2021 Urban waste report: statistics on packaging recycling and packaging waste

2025 is shaping up to be a crucial year for companies seeking to improve operational efficiency and control costs, particularly in a context of financial uncertainty and increasing competitive pressure. Packaging cost optimization is becoming a strategic lever, capable of positively influencing not only business performance but also customer satisfaction and environmental impact. Packaging Cost Optimization 2025: Strategies for Efficiency, Sustainability, and Cost Savings. With Cart-One, packaging becomes a true business asset, combining technology, sustainability, and innovation to deliver tangible results. Read also: “Packaging, Sustainability, and the Role of the Responsible Consumer: A Global Challenge” Why Packaging Cost Optimization Is Essential In today’s landscape, characterized by constantly evolving markets and increasingly stringent regulations, companies must review their packaging processes to avoid costly waste and inefficiencies. Poorly designed packaging can result in: Product damage during transportation, leading to returns and additional costs. Higher storage expenses caused by excessive packaging materials. A negative environmental impact that increases disposal costs and regulatory taxes. Investing in efficient packaging processes not only helps reduce operating costs but also improves customer perception of the product while contributing to a more sustainable future. Key Strategies for Packaging Optimization in 2025 1. Material Reduction and Efficient Resource Use A key factor in controlling costs is the careful selection of packaging materials. Choosing the right materials and dimensions helps reduce waste and enables companies to: Reduce the amount of material required, lowering procurement costs. Cut storage expenses through leaner and more efficient inventory management. Limit disposal costs, as using less material generally results in lower fees under industry regulations. With Cart-One, businesses can adopt optimized material solutions designed to provide maximum product protection while minimizing resource consumption. 2. End-of-Line Optimization and Process Automation The final stage of packaging, known as the “end-of-line” process, is one of the most critical operational areas. An efficient packaging system that incorporates automation offers numerous benefits: Speed and productivity: automated systems reduce processing times and increase production capacity. Error reduction: automating manual operations minimizes mistakes and ensures greater packaging accuracy. Load optimization: well-designed packaging maximizes space utilization, reducing transportation costs and improving volumetric efficiency. Cart-One supports end-of-line optimization through customized solutions that integrate manual, semi-automatic, and fully automated systems, helping companies handle production peaks without relying on temporary staff. 3. Product Protection and Reduced Transport Damage Effective packaging must provide maximum product protection, especially for fragile items or products sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Inadequate packaging can lead to costly damage and lower perceived product quality. To address these challenges, companies can implement: Temperature and impact indicators: tools capable of monitoring transportation conditions in real time and reporting anomalies, allowing prompt corrective action. Protection-oriented packaging design: the use of materials and structures that absorb shocks and reduce the risk of damage during handling and transportation. Cart-One’s solutions ensure that every package provides optimal protection, guaranteeing that products arrive at their destination in perfect condition. 4. Optimized Order and Material Management Effective packaging material order management is essential for avoiding waste and unnecessary costs. Bulk purchasing strategies often generate excess inventory, tying up company liquidity and occupying valuable warehouse space. To optimize this aspect, companies should: Plan orders according to actual production requirements. Partner with reliable suppliers offering just-in-time solutions, ensuring a continuous and properly calibrated supply. Constantly monitor inventory levels to minimize the risk of unnecessary stock accumulation. Cart-One provides comprehensive support in order management, helping businesses align supplies with production needs and reduce warehousing costs. Sustainable Packaging: A Benefit for Both Business and the Environment Beyond economic benefits, packaging optimization has a positive impact on environmental sustainability. By reducing material usage and improving packaging design, companies can achieve: Lower CO₂ emissions: more compact and efficient packaging reduces transportation space requirements, lowering both costs and environmental impact. Improved recyclability: the use of recycled or 100% recyclable materials facilitates disposal and supports a circular economy model. Operational efficiency: reduced packaging times and automated processes lead to better resource management and a lower environmental footprint. At a time when consumers are increasingly attentive to environmental issues, sustainable packaging has become an important differentiator, strengthening brand reputation. 2025 represents a year of both challenges and opportunities for companies looking to optimize packaging costs. Improving packaging processes, reducing material usage, automating end-of-line operations, and ensuring adequate product protection are essential steps for controlling operating expenses, increasing efficiency, and promoting environmental sustainability. Cart-One is the ideal partner to support you on this journey, offering customized, eco-friendly, and innovative packaging solutions. Investing in a packaging cost optimization strategy not only improves business performance but also contributes to a more responsible and sustainable future for everyone. Contact us today to discover how our solutions can make a difference for your business. You may also be interested in: “Towards Decarbonization: The Italian Paper Industry and the Challenges of the Green Transition”

Sandra (Cart-One Parma) has been producing corrugated cardboard packaging for over 60 years for customers specializing in multiple sectors. Always distinguished by its innovative ability that leads it to adopt new sustainable and cutting edge solutions, Sandra in 2010 installed in its production area an HS corrugator with 3.35 meters width (the largest model available on the market) and in 2017 a single-pass inkjet printer, which leads the company to progressively expand its product portfolio, with proposals for packaging, displays and materials destined for the point of sale, which are increasingly personalized and avant-garde. Joint ventures and national and international alliances Despite its large turnover that only exceeded 180 million euros in 2018, the company remains a family-owned company led by Fausto Ferretti, son of the founder. In order to be able to effectively serve whole Italy from a logistical point of view, Cart-One joint venture with the 'Antonio Sada & Figli' of Salerno was born. Thanks to this successful collaboration, the two companies join - in 2014 - the alliance with Blue Box Partners: the members are all family-run businesses, specialized in the production of packaging, displays and paper. The precious exchange of ideas, skills and opinions among the owners of the Partnership leads the members to make important collective decisions regarding the introduction of new technological solutions aimed at optimizing the workflow: this has led the BBP members to hold the largest European base of single-pass inkjet printing machines. Thanks to the adoption of digital printing, in the last two years Sandra has created a department entirely dedicated to this type of product. For smaller customers, the company also offers a turnkey service that deals with both structural design and identity of the products (POP displays, fruit and vegetable trays, bag-in-boxes and shelf ready packaging). Adopting digital printing to stand out from the competition The digital production approach aims to stand out from the competition and adopt techniques and processes that are difficult to replicate from Italian competitors. To do this - explains Daniele Plazzi - he invested time and money traveling between North America and Japan, to understand in advance the progress that technology would have made in the near future. The target? Reducing dependence on external suppliers for pre-press work and printing plant construction Ensure faster responses to customers to shorten the time of launch of new products on the market. Sandra carefully observes the first installations of reel-fed pre-print inkjet technologies and concludes that the most suitable choice is a post-print solution. "If the purchasing decisions of consumers are also influenced by the appearance of boxes and displays, our goal was to offer a brighter and more glossy print, capable of capturing more attention," says Plazzi. So, in 2010 Sandra factory in Casale di Mezzani welcomes to Nasikajet, the digital printing line based on Barberan's inkjet technology, which Sandra has customized and renamed. The research and development of the company towards new medium-term goals never stops. The Company is constantly looking towards new horizons with the aim of being always updated on the new types of products available on the market, especially on machines with larger print size and new types of inks. Sustainable development projects Sandra's commitments and ambitions do not end there. Its development projects fully include the progressive replacement of plastic from disposable plastic packaging used in canteens and fast food outlets. The Mission? Offer alternative and eco-sustainable solutions, capable of guaranteeing the same performance. Would you like to know more? To learn more, download the article published on Italia Publisher English-Italia-PublisherDownload

The evolution of packaging does not only occur in terms of sustainability: today, more and more often we talk about functional packaging, taking care to distinguish between: active packaging intelligent packaging But let's take one thing at a time and understand what the characteristics of functional packaging are, and when we are dealing with active packaging or intelligent packaging. What is meant by functional packaging? We are dealing with functional packaging when a material, container, or accessory that constitutes the packaging manages to serve multiple functions. The difference with traditional packaging lies in the fact that this packaging performs an additional function which, beyond mere containment, integrates and interacts with the content in order to improve its acceptability and shelf life. Functional packaging solutions are already in use in the food and pharmaceutical sectors, where the product must not only be preserved, but requires the packaging to perform an action that allows for the control of quality and the preservation state of the product itself. Active packaging and intelligent packaging: differences Among functional types of packaging are active packaging and intelligent packaging. Regarding active packaging, this expression refers to all those solutions that interact with the content by controlling the internal atmosphere. The material can release antimicrobials, antioxidants, and other useful substances that improve product quality. Intelligent packaging, on the other hand, is characterized by the presence of an indicator that can be positioned either inside or outside a package. The purpose of the latter is to actively represent the history of the product in relation to its quality level. What is the purpose of intelligent packaging? In this sense, the purpose of active and intelligent packaging is threefold since they must: reduce the rate of quality degradation provide protection from all possible contaminations be simple and practical to move and use For example, among the functions that can be attributed to intelligent packaging is the possibility to interact with the package environment and with the consumer. Through this function, it is possible to record important variations for the purpose of proper food preservation, signaling any abuse through color changes.