Benefits of Right-Sizing and Recyclability of Corrugated Material at Parcel Forum 2025

Packaging stakeholders covered the benefits of rightsizing packaging and the sustainable attributes of corrugated material at Parcel Forum 2025 Wednesday in Schaumburg, Ill. Find the key insights CPGs can take from the event below.

The benefits of right-sizing packaging in today's market

Right-sizing packaging can mean much more than a reduction in materials.

That’s according to Jack Groot, regional sales manager at Packsize. Speaking at Parcel Forum Wednesday, Groot noted some of the operational, environmental, and consumer benefits companies see when cutting unnecessary space out of packaging.

On the operational side, Groot said his customers often describe a decrease in damages.

Jack Groot, regional sales manager at PacksizePackaging World“You essentially have projectiles in a box banging back and forth. That could mean they’re rubbing up against each other and causing scratches, it could mean some sort of quality defect,” said Groot. “Just by right-sizing in general, we usually see that products arrive where they’re going with less damages, in a better state.”

An optimized package size can also mean a reduction in carbon footprint, as Goot explained, “the logic is more items on a UPS or FedEx truck, less trucks on the road.”

The environment isn’t the only winner when right-sizing packaging, according to James Malley, CEO of Paccurate, during another session at the event.

“It’s a rare case in supply chain where you can save money and lower your environmental impact; it’s like getting paid to be greener,” Malley said.

For consumers, right-sized packaging can lead to a better experience with the product, or even the return process, Groot said.

“Think about your own life, when you get a box that’s oversized, that’s more stuff to recycle, it’s more items to throw away. Just make it easy on the consumer,” Groot said. “Some of our solutions implement a tear strip, for an easy opening experience and easy closing experience, because returns are more prevalent now than ever before. If you have a right-size box that’s easy to open, and you don't like the item, you can put it back into that same box and ship it.”

James Malley, CEO at PaccuratePackaging WorldAs Gen-Z takes up more of the e-commerce consumer base, cutting waste to benefit the consumer becomes especially important, according to Malley.

“Gen X is the first generation that actually makes changes to their buying behavior if they perceive waste. This is good for them, bad news for operations that have not thought this through yet. They will not only not buy from you again, they will also complain about it online,” Malley said.

The recyclability of corrugated material

The chasing arrows aren’t the end of the story when determining a package’s recyclability, according to Cory Martin, executive vice president at the Fibre Box Association.

Speaking alongside Mackenzie Crigger, sustainability manager at International Paper, at the event Wednesday, Martin explained some of the determining factors for practical recyclability.

Cory Martin, executive vice president at the Fibre Box AssociationPackaging World“Just because something has the recycling symbol on it, doesn’t necessarily mean it is fully recyclable. Yes, it might be able to be recycled, but there has to be infrastructure there, there has to be an end market there, and there has to be a reuse for it. If those things aren’t there, then it’s likely just going to go to landfill,” said Martin.

Martin referenced EPA data marking the national rate for all plastics recycling at around 9%, compared to a 69-74% recycling rate for corrugated board, which he cited from the American Forest & Paper Association.

“We have stats from EPA showing that by weight, the U.S. collects more paper and corrugated than plastic items, steel, and aluminum combined. This is an astounding number,” said Martin.

Mackensie Crigger, sustainability manager at International PaperPackaging WorldThat recycled content can feed right back into production as well; about half of the material used to create corrugated packaging is OCC (old corrugated containers) or post-consumer content of some sort, according to Crigger.

“I can really only speak for International Paper, but we bring in about 7 million tons of recycled content every year, so that’s a critical piece of our supply chain,” Crigger said. “We can always take more recycled content into the system, depending on what you’re going to make, what you’re trying to package. We have mills that make 100% recycled content and that serves fine for its function.”