To go along with the holiday season, The American Institute for Packaging and the Environment recently published a brochure aimed at improving the environmental sustainability e-commerce packaging.

The brochure, titled Packaging: At the Forefront of E-Commerce Growth & Sustainability, explains the roles of e-commerce packaging, strategies that packaging manufacturers, product marketers and retailers use to minimize product damage, and ways in which the packaging industry continues to find innovative solutions to do more with less.

The brochure offers the following “Four Rs” to readers:

1. Reduce and consolidate orders delivering more products in fewer packaging.

2. Reuse packaging, especially boxes and cushioning materials.

3. Return packaging to local shipping store, especially cushioning materials.

4. Recycle corrugated and other materials, including polyethylene films.

According to Ameripen, US retail e-commerce sales are set to exceed $300 billion in 2014, with much of the volume occurring during the last two months of the year.Donna Dempsey of Ameripen says it is important that people are aware of the role packaging plays in e-commerce, and to also be aware of how easy it is to recycle e-commerce packaging.

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Not sure how your company can abide by the Four Rs? Here’s a suggestion that could save you thousands: switch to reusable packaging.

Returnable packaging is not only reusable, but is a durable and cost-efficient packaging solution that can reduce the shipping and storage costs for companies in almost ANY type of industry. Take a look at some sample products and find out how much you can save (you know you want to) by switching to reusables.

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