Produce boxes come in a variety of sizes and styles, and they are typically made using waxed corrugated board. Waxed boxes can handle water, humidity, ice, and a lot of abuse without losing strength or becoming soggy. Although quite expensive, waxed boxes serve their purpose, but in today’s environment, they are not very environmentally friendly because they cannot be recycled. The wax coating is impossible to separate from the cardboard once it is used, so it cannot go to a recycling facility. With today’s reality and the advances made in packaging, new alternatives to wax are being developed and used.
I am currently working on such a wax alternative box for a potential client. He currently uses a wax box where the inside of the box and the medium are waxed. The box goes through a lot of abuse and must be very strong. It is first stored in a very high humidity area and then gets put into a cooler.
The fresh picked product inside the box gets shipped to the USA and different parts of Canada. Once the end user is done with the box, he can’t recycle it due to the wax. With the new alternative that I am proposing we can now recycle the box, helping the end user make less garbage in landfills, and my customer is now able to say that he is practicing more green alternatives.
This non-wax coating is called Hydra Defense Super Cob and is 100% recyclable and repulpable. It is approved for use by both the US Food and Drug Administration and by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It can be printed on and used on a brown or white box. We are currently testing this box out for a specific application and we are very excited to see what the results will be.
Are you facing similar challenges? Give us a call: finding alternative solutions that are eco-friendly is one of our strengths.
