SP publishes design for recycling guidance for automotive expendable packaging

The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP), a Washington-based association of global automakers and their suppliers with the goal of advancing environmental sustainability through the automotive supply chain, has published a new guidance document, “Sustainable Packaging Specification Recommendations for Automotive Expendable Packaging.”

The document is designed to provide industry-supported guidance to help automakers and their suppliers identify opportunities to design and source sustainable packaging designs for use in expendable packaging applications.

Expendable packaging is most commonly used in service parts operations in the automotive industry. Service parts are identified as replacement parts manufactured to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) specifications, which are procured or released by the OEM for service part applications. Expendable packaging may also be used for international shipping and as backup for returnable packaging in automotive operations when needed.

In addition to design recommendations supporting viable recycling processes for a range of expendable packaging materials, the document includes a series of recommendations to minimize waste in the design of corrugated boxes, which are frequently used in expendable applications. The organization says the document builds on and is designed to align with established SP sustainable packaging guidelines for automotive manufacturing operations, where returnable packaging is more widely used.

The guidance document was produced through a collaborative process by SP’s Sustainable Packaging Work Group, which is co-chaired by Bridget Grewal of Ontario-based Magna International and Matt Marshall of Plano, Texas-based Toyota Motor North America Inc.

The work group recommends the sustainable packaging strategies outlined in the guidance document be reviewed within automotive companies’ packaging design and sourcing considerations, where appropriate, and distributed widely across the automotive supply chain as best practice guidance.

“The SP Sustainable Packaging Work Group’s mission is to provide a platform for companies from across the automotive packaging value chain to collaborate to minimize automotive packaging waste and seek to address barriers to packaging recyclability and/or reuse, and this new guidance is a solid example of the outputs of those collaborative discussions,” SP Director of Suppliers and Partnership Kellen Mahoney says. “We look forward to continuing to build on the learnings from this process to further improve the sustainability impacts of a wide range of automotive packaging materials.”