Turning Used Cardboard into Packaging Material: When a CartonJet Can Pay Off

Janis Faenger

4 days ago

5 min read

Cardboard boxes are unpacked in goods receiving.

Packaging material is purchased for shipping.

There may be only 30 metres of warehouse space between the two.

From a business perspective, however, they are often treated as two completely separate processes.

On one side, a company pays to purchase, collect and eventually dispose of cardboard packaging.

On the other, the same company buys material to cushion and protect its own outgoing shipments.

This is exactly where the CartonJet becomes interesting.

Suitable used cardboard can be processed and reused as cushioning material.

But does investing in a machine actually make financial sense?

That can be calculated.

A Simplified Practical Example

Let us take a medium-sized company that regularly ships spare parts.

The following figures are deliberately a calculation example and not presented as an actual customer case.

The company ships:

1,200 parcels per month.

Around 70% of these shipments require additional void fill or cushioning material.

That means:

840 parcels per month.

The existing cushioning material costs an average of €0.55 per relevant shipment.

This results in monthly material costs of:

840 × €0.55 = €462

Or:

€5,544 per year.

So far, this only shows the purchasing side.

Now let us look at the other side of the warehouse.

At the Same Time, Used Cardboard Is Being Generated

Incoming deliveries regularly generate used corrugated cardboard boxes.

These are collected, broken down or prepared for disposal and then removed through the company’s existing waste management process.

For our example, let us assume that the directly attributable cost of disposal and handling averages:

€120 per month

This creates an interesting situation.

Every month, the company spends:

€462 on new cushioning material

while at the same time spending another:

€120 handling a material that is already available within the company.

Combined:

€582 per month

This does not mean that a CartonJet would automatically save €582 per month.

But it gives us an economically interesting starting point.

What Changes with a CartonJet?

Suitable cardboard is no longer sent directly for disposal. Instead, it is processed into cushioning material for reuse.

Let us conservatively assume that this can replace 70% of the cushioning material previously purchased.

The previous monthly material cost of €462 would therefore be reduced to approximately:

€139

ESavings on purchased cushioning material:

€323 per month

In addition, let us assume that the directly attributable disposal and handling costs for cardboard are reduced by only:

€60 per month

This would result in an initially visible economic benefit of:

€323 + €60 = €383 per month

or:

€4,596 per year

Of course, the machine’s operating costs and the actual conditions within the business must still be taken into account.

But at this point, it becomes possible to make a meaningful financial assessment.

Now We Can Talk About Payback

The key question is suddenly no longer:

“How much does the machine cost?”

Instead, it becomes:

“How much of our current ongoing costs can it replace?”

The simplified calculation is:

Investment cost ÷ monthly economic benefit = payback period

Let us assume that, in this example, a suitable machine including the equipment required for operation costs €2,500.

With a calculated monthly benefit of €383, the result would be:

€2,500 ÷ €383 = approximately 6.5 months

After this point, the initial investment would, mathematically speaking, have paid for itse

One important point again:

This is not a general statement about the payback period of a CartonJet.

For one company, the investment may pay back within a few months.

For another, it may take considerably longer.

And for a business with a very low packaging volume, such a machine may simply not make financial sense yet.

That is exactly what a proper cost-effectiveness analysis should determine.

What About Labour Time?

This is an area where assumptions are often made too quickly.

It would be easy to claim that a machine automatically saves labour time.

But that would not be a serious assessment.

Existing cardboard still has to be handled and processed through the machine.

Whether this actually saves working time depends on the company’s current process.

Other effects may be more relevant:

fewer reorders of cushioning material
lower inventory levels
less need for ready-made void fill material
less cardboard going into waste disposal
existing material is used a second time
packaging material can be produced on demand

These factors can then be assessed based on the company’s actual operation.

When Is a CartonJet Particularly Interesting?

Three factors generally make the calculation worth considering:

1. A Sufficient Amount of Suitable Cardboard Is Available

A company that receives very few cardboard boxes will also have very little raw material available for processing.

2. Cushioning or Void Fill Material Is Purchased Regularly

The higher the current consumption, the greater the potential financial benefit.

3. There Is Sufficient Shipping Volume

A machine needs to be used regularly for the investment to pay off.

If all three factors are present, it is at least worth taking a closer look.

And When Would We Be More Likely to Advise Against It?

That is also part of an honest assessment.

If a company only ships a few parcels per week, generates very little cardboard or hardly requires any void fill material, a machine may simply be unnecessary.

In that case, ready-to-use solutions such as Honeycomb Paper, Honeycomb Paper Sleeves or other protective packaging solutions may be more suitable.

A machine is not automatically the better packaging solution.

The solution that makes the most economic sense for your business is the better solution.

Back to the Basic Principle

The CartonJet is a good example of how packaging can be approached from an economic perspective.

But the underlying principle goes deeper:

understanding how packaging affects your processes
and understanding how these effects can be assessed as part of the Total Cost of Packaging

If you would like to read these two fundamentals first, you can find them here:

Why packaging should do more than simply protect a product: link to article

How packaging costs can be structured using the Total Cost of Packaging approach: link to article

Would you like to know whether the numbers could work for your business?

As a first step, we only need a few pieces of information:

approximate number of shipments per month
the cushioning or void fill material currently used
approximate consumption or purchasing cost
amount of used cardboard generated

With this information, we can already make an initial assessment of whether a CartonJet could make economic sense for your business.

And if the numbers do not add up, the conclusion should be just as clear:

Then you currently do not need a machine.

SelectPack – packaging made simple.