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'Hidden' payoffs through waste savings

Major southwest Coke franchise discovers that shifting to returnable trays for cans not only reduces landfill waste, it also improves productivity and cuts costs.

The entire soft drink industry is observing Southwest Coke1s experience with returnable trays for 12-oz aluminum cans (left). T
The entire soft drink industry is observing Southwest Coke1s experience with returnable trays for 12-oz aluminum cans (left). T

Corrugated board is almost a thing of the past for customers of Coca-Cola Bottling Group, the company that operates two Texas production plants, Southwest Coca-Cola in Abilene and Coca-Cola Southwest in San Antonio. Last year, the two plants completed a conversion from corrugated trays to returnable high-density polyethylene trays for shipping soft drinks in cans. The trays are molded by Rehrig Pacific Co. (Los Angeles, CA).

This change comes nearly a decade after the firm did the same thing for shipping soft drinks in plastic bottles. In fact, that experience-especially the 40-plus trips those bottle "shells" typically achieve-were considered a guide for the results with the can tray. The shells have deep cavities that hold the bottles firmly and permit stacking on pallets.

However, while returnable can trays have been available to bottlers for about five years, the two Texas plants represent the largest installation yet to adopt them; the initial order was for more than three million trays. And it's safe to say that other soft drink packagers are closely watching the experience of Coke in Abilene and San Antonio.

The company stresses that its motivation wasn't cost savings, but rather "doing the right thing for the environment." In fact, the company embarked on a high-visibility promotional campaign in its markets that touted the environmental benefits of returnable trays. This program, say beverage industry observers, was critical in persuading retailers of the benefits of the returnable tray program.

However, while being a good corporate citizen might be desirable, the company certainly didn't want to absorb increases in labor costs, says Joe Hopkins, vice president of operations. That's why the company didn't just change its trays, it completely upgraded the back end of its canning line with new equipment to automate handling of the new trays.

Automated systems

 

It purchased two automatic Pallet Shuttle and Denesting tray systems from Nigrelli Systems (Kiel, WI), a Klockner Packaging Machinery Co., along with custom tray packers from Hartness Intl. (Greenville, SC). These automated machines were pivotal in convincing Southwest Coke that moving to returnable trays could be cost-effective.

The soft drink packer says that it cost-justified the use of returnable trays based on a savings of five cents/tray vs. corrugated. In fact, says production manager DeWayne Bear, "The tray is paid for in just about three trips. Some studies we've done show we're getting a minimum of about 12 trips on can trays, so that's how we arrived at our savings when compared to one-way corrugated."

The decision to invest in returnable trays for cans was based on the company's trippage experience with bottle shells. "We monitored the number of trips for those, and after we recorded 40 trips per tray, we stopped counting," Hopkins recalls.

Still, the soft drink company does charge its customers $1/tray as a deposit. However, according to Hopkins, it's rare when money actually changes hands. "We told the stores that it's the right thing to do, and consumers don't take the trays home," he adds. Southwest's environmental campaign was very persuasive to its accounts and to the public, PW was told.

In its area, the bottler estimated that nearly 67% of the corrugated trays that it packed cans in were not being recycled, so the real landfill savings were experienced by customers. In-house, Southwest Coke did recycle all of its corrugated material.

Most of the soft drink company's retail volume is serviced by store-door delivery drivers that operate from the company's terminals. These route drivers typically restock supermarket shelves, and Bear says, "It was a lot easier for the route people to discard the corrugated trays than to recycle them. Now our people don't fill up the dumpsters at the stores with the corrugated trays." The bottler also showed retailers how the conversion to returnable trays would help cut their refuse costs.

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