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Research & Reports

For nearly a decade, the asso­ci­a­tion has com­mis­sioned research projects, con­ducted stud­ies, pub­lished guide­lines, and hosted indus­try events to edu­cate the mar­ket­place about the ben­e­fits of reusable pack­ag­ing. Please see the sum­mary below of avail­able research. Please note that some research is avail­able for mem­bers only. (NOTE: Cur­rently these reports are only avail­able directly from the RPA — Mem­bers to obtain a copy of one of these reports please call (703) 224‑8284 for assis­tance)

RFID Study

In 2009, the RPA con­ducted the largest and most widely-supported indus­try field test of RFID tech­nol­ogy on reusable con­tain­ers. The ground­break­ing study, which included an exten­sive field trial that lasted over a year, was sup­ported by a broad group of RPA mem­bers and indus­try lead­ers who col­lec­tively rep­re­sent every facet of the sup­ply chain.- (Mem­bers Only Report)

2007 Fire Per­for­mance Eval­u­a­tion of RPCs…in Accor­dance with FM 1495

The RPA col­lab­o­rated with insur­ance com­pa­nies, fire risk con­sul­tants, fire test­ing experts, and other sup­ply chain part­ners to con­duct a sci­en­tific, quan­tifi­able study that deter­mined con­clu­sively that reusable plas­tic con­tain­ers (RPCs) filled with com­modi­ties require no addi­tional fire safety mea­sures than when the same prod­ucts are stored in cor­ru­gated con­tain­ers.(Mem­bers Only Report)

2007 RPC Label Stan­dard­iza­tion: Guide­lines & Best Practices

In the pro­duce indus­try, “reusable plas­tic con­tain­ers” or RPCs, are used to move fresh pro­duce from har­vest to retail. To facil­i­tate the flow of con­tain­ers and prod­uct, the RPA teamed with con­tainer man­u­fac­tur­ers, grow­ers and retail­ers to cre­ate a com­mon, stan­dard­ized con­tainer label. The label tem­plate and spec­i­fi­ca­tions pre­sented in this doc­u­ment were devel­oped to min­i­mize cost to grow­ers, facil­i­tate pro­duc­tion and com­pli­ance, and max­i­mize food safety efforts. (Mem­bers Only Report)

Reusables 101

The RPA and StopWaste.org teamed up to cre­ate this overview of the basics of reusable trans­port pack­ag­ing: what it is; how it works; and why the switch from one-way dis­pos­able pack­ag­ing makes sense.

Reusables101

Reusables 102

The RPA and StopWaste.org cre­ated this cost com­par­i­son guide and model for reusable trans­port pack­ag­ing. It con­tains case stud­ies on how com­pa­nies have saved money by switch­ing to reusables and pro­vides an easy-to– use cal­cu­la­tor to com­pare the cost ben­e­fits of reusables with one-way pack­ag­ing sys­tems. This is an invalu­able resource to help any com­pany con­sid­er­ing reusable packaging.

Reusables102

50-State Tax Survey

Many states offer sig­nif­i­cant tax incen­tives for busi­nesses that imple­ment reusable pack­ag­ing. This com­pre­hen­sive report, com­piled for each state, pro­vides valu­able sales tax infor­ma­tion related to the pur­chase and/or leas­ing of reusables pal­lets and con­tain­ers. RPA has expanded and updated its state-by-state sur­vey on exist­ing statutes and reg­u­la­tions that pro­vide sales or rental tax-exemption for reusable con­tain­ers and pal­lets. This sur­vey is an invalu­able eco­nomic tool for all RPA mem­ber com­pa­nies. (Mem­bers Only Report).

2006 “Life cycle inven­tory and analy­sis of re-usable plas­tic con­tain­ers and display-ready cor­ru­gated con­tain­ers used for pack­ag­ing fresh fruits and vegetables”

This inter­na­tion­ally peer-reviewed arti­cle com­pares envi­ron­men­tal bur­dens of RPCs (reusable pack­ag­ing) and DRCs (one way pack­ag­ing). Based on the RPA’s LCI listed below, the jour­nal arti­cle was pub­lished in Pack­ag­ing Tech­nol­ogy and Science.

Pub­lished by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Writ­ten by S. Paul Singh, Vanee Chon­hen­chob, Jagjit Singh (Avail­able to the pub­lic by order­ing through the Publisher.)

 

 

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