Packaging
Improving packaging environmental performance through materials reduction and substitution is important to customers and regulatory agencies worldwide. Baxter continues to identify opportunities to meet this objective, while ensuring that packaging fulfills its critical role of protecting products in transport.
More Efficient Packaging for BioScience Products
Baxter’s BioScience products are biological proteins that serve a variety of therapeutic purposes. The company’s hemophilia products, for example, are purified human proteins necessary for blood coagulation. Baxter’s antibody-replacement therapies are made up of proteins called immunoglobulins that help people with immune deficiencies fight infections. These temperature-sensitive products require special insulation and packaging for storage and transport.
In 2008, Baxter overhauled the packaging and distribution of its BioScience products in the United States, substantially decreasing cost as well as the amount and volume of packaging used to ship these products. The new packaging reduces the number of refrigerant blocks used to maintain proper temperature during shipment and replaces polyurethane, a rigid molded plastic, with lighter and less expensive expanded polystyrene, a compressed foam material.
Implemented in early 2009 on BioScience products shipped from the Ontario, California, distribution center of Cardinal Health, one of two primary distributors of Baxter BioScience products in the United States, the new packaging reduces cubic feet of material shipped by 14 percent, weight of material shipped by 20 percent, and total packaging cost by 46 percent. In 2009, the new packaging will be implemented for products distributed out of the other BioScience U.S. distribution facility in Louisville, Kentucky, operated by third-party distributor Rx Crossroads.
Smaller Shipping Cartons for Home Dialysis Patients
People with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) – irreversible kidney failure – need dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive. Due to a shortage of donor organs, most ESRD patients use dialysis to cleanse their blood of toxins, waste and excess fluid normally removed by healthy kidneys.
Peritoneal dialysis (PD), a self-administered home therapy, offers potential lifestyle advantages over conventional hemodialysis, which requires patients to receive therapy at a hospital or clinic. However, the volume of solutions required to perform PD on a daily basis requires significant storage space, which can be a challenge for some patients.
Baxter generally delivers PD solutions monthly to patients’ homes. Some patients, however, have required bi-weekly deliveries simply because they lack adequate storage space for a month’s supply. In 2007, Baxter designed a smaller carton for its PD solutions that will reduce the storage space required by 30 percent. It also will decrease corrugate waste, as well as the number of corrugate pallet slip sheets and plastic shrink wrap required for transport.
Introduced in July 2008, the new cartons each weigh an average of 105 grams less than their predecessors. Baxter will use approximately 49,000 fewer corrugate pallet slip sheets each year, with 50 percent more cases per pallet – 72 of the new cartons versus 48 of the old cartons.
Due to this initiative, Baxter realized a corrugate reduction of 360 metric tons in the second half of 2008 and is positioned to realize a decrease of 800 metric tons in 2009. Baxter’s Medication Delivery business is working to introduce a smaller carton for 5-liter intravenous solutions produced at the same plant in Marion, North Carolina, which will reduce packaging by an additional 68 metric tons a year. The combined reduction will contribute more than 17 percent toward Baxter’s 2015 goal to reduce packaging materials by 5 million kilograms.
Renal Packaging Reductions in Europe
In Europe in 2008, Baxter redesigned its PHYSIONEAL PD solutions packaging and reduced overall packaging weight by 31 percent. These changes produced yearly savings of approximately $1.3 million while also decreasing GHG emissions associated with shipping these products and waste that would otherwise have to be disposed of by customers.
To achieve these results, in early 2008 Baxter reengineered its PHYSIONEAL shipping containers to increase the number of units per case from four to five for two-liter bags of PHYSIONEAL, and from five to six for 1.5-liter bags. This increased the number of units per pallet from 216 to 240 while reducing packaging weight by seven percent. Later in the year, Baxter reduced the case length, further increasing units per pallet from 240 to 280. These changes decreased packaging weight by a further 17 percent. Baxter then switched to a lighter yet stronger grade of corrugate, reducing packaging weight by an additional seven percent. The company also is designing a narrower case for PHYSIONEAL solutions to further reduce the amount of material used and increase units per pallet from 280 to 315.
Also in Europe in 2008, Baxter reduced the size of the pouch used to package its MINICAP product by 30 percent and the MINICAP box height by 20 percent, saving approximately $700,000 per year. The MINICAP is used to close off the set that attaches to the patient’s catheter, through which PD patients administer PD solution into their abdomen. Baxter is working on the next generation of MINICAP packaging to further reduce pouch size.
