IFCO RPC system reduces material requirements, waste

On June 5, the EXPO 2015 in Milan/Italy will be the host of this year’s global celebrations of the World Environment Day (WED), the most important worldwide day for environmental action. For logistics service provider IFCO, the main topic of WED 2015 “resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production” largely reflects its own environmental policy.

Asked about the environmental aspects of the IFCO RPC system, Wolfgang Orgeldinger, CEO of IFCO SYSTEMS N.V., states: “IFCO RPCs make respectful use of natural resources and contribute to the protection of the environment, while at the same time eliminating disposal costs. A major ecologic advantage of the IFCO RPC system lies in the possibility of re-using the boxes up to 100 times, resulting in a reduction of raw material requirements and packaging waste. Also for economic reasons, many retailers prefer reusable packaging, because the rental fee is lower than the cost of one-way packaging material, and there are no costs for packaging waste disposal.”

In its study “The Sustainability of Packaging Systems for Fruit and Vegetable Transport in Europe based on Life Cycle Analysis”, published on initiative of SIM (Stiftung Initiative Mehrweg / Foundation for Reusable Systems), the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics highlighted various environmental advantages of RPCs in comparison to cardboard, amongst which considerably lower greenhouse emissions potential (-53%), ozone depletion potential (-38%), summer smog potential (-51%), contribution to acid rain (-72%), and contribution to over-fertilization (-81%).

At the end of its useful life, an IFCO RPC is no burden for the environment, since it is made of 100% recyclable material. Damaged RPCs will be granulated and used for the production of new RPCs.

For more information:
Hillary Femal
IFCO Systems
Tel: +1-813-4634124
Fax: +1-813-2862070
Email: Hillary.Femal@ifcosystems.com
www.ifco.com