EnviroShell is a hybrid blister-corrugated package made from 65% recycled materials, including 50% post-consumer content. The packaging uses a combination of corrugated to carry graphics and clear RPET (recycled polyester) to display the product. For Toshiba, an 18-ga RPET blister is sandwiched and heat-sealed between the folded E-flute corrugated; a lamination of four-color offset-printed 80# paper carries the graphics.
Contract packager Winterborne developed materials and equipment technology to seal the corrugated together at certain points around the central blister. The corrugated is also sealed along the edges for an atypically neat appearance and to improve package security by making it difficult to peel the layers apart, according to Winterborne.
Per Sam’s Club’s request and according to Tom Gehrich, Toshiba’s director of memory sales, “this is a package that takes environmental impact into account. We are using this instead of standard polyvinyl chloride clamshell packaging.”
The products comprise Secure Digital (512 MB and 1GB) and Compact Flash (1 GB) memory storage devices priced at $43.26, $61.47, and $63.43, respectively. The packaging appears similar to the carded PVC packs Toshiba’s sells through other retailers, though Sam’s pack offers a modest increase in profile and graphics adjustments such as the club’s logo and photo processing promo. This introduction represents Toshiba’s first products sold at Sam’s.
It’s too early to gauge consumer response, Gehrich says, though “we are encouraged with the results to date and will evaluate future plans for this package after further experience with it.”
