Maxi Container was again well represented at this year’s RIPA Annual Conference in Orlando, Fl. Attending from Maxi were Richard Rubin, President of Maxi Container with his wife Gail Bennett. Also attending was our Sales Manager, Bob Vannatter and our Creative Director, Joshua Rubin. The Conference was a huge success with over 200 attendees. There was also several Joint Sessions with the IPANA (the Industrial Packaging Alliance of North America.)
Joshua and Richard made a presentation to RIPA’s Fiber Drum Product Group regarding UN Testing in the reuse through remanufacture of Fiber Drums. Several companies asked to join in next years tests. Only companies that participate in the testing can use the Test results to mark remanufactured fiber drums. Please click here to view our video presentation.
One of the “Hot Topics” of discussion by several speakers is something very familiar to Maxi and our customers. The new trend in international industrial packaging is “Sustainability”, something Maxi and the reconditioning industry has practiced for over 100 years.
Maxi has been collecting used packaging for reuse (through reconditioning) since Charles Rubin opened his first wooden barrel company with his brother Morris in Pittsburgh in the early 1900’s. Over one hundred years later, we are still trying to explain to our customers and vendors that reuse (i.e. reconditioning) saves more money and energy and produces less green house gases than recycling (i.e. scrapping) a container.
The often used slogan is: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. As they stated at the Conference, some new drum manufacturers think that by reducing the thickness of the steel or plastic in their drums that they are promoting sustainability. Their argument is that with a thinner drum, there is less waste at the end of the drum’s useful life. This is at best misguided fuzzy logic and at worst self serving cost savings masquerading as sustainability.
Thinner steel or plastic drums mean that the drum can be reused less times and is scrapped sooner. More energy is used to prepare that drum to be scrapped and to make a new drum, than to recondition a drum for reuse. (See the copy of the Franklin Study on the life cycle of a steel drum by clicking here.) Clearly, the more sustainable option is to make steel and plastic drums that can be cleaned and reconditioned more times.
Maxi also makes sustainability a part of our everyday core values. Our trucks run on Bio-diesel. We recycle our office paper and most of our office personnel use (and reuse) our Maxi Logo Coffee Cups, instead of paper cups or Styrofoam. While I welcome all of our friends and competitors to thinking about sustainability, I can’t help but say, “What took you so long!”
Please check out some photos from the event here.
