posted by admin on Jan 11
I don’t think there is one in large scale use - so why not?
I was just thinking about how we all ‘have’ to have large electrical delivered these days. You can’t just walk into a store and wheel out a huge wall-mounted widescreen TV these days - or your American style ice-making tall fridge-freezer anymore - it all has to be delivered.
As does anything you order online - and this is really an expanding market, so why haven’t these large electrical companies come up with a re-usable tough outer casing to deliver these things to us in rather then acres and acres or cardboard?
Existing Packaging:
Now, we all know that a new fridge, oven or TV come packaged in so much outer packaging that it takes hours to get all the parts out and all the waste materials disposed of - I mean the box my new upright fridge freezer came with so much rubbish, that it had to be disposed of at the local amenity site rather than with normal waste - so another road journey was needed.
And I am well aware that such items need a certain amount of packaging to make a safe journey from the depot to your home - but what if this could be replaced by a better - more inclusive - delivery service.
For example, rather than all the polystyrene and plastic currently being used - what if it was just protected from dust in the warehouse - and a stronger outer casing used only for actual delivery.
That way, when you order a new washing machine, they slip your lightly packaged machine into the new outer casing and ship that off to your home as normal. The delivery drivers would then move this whole package into your home, remove the outer casing and leave you with a perfectly working electrical - but without the usual piles of cardboard and plastic.
They wheel away the empty outer back to the delivery lorry, where it folds in half and stacks with the other empty cases, ready to be used again tomorrow for another washing machine.
New Packaging:
I know that all white goods and TVs are different shapes and sizes but these new cases are slightly adjustable on the inside so you only need 5 or 6 outer sizes - I mean single ovens, washers, driers and fitted fridges and freezers are all roughly the same shape aren’t they?
Fasteners and supports inside could be moved up or down for a snug fit and then set back to standard when stored. And they would store well as they are the same shape at the back and front - so storing in a ‘nest’ would be easy.
Being made of recycled and recyclable materials, they would be eco friendly; being modern technology, they would be unbelievably light - yet strong; and being re-usable and easy to store, they could save manufacturers and delivery firms a whole lot of money.
I know that there are a few small scale deliveries in reusable cartons - so why not scale it up?
