DS Smith is replacing plastic pallets for canned products with corrugated board in collaboration in conjunction with Denmark’s largest industrial producer of shellfish and seafood, Vilsund Blue A/S.
In collaboration with Vilsund Blue, the DS Smith designers sought a solution to eliminate the use of plastic and applied their Circular Design Metrics (CDM) tool to rate and compare the circularity of potential new packaging designs across eight different indicators, including carbon footprint, design for reuse, supply chain optimisation, and material utilisation. The CDM sustainability measurement tools give a clear indication of a design’s circularity to reveal a range of packaging solutions for respective customer requirements.
The new fibre-based packaging solution for Vilsund Blue is intended to increase the number of canned units on each individual pallets, and as a result the company has increased its capacity to install 1,800 cans per pallet for the transportation and freight of products, to 2,700. In addition, the Vilsund Blue A/S products can now be stacked and stored more efficiently and are made compact for the retail shelf.
Bent Svenningsen, Production Manager, Vilsund Blue, commented, “DS Smith came up with some fantastic solutions to help to make our packaging more sustainable and circular. We wanted to replace the plastic in our pallets and DS Smith have helped us to develop a pure corrugated cardboard alternative. We take immense pride in our commitment to quality and the team of experts at DS Smith are helping us to realise some of our sustainability objectives.”
