National industry and professional associations, along with packaging and pooling companies, are striving to increase awareness and promote the use of reusable packaging through educational seminars. Both the Reusable Packaging Association (RPA) and the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) have held events over the last month promoting the environmental, economical, and supply-chain efficiency benefits of using reusable packaging and asset tracking systems.

The 2009 RPA Choose Reusables conference, held in October in Las Vegas, gathered more than 70 participants from national companies interested in learning how to cost-effectively implement reusable packaging as part of the initiative to green their supply chains, while increasing operational efficiency. The panel discussions and seminars focused on the four stages involved in implementing reusable packaging: awareness, acceptance, implementation, and optimization.

“The event response was outstanding,” says Drew Merrill, RPA board member and Container and Pooling Solutions (CAPS) vice president of business development. “We were particularly pleased to see increased interest from food and beverage end users. As manufacturing customers, these companies are on the front lines of emptying product from a variety of containers and have significant influence on the materials used. With increasing pressure to go green and cut costs, end users are taking a larger interest and demanding the use of reusable containers. With a diverse group of representatives at different stages of reusable packaging implementation, we were able to have very prolific discussions.”

Management, tracking technologies are focus of AIAG event
While the RPA event focused on the stages of implementation, the AIAG Returnable Containers Call to Action Summit, held in mid-October in Southfield, MI, put more emphasis on managing returnable containers in the supply chain through the use of tracking technology and container management systems.

A group of more than100 attendees was present to discuss forming a committee comprised of automotive OEs and service providers. The group is tasked with developing returnable packaging implementation and use standards across all supply chains, in order to help the automotive industry better embrace and avoid the typical pitfalls common with a reusable system.

“AIAG has a long history in the area of returnable containers and automatic identification,” explains Morris Brown, manager, AIAG Supply Chain Management Program. “Given the technology improvements in tracking containers and strong emphasis on corporate responsibility, we feel the time is right to revisit returnable containers and tackle new projects to take cost and complexity out of the supply chain.”