Better and Greener Packaging and Shipping with ExpandOS

The two big challenges with shipping are its environmental footprint, and damage that can happen to goods during shipping. Seeing an opportunity to improve both, two inventors and two former UPS employees invented ExpandOS, an innovative and green material to protect goods during shipping. 

Every year UPS receives $800 million in damage claims. Out of this, they pay $400 million of the claims to reimburse clients, but decline to pay the remaining $400 million due to what UPS describes as “insufficient packaging”. The results are a great number of unhappy customers with goods broken during shipping and not reimbursed.   The last thing a shipper wants to see is their precious materials arriving in pieces. If it’s worth shipping, then it must be worth getting it there in one piece   ExpandOS reduce breakage while boosting sustainability. Each ExpandOS unit is a small, triangular, folded structure made of strong, rigid paper about an inch in size. They can be poured into a box like packing peanuts, but have a unique design of 38 different edges and holes that lock ExpandOS units together to form a protective barrier with their edges and ridges lock together so they don’t shift around during transit. Any box getting shipped is going to take its shocks; the key for packaging materials is how they handle the energy when a box gets hit or dropped. While some packing materials transfer shocks into the goods being shipped, ExpandOS protects the items by blocking, bracing, and dissipating energy.  ExpandOS act like mini-shock absorbers to protect products being shipped better than other packaging materials, creating a paper cocoon around the product.  To see ExpandOS in action take a look at the videos here and here.  You can see for yourself that they are the real deal.                                                                                                                                                 Heath Ceramics makes high-end ceramic tableware, often selling to restaurants, individuals and hospitality companies. Their ceramics are top quality, handcrafted products, and unique pieces that make you cringe if they break. Heath was losing a painful 30-35% of the product they were shipping to breakage when they used conventional packing material. Switching to ExpandOS, their losses during shipping have dropped dramatically to only 0.01% and they were able to eliminate their use of non-environmentally friendly peanuts and bubble wrap.                                    If your business is producing and shipping sustainably produced goods, it makes sense to pay attention to the sustainability of the packaging used as well.  As a “green” sustainable packaging material, ExpandOS fit right into corporate sustainability initiatives. ExpandOS are produced of paper produced from certified sustainable forestry, and can be reused and recycled generating less waste than other packaging. ExpandOS are produced in flat sheets that take little space to store, and then assembled on site (the OS stands for assembled On Site). Since ExpandOS have a 25 to 1 ratio of flat volume to expanded volume they save energy, save warehousing costs and reduce shipping expense.     The benefits of ExpandOS outweigh other commonly used materials like foam in place, bubble wrap, air pillows, packing peanuts, polystyrene foams, and paper. Each has its pros and cons. Foams are sturdy and consistent but can be costly and are not recyclable. Packing peanuts and bubble wrap are flexible, but take a great deal of space to store, are not generally recycled, and are not always best at blocking the impact of shocks. Paper packaging material may be recycled, but is not sturdy or protective enough in most circumstances compared to ExpandOS. When ExpandOS are compared side by side with other materials, it’s easy to see how they really stand out.   Innovations like ExpandOS demonstrate the many solutions available for creative entrepreneurs to build a more sustainable business that is also a profitable one. In addition to working with ExpandOS, Hisco offers a portfolio of other products to green shipping and delivery, including Hexapack, Green Line Armor Pallets, and 3M tapes. With the emphasis today on saving money and boosting profits, smart products like these are the way to move sustainability forward in businesses everywhere.   Contact Info:   For more information contact Jerry Prefontaine (jprefontaine@hiscoinc.com) at Hisco Anahiem at 714-777-2661 or FoldePak (303-329-8477).

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