Reusables Basics
To determine if reusable transport packaging will add profit to your company's bottom line, you must compare the costs for one-time or limited-use packaging with the costs of reusable transport packaging, including any costs for reverse logistics (transporting empty containers back to your facility).
The Reusables 102 guide presents a way to identify and compare the one-time cost per use of one-time or limited-use transport packaging ("one-time cost") with the lifetime cost per use of reusable transport packaging ("lifetime cost"). Substitute your own data to identify the ROI from switching to reusables in your company.
One-time or limited-use transport packaging
To determine the current cost of using one-time or limited-use transport packaging, identify all known cost components and calculate the one-time cost per use for the current packaging system.Reusable transport packaging
To determine the cost of using reusable transport packaging, identify all estimated cost components over the lifetime of the new reusable transport packaging system and calculate the lifetime cost per use for the new reusable packaging system. The "lifetime" of reusable transport packaging refers to an extended useful life of the packaging and can vary from one to as many as five years or more. Unlike with one-time cost per use, the lifetime cost per use may include net present value and ROI in the calculation.
Check out our Reusables Cost Comparison Tool
