cases.” Switching to egg RPCs has reduced labor by up to 53% for some retailers, and most retailers will see a 50% reduction in egg shrink, Patti says.
Tosca recently acquired Polymer Logistics, expanding its geographic reach, product portfolio and R&D capabilities, according to the company.
