Returnable Packaging Blog
Amatech - Green for 35 Years!
Green and Clean for 35 Years!
Society has become more environmentally conscious with an increased emphasis on preserving, protecting, and sustaining the environment. Sustainability has become more than just a green buzzword; it?s now a movement. Amatech has been at the forefront of the environmental benefits of using returnable/reusable packaging since the company was started in 1990. Owner and founder of Amatech, Dave Amantangelo, believed in prolonging the life cycle of a box on an environmental, economic, and financial level for customers. One tree makes 100 boxes and usually those boxes are tossed out after one use due to poor durability. Amatech's Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) can be used for multiple uses and that?s what Amatech has done for its customers.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
Reducing environmental waste means looking for ways to reduce the material used in our products, reusing products whenever possible, and recycling when the product?s useful life is over. The lifecycle of Amatech?s RPCs contributes to the reduction of environmental waste on all three levels.
- Reduce ? Amatech?s RPCs twin-wall fluted structure produces strength and rigidity at a lower weight, thereby reducing the amount of material required.
- Reuse ? The durability of RPCs in outdoor use and packaging applications means they can be used longer and reused over and over enabling a longer life.
- Recycle ? RPCs use polypropylene copolymers which make for easy recycling at the end of their useful life. Polypropylene, a polyolefin, recycles in processing streams such as plastic milk cartons and detergent bottles.
Advantages of using RPCs
Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) have many advantages over corrugated paper containers:
- REUSABLE ? RPCs are manufactured to be durable and sustainable to get multiple uses compared to a one-time trip with a cardboard box
- DURABLE ? Weather resistant, incredible sustainability, manufactured to last
- SAFE ? There is no need for box cutters which can be a safety hazard to line workers
Paper vs Plastic
A lot of people have the misconception that paper is more environmentally friendly. However, over the entire life of the package, paper and cardboard embody far more greenhouse gasses than their plastic equivalents. Paper products take substantial amounts of energy to make. Crushing a tree down into small fibers, mixing the wood pulp into a slurry, and then passing the wet mass through huge rollers cannot be done without enormous power usage. Making cardboard is one of the largest industrial uses of energy on the planet. Another concern is that many paper and cardboard products end up in local authority landfills, where they rot anaerobically, creating the greenhouse gas methane in the process. Plastic, as is well known, doesn?t rot and sequesters its carbon forever.
Amatech continues to create new products and uses based on the need to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic.