Step 5 - Packaging

Name: Acorn Web
Address: 167 - 169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, Greater London, W1W 5PF, United Kingdom
Telephone: 01924 220633

Our environmental
approach to packaging

If you’ve put effort into selecting sustainable papers or varnishes for your magazine, catalogue, or brochure you don’t want to counteract these choices by overlooking the suppliers and materials that your printer uses for packaging. At Acorn, we pride ourselves in limiting our impact upon the environment by selecting the right packaging method and materials for your printed items. These are constantly under review to ensure we are able to oer you the most sustainable materials.

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See our efforts in making
our packaging as eco-friendly as possible

Item	Recycled Content (%)	How can it be recycled?
Cardboard Boxes		Cardboard Recycling
Interleaves		Cardboard Recycling
Cardboard Pallet Corners		Cardboard Recycling
Paper Bands	0%	Cannot be recycled, must be disposed of in general waste
Pallet Stretch-Wrap and Pallet Tops		Can be recycled in soft plastic at most supermarkets
Packing Tape		Cannot be recycled, must be disposed of in general waste
Shrink-Wrap		Can be recycled in soft plastic at most supermarkets
Plastic Strapping		Can be returned to Acorn for us to recycle on your behalf

Packaging Strategy for Print Distribution

It is important to check what different forms of packaging a printer can offer. You should of course consider what preserves the quality of the print product and makes it secure for transportation, but if sustainability is a focus, you should perhaps also consider beyond just the material differences and what you perceive can or cannot be recycled easily. It is also worthwhile considering the amount of time, energy, or additional persons, that could be needed to perform the actual operation of the packaging itself. Additionally, in high volume printing, how you package your magazines, catalogues, or brochures could make a significant difference to the volume of vehicles that are needed for transportation.

Below is an example of how different forms of packaging can affect things

Example – A4 Kitchen Brochure – 250,000 copies x 88pp text + 4pp cover

BOXED in 25’s

SHRINK-WRAPPED in 25’s

Corrugated cardboard

Material

Polyfilm containing 30% post-consumer waste

Easily recycled

Perception

Harmful and not easily recycled

Easily recycled at industrial and consumer levels

Reality

Fully recyclable. Easy industrially; consumers can return it to supermarkets or printers.

Manual, slow, requiring 4 persons

Operation

Automated, fast, and performed by robot

15 boxes per row

Presentation

17 boxes per row

No. of Pallets

81,996kg

Weight to customer

80,884kg

No. of truck on road

£3,653

Packaging cost

£1,501

131,848kg CO2 eq

Carbon Calculation

131,300kg CO2 eq