Online Retailer’s Operations Jeopardized as Cardboard Waste Backs Up

For this International Paper (IP) client, unboxing bulk cartons of consumer goods to place in warehouse picking bins is at the heart of its business. Customer orders are fulfilled rapidly, often assembled and shipped for next-day or even same-day delivery. The range of goods offered covers everything imaginable, from electronics to books, apparel, food, furniture—literally one million items are stocked at more than 100 distribution centers across the online retailer’s markets.

Boxes full of incoming goods are opened and placed on picking shelves. More than 500,000 items are sent from hundreds of thousands of individual sellers for third-party fulfillment. This retailer stocks an equal number of SKUs from its own inventory. Items are placed in inventory by robotic carts, from which they are picked and assembled in shipping packages as individual orders are assembled. The rapid rate of turnover means tons of cardboard —also known as old corrugated containers (OCC)—build up rapidly, and must be instantly removed from the line and fed to the recycling compactor equipment, which requires multiple truckload pickups daily to keep up.

In fact, auger compactors are used, allowing the waste hauling trucks to carry 50 percent more OCC than traditional compactors, an approach required to manage the high volume of waste generation for this retailer’s warehouses.

A work stoppage kept the client’s current recycling vendor from hauling OCC, and the situation rapidly became critical. International Paper’s Taylor Salanoa reached out, and the client requested an emergency solution. International Paper marshaled support from its nearby facility to solve this client’s pressing needs. With plants throughout the United States, International Paper provides even global brands the benefits of local recycling service. Each recycling plant has its own truck fleet, and in this case they were deployed to service the client’s distribution center quickly and reliably.

“The client’s local team really liked our service,” said Salanoa. “So we came up with a transition plan.” IP calculated how to most efficiently handle the client’s voluminous OCC output. First, the client replaced its previous vendor’s auger compactors with its own. Then, in devising pickup timetables, IP determined this client needed fewer than the previous vendor had billed for.

“We reduced their pickups by one-third, and still kept them fully operational,” Salanoa said. “They saved money, and we reassured the client that they could call us for extra spot pickups during peak periods, or when there was a true emergency. Our turnaround is quick, and our response time is what they valued most.” Now IP picks up 350 to 400 tons of OCC from the client each month, unloading the compacting auger tubes four times daily.

Following this success, the client issued RFPs to International Paper for two other warehouse locations. It is also reviewing every one of its warehouse locations within range of IP’s recycling facilities. Because IP makes use of OCC to supply fiber to its paper mills to create new fiberbased packaging products, “Recycling is more important to IP than to other vendors,” Salanoa said. IP also provides data to the client on the volumes of OCC collected, which can be used in its annual sustainability report.