Plant trays: investment or economization?

Earlier we wrote about the trends in floriculture and we went deeper into the issue of sustainability in the sector. The plastic plant trays, is this an investment in sustainability or a long-term saving or do I need to buy reusable and durable trays? Is it really so black and white or can we combine both in the floriculture sector? In practice, unfortunately, the answer is not always self-evident.

Recycling trays for flowers and plants

In floriculture, there is the option to use so-called single-use trays or trays for flowers and plants. These trays come in countless sizes, shapes and colors. They are produced by companies that strive for sustainability, but in practice this is not feasible with single-use trays. Arguments for this are the low quality and (too) high costs for returns (trays deliver 14 cents per kilo). The Plastic Soup Foundation therefore states that 90% of the trays, which go abroad, will almost never get a second life through recycling. In 2016, the total amount of disposable trays amounted to +/- 180 million, which equates to 3.000 full trailers with plastic.

Apart from the ecological side, the economic aspect concerns a pass-through to the consumer. Each tray costs 32 cents on average. That is a price that the consumer pays. In fact, everyone pays that price, the price for the processing of plastic in nature.

Invest and render

An investment in durable and reusable packaging or trays, seems cheaper in the long term than the one-time version. Slowly companies are starting to realize the added value of such a system, which, by the way, only works when a value is assigned to the multiple trays, so that people are urged to hand in things too. In this way we can invest and become more sustainable.

Track your trays with TrackOnline

Multiple use trays are reused and returned to the current owner and / or tenant. That is the investment that a company makes. As a company you want to keep an overview on these trays, because they’re large numbers. You want to know how many trays you have in stock, at which customer there are currently trays, the number of trays that are transported and to which location these trays go. Keep an overview, without paperwork and with fast communication with your customers and transporters is possible with TrackOnline. In short, optimization of logistical processes to make the world greener bit by bit with less plastic.