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1660

REUSEABLE SHIPPING CONTAINERS

1660 points posted to Environment by scotty750 06/08/07

I'm an onsite tech. I've been griping for years about the large boxes for shipping parts for warranty calls that don't have handholds. And I just thought of a way to solve my gripe, make dell green and save money.

You can purchase hardened plastic laptop shipping cases that are lockable and pretty much infinitely reusable. Why not a similar solution for warranty parts.

Currently dell is using cardboard boxes. Lifespan of a box, 2 ships, out and back. if your lucky, maybe a second warranty call but not likely. cost of a box say 40 cents. number of boxes used a year??? well if we figure 30,000 systems built per day and a failure rate of say 10% (industry average is beleived to be about 15%) thats 3000 units a day that break.

Yes theres an upfront cost of purchasing the shipping cases, but they can get used an unlimited number of times. since they don't have to be constantly remade like cardboard, its a lower carbon footprint, and can lower to total cost over time from reuse. and it adds zero waste to landfill.

summary:
zero landfill
infinite reusability
lower carbon foottprint per unit over time
lower manufacturing costs over time
easy to implement
free advertising of dells commitment to green. make em a nice white with a nice big dell logo and a nice big recycle logo on it. every customer that gets a warranty repair would see the commitment to green

obishan
06/09/07		 Smart idea, I like it.
Very pratical too.

What service vendor do you work for?
jorge
06/09/07		 I use a Dell laptop box as a foot rest.
scotty750
06/12/07		 I likely shouldn't post the vendor I work for. Since I don't have the authority to speak on behalf of them. Its easier to keep my comments belonging to me if I don't bring the name of the company I work for into the game.
jorge
06/12/07		 Never use "my company" if you don't want to be asked about your company. Use the tried and true, "my friends company", "a company I read about", "a company I heard about", now go edit the idea.
obishan
06/12/07		 ZING!
scotty750
06/13/07		 actually, Dell uses multiple vendors for onsite services, just as they use multiple vendors for just about everything. I can present myself as an employee of one of those vendors, but still maintain the distance between my views and the views of the company that I work for by simply presenting myself as an employee of one of the multiple vendors. But I will modify the idea slightly to further distance my ideas from the policies of the company for which I work.
jorge
06/13/07		 What was your company again?
scotty750
06/13/07		 Great, another comedian in the world :) Now if I can ever figure out how to edit the idea......ahhh maybe if I click that link that says EDIT ARTICLE.... duh...

ok..all fixed...everyone happy now?
jorge
06/13/07		 Great job! By the way I just spin doctored your idea into a new Idea for me :D
scotty750
06/13/07		 thief :)
obishan
06/14/07		 Scotty, I have a good idea as to what company that is :) I know what all of Dell's service vendor's are :)
scotty750
06/18/07		 I have a pretty good idea of which one I work for too ;)
obishan
06/20/07		 Now that we have that out of the way...Do you like me?
_
Check | | For Yes
_
Check| | For No
scotty750
06/21/07		 ahhh man!!!! now I'm gonna have that song stuck in my head all day!!! ;)
obishan
06/28/07		 Hahaha :)

And to stay on topic with this idea, reusable shipping containers are still an awesome idea.
scotty750
06/28/07		 now if only DellAdmin1 would put her 2 cents in
jorge
06/28/07		 Why she's just a moderator not a manager.
scotty750
06/28/07		 yeah well, I don't see Mikey putting his 2 cents in so a moderator is better than nothing.
jorge
06/29/07		 It is nothing if you've noticed.
philipper
07/31/07		 Merged Idea originally posted 06/19/07
Use Recycled box to ship PCs

Only use recycled material when shipping PCs. NO PLASTIC !!!
badblood
07/31/07		 Merged Comment originally posted 06/19/07
You can recycle plastic.
winoffice
07/31/07		 Merged Comment originally posted 06/21/07
You are right, philipper. I prefer cardboard to plastic, and cardboard is easier to recycle.
scotty750
07/31/07		 Merged Comment originally posted 06/28/07
actually, the hardened plastic shipping cases are almost indestructable, longer lifespan, less trees and the plastic is recyclable. Dell shipping boxes are already made with recycled material, the problem with recycled paperboard material is that it cannot be used at 100% due to fiber breakdown, there has to be a percentage of new product for it to have the tensile strength. Add to that, making and recylcing paperboard product is EXTREMELY bad for the environment. Bleach is just one of the many chemical used in the paper production process. there are also a number of highly corrosive acids used to break the product down to pulp, repulp and extrude to new parent rolls. Those chemicals have a lifespan and as such need to be dumped eventually. up till the 70's most of those chemicals, PCB's etc were dumped straight into the local water ways and rivers. Add to that is power. Most paperplants self generate their power with backup/auxilliary power supplied by the utility. (paperplants use tremendous amounts of power) guess how they make their power. COAL. (I live in an area with a very high number of paper product manufactures and have spent a decent amount of time in the plants)

Sorry but I have to demote this idea since its already being done and its not great for the environment once you look under the surface.
skippydaroo
07/31/07		 Merged Comment originally posted 06/30/07
scotty750. I think having a practically indestructable box is worse for the environment than a cardboard box.
I take your point that papermills use a vast amount of power, however there are companies, the one I work for is one of them, that self generates a large proportion of their own power from clever reuse of the excess steam created by the process and solar power and hydro power.
However you have to balance that against the amount of oil it takes to create a plastic box. from a non-renuable source, versus a box made from recycled material. Even if you are manage to only get 60% of your box from recycled pulp, you can still get your virgin fibers from a sustainable forest ( I think you guys use canada)
You can create very 'clean' recycled pulp, however it is down to how ethical the company producing it is
scotty750
07/31/07		 Merged Comment originally posted 06/30/07
and you can make plastics from corn :) its already being done.
faster lifecycle from plant to harvest, highly renewable (more renewable than trees)
can be grown in hothouses, reducing land requirements
and again, the boxes can be reused, and eventully recycled in to other products.
due to the higher longevity of the product, it would utilize less power and chemicals in the recycle process just due to the volume decrease.
overall, plastic can be better than paper for the environment.

Heck, I burn ethanol in my van, minimum 70% or something like that. Car runs great on it.
scotty750
07/31/07		 hot dog, I got merged :)
fredslocombe
Jul 29		 I would like to pack up my tower, monitor, keyboard and mouse just to take to work every day. Pelican Cases would be a good partner if only they had cases for the specific dimensions related to our PC and accessory specs. They have cases custom made for MACs, why not PCs?
 
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