 | Drew Merrill |
Location
Livonia, MI, USA
Role
ConsultantIndustry
FoodJob Title
VP Business Development & Strategic PlanningCompany
Container And Pooling SolutionsProfile
Mr. Merrill is responsible for all of CAPS’ sales and marketing activities and has been an officer of the company since 2004. Over the past 15 years, he has presented to and consulted with stakeholders at hundreds of organizations across the country. The past five years of his career have been dedicated to promoting the use of sustainable packaging solutions in the automotive, food/beverage, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and general manufacturing industries. Additionally, Mr. Merrill is a member of the Reusable Packaging Association’s (RPA) Board of Directors.
Recent Discussions
Increasing the Lifespan of Reusable Packaging
The use of reusable packaging across a variety of industries is regularly increasing. This is great news! So how do we maximize the lifespan of these containers to ensure we’re using the fewest natural resources possible? Of course making sure we track and manage our fleets so containers don’t get lost in the supply chain is key. However, a less frequently visited option is container repair.
Posted October 30, 2009How does tracking containers help green our supply chains?
How does tracking reusable containers (as opposed to just the contents) help green our supply chains? Package tracking technology is by no means a new concept, however many companies don’t have a tracking solution, and several of those that do, don’t use them effectively. The result? Our first thought is typically container loss or container damage without any means to assign accountability. But what about the environmental impact?
Posted August 27, 2009B2B Reusable Bulk Packaging
Have you ever considered the amount of waste produced to ship or receive raw materials and ingredients? Yes, it’s true, most of us are more attuned to consumer packaging (B2C) because our customers are demanding greener leaner materials, but what about the bulk B2B packaging used to ship and receive the ingredients and materials it takes to produce the final product?
Posted July 9, 2009Sustainability in the B2B World
Television, radio stations and magazines everywhere are inundating consumers with “green” messages, including how to save energy, reduce waste and recycle … and for the most part, it seems to be catching on. Whether it’s seeing consumers using reusable grocery bags, recycling plastic and paper, or utilizing energy saving light bulbs – consumer awareness is becoming more prevalent. These may be solid steps forward for our environment … but how do we do the same on the business end of things? Consumers are beginning to reach out to ask companies to do more.
Posted May 14, 2009Going green costs too much….
…or does it? Throughout the course of a week, we repeatedly hear from companies, “we want to green our supply chain, but right now cutting costs is key”. The assumption seems to be that these two things must be mutually exclusive – but is that really the case?
Posted May 4, 2009
Comments
* indicates an article that was submitted directly to this Web site by the supplier, and was not handled by the Greener Package editorial staff.
Greener Package may share your contact information with our sponsors, as detailed in our Privacy Policy. Greener Package will not share your information with a sponsor whose content you have not reviewed. The members of the Advisory Board and Expert Network do not review, approve or endorse advertisements on this Web site.
Protect your investment
Agreed. If you flood an open supply chain (as opposed to a closed loop) with reusable packaging for the first time without some type of returnable recovery tracking system, you can almost guarantee a high loss %. Let's face it.... end-users that are used to disposing of expendable packaging require training and accountability to ensure they do not treat the reusable packaging as a throw-away. A properly implemented tracking system is the perfect insurance to avoid this kind of issue. Your referenced link put it perfectly.... "Because returnable packaging is relatively expensive, it´s important that they don't get lost in the return system. A loss rate of 10% losses per trip will give the result of complete system loss in just 10 cycles (10% loss x 10 cycles results in 100% loss). "