Reusable plastic crate or recyclable cardboard box? A comparison of two delivery systems

During a product's entire life cycle the significance of packaging varies in terms of environmental impacts. From the perspective of companies which manufacture packaging or packaging has an important role in their value chain it can be a relevant issue to focus on in their efforts to improve the environmental performance of their activities. The aim of this study was to compare the life cycle environmental impacts of a real product (bread) delivery system using either reusable HPDE plastic crates or recyclable corrugated cardboard (CCB) boxes for product transportation. In this paper we focused on the delivery systems (not the delivered product) covering the manufacturing of the crates/boxes, their use, the delivery routes from bakery to retailers and waste management/recycling of the crates/boxes. As a result we concluded that the recyclable CCB box system was a more environmentally friendly option than the reusable HPDE plastic crate system in all the studied impact categories based on the defined boundaries and assumptions. Transportation played a very important role in the environmental impacts of the analysed systems. Therefore, changes, e.g. in the weights of products and their secondary packaging or the transportation distances could affect the results considerably. •CCB box system is a more environmentally friendly option than Plastic Crate system.•Container material does not alone define impacts of the delivery system.•Within efficient recycling a recycled product can perform better than reusable one.•Transportation played the most important role in the impacts of the systems.