RFID brings an added dimension to managing reusable packaging

摘要

Reduce, reuse, recycle. These have been the three legs of the stool called sustainable packaging for about as long as I can remember. But these days it seems that only two of the three-reduce and recycle-are talked about all that much. So it's refreshing to see recent reports confirming that reusable containers are alive and well. At Pack Expo Las Vegas, for example, three prominent CPG companies-Coca-Cola, Ghirardelli Chocolate, and Alpha Baking Co.-presented their successes and challenges with reusable packaging in the conference sessions organized by the Reusable Packaging Association. Alpha Baking's asset tracking pilot was especially interesting because it included the use of RFID. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that RFID as it relates to packaging has gone quiet the past few years. Not long ago, I was awash in press releases touting the wonders of RFID in packaging. Most of them included the prediction that as soon as functioning RFID tags could be made available for a nickel or less, the use of RFID in the packaging arena would become wildly popular. But the tags never did make it down to a nickel each. Moreover, the use of less costly 2D bar codes caught on and made the need for RFID a little less critical.