Thinking outside the box
By Tim Wilson on January 13, 2012 17 comments
The redesigned shoe box looks the same, but uses 43% less paper
When you set a goal to reduce, recycle or reuse everything, then packaging really has to change. Walmart has pledged to cut back on packaging all across the supply chain. Those of us on the “apparel packaging” team knew we could make a big difference, so we stepped in to help.
We zeroed in on footwear. You may not have heard of “replenishment boxes,” but 30 million of them flow through our U.S. supply chain every year. These boxes ship loose footwear not sold in traditional shoeboxes, serving as a carrier and protecting them from dust and other elements. Suppliers usually provide their own boxes, in various types and sizes that are often wasteful. Clearly, this was a huge opportunity for our team.
We took over ownership of box production and set two goals: minimize waste while standardizing material specification. The box was redesigned using 43 percent LESS paper, and saving 28 percent in costs.
In the first 10 months of 2011, about 14.4 million boxes were produced, which equates to a savings of 692 tons of paper. To put that in perspective, that’s the environmental equivalent of more than 2,500 trees! Other environmental savings? More than 400,000 pounds of solid waste, 2.4 million gallons of water and 14,500 million BTU’s.
We love making a difference on this kind of scale, and we are hard at work identifying the next opportunity!
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1.
jean kreiner | January 13, 2012 at 11:13 am
i work in receiving and the bigest waste i see is pkging for movies. there will be 1 movie in a large box with lots of bubble wrap or paper. i will recieve several boxes from the same supplier with 2 movies in each instead of condensing them together. which is what i do when i’m checking in boxes, i condense as much as possible and recycle the empty boxes.. there is the same problem with video games as well. thanks
2.
Dan Kehoe | January 13, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Love this idea. Anything that produces less waste and is environmentally friendly is a good idea, in my opinion.
3.
Mukesh Rao | January 14, 2012 at 12:34 am
Hi,I am back with 4 suggestions which posted but am not sure where did they go. 1. Use natural light (Sun light) to light up your premises. Especially those located in sunny areas. An old concept we used to light up our homes when electricity was not known in India. We have translucent glass (1sq foot area) on the ceiling, appropriately placed to improve lighting the rooms.2. Reclaim the kinetic energy of the exhaust vents in your stores and offices. Especially from industrial exhaust fans. The kinetic energy can be converted to electricity using a wind mill or a turbine3. Reuse packaging materials (already shared)4. Fill up the empty pockets in the trailer trucks with Helium balloon made of tough materials. That will reduce the effective weight of the truck. The balloons should be flexible to fill up the shapes of all empty spaces. Mukesh Rao
4.
Walmart Green Room | January 17, 2012 at 8:48 am
Thank you for your thoughts, Mukesh! We hope you enjoy the blog. Keep checking back each week for more news on our sustainability efforts!
5.
93h8 | January 15, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Great idea .
6.
Michel Ngilen | January 17, 2012 at 2:55 pm
I am a package designer and while this sounds great, there is one important piece of information that is lacking. The hand assembly time.The old design had standard tuck closures on both ends. Extremely easy to just pop open the box and drop shoes in and close.The new design requires that someone pop it open and then either hand tape or hand glue the ends after the shoes are fulfilled. That’s time and energy that has been added to the end user.I’m sure the impact is minimal as compared to how much you are saving in material waste/cost. It’s still an important piece of information though.
7.
Walmart Green Room | January 20, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Hi Michel, thanks for your feedback. While cost and sustainability are great results, we worked closely with our footwear factories asking how productivity would be effected by the die line change. The response we received was 100% receptive to the change and actually made the line move faster, thus, time/energy decreased.
Here’s why:
The old design had 8 steps to closure, fold lid, fold lid lip, tuck in, tape (x 2 sides) = 8 steps
New Design has 6 steps to closure, fold one lid, fold second lid, tape (x 2 sides) = 6 steps
Thanks again for your thoughts. Keep checking the Walmart Green Room for updates on our sustainability initiatives!
8.
Mary Sue Lanaux | January 17, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Plastic Rx containers and cosmetic containers could be much smaller and cost quite a bit less. When I have taken apart a container of face lotion, I am appalled at the waste involved trying to make the container appear larger. It is a deception and I do not think that it should even be allowed.
9.
Michelle | January 17, 2012 at 8:19 pm
I would love it if the receipts would lose that long message about your website. It I’d a waste of ink and paper
Also. Get rid of those awful plastic bags bring back paper bags with handles.
PLEASE
10.
Amilia Partridge | January 17, 2012 at 9:06 pm
I like the idea of less waste, but something I have noticed is the shoes on the little plastic hangers, cool Idea. Also, looks like there should be a way to reuse or recycle prescription bottles. I am sure you probably can through the plastic recycling programs but I would be scared to do that because some meds leave a residue.
11.
Ashley | January 18, 2012 at 8:01 am
You should really try reducing video game waste. big box, tiny game, lots of cardboard. its a waste of earth and space. Could you try something???
12.
Elizabeth | January 19, 2012 at 2:38 am
Please look into much less packaging for supplement bottles such as vitamins etc. also the same for small packages of screws etc. which have a few screws and a much too large plastic bubble around them. It always amazes us the amount of waste there is out there. We have recycling here, but it still seems such a waste of product, energy and time in making these things.
13.
JoAnn Hines | January 20, 2012 at 1:20 pm
This seems like such a simple solution with incredible results. I wonder how many packages could be redesigned using this approach?FYI, there is a huge sustainable packaging group on Twitter and last week this was the most popular packaging tweet in my network.Happy Packaging!
14.
Walmart Green Room | January 20, 2012 at 5:46 pm
Thanks for sharing your thoughts JoAnn! We hope you enjoy the blog.
15.
Cheryl Floyed | March 19, 2012 at 10:00 am
I work for a company that specializes is bioremediation
/ environmental remediation. A good portion of our business is either
capping waste sites or groundwater control. This one “little” thing
you’ve done has a huge impact on more than just saving some trees.
You’ve prevented numerous other problems for our environment as well.
Good job!
16.
Cierra | March 25, 2012 at 7:04 pm
Saved, I love your site!
17.
DianneB | September 20, 2012 at 12:51 am
I would love to see a pharmacy packaging (bottles,lids,etc.) recycle station at the pharmacy in our stores.It would be great to have such a station in nearly every dept. and they be designed like the big blue mailboxes the postal system has so people would not be able to get in or vandalize them easily.