Secondary Packaging
Goods have to be packed so that the producers could deliver them to the retail or wholesale stores and other buyers (Salazar, 2009). There are three major levels of packaging including primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging. If the primary packaging is used to place the very good into a shape so that the good could be sold in a retail store and the consumer could bring it home from the store (David and Stewart, 2007, p. 18), the secondary packaging is, according to Salazar (2009) and ECR (2006), is the means of delivering the goods “from point A to point B” (Salazar, 2009) with the greater level of comfort and without any damage to the goods.
The types of secondary packaging range from carton boxes and tapes to void filling material and pallet stretch film (Salazar, 2009). Moreover, David and Stewart (2007) and Salazar (2009) consider corrugated shipping containers as another, more updated, secondary packaging type. Secondary packaging types, as ECR (2006) states, should be uniform in their environmentally friendly character, be recyclable and/or reusable, easy to use and discard (p. 2). As well, the secondary packaging means, including the boxes and containers, should be strong not to allow any damage to the goods or environment during the delivery.
The major areas of use of the secondary packaging types mentioned above include trade and logistics (David and Stewart, 2007, p. 13). The secondary packaging types under consideration allow the producers to deliver their goods over long distances and load them to the stores and other premises of their distributors at the highest degree of comfort and security.
Tertiary Packaging
Accordingly, tertiary packaging is the process of grouping the secondary packaging units, i. e. carton boxes, and corrugated shipping containers, into larger ones to allow more compact and convenient storage and transportation of the goods (Seideman, 2009). Thus, the tertiary packaging is the most general, i. e. the highest, level of packaging as it helps form the largest goods’ units and deliver them from point A to point B, ship and load these goods when necessary (ECR, 2006, pp. 1 – 2).
The main tertiary packaging types, as Seideman (2009) and Salazar (2009) argue, include forming the units of goods in bales, barrels, crates, containers, and edge protectors. Moreover, ECR (2006) considers the use of flexible intermediate bulk containers, insulated shipping containers, pallets, slip sheets, and stretch wraps as other tertiary packaging techniques that can be used equally with bales, barrels, etc (p. 2). The materials used for tertiary packaging purposes are different, but the most widely used one’s range, as Seideman (2009) argues, from glass and metal to paper and plastics, while for moving tertiary packaging units “a forklift or pallet jack” are used (Seideman, 2009).
The main areas of the use of tertiary packaging are determined by the main objective of this kind of packaging, which is, according to the ideas by Seideman (2009), “to aid in the automated handling of larger amounts of products”. Accordingly, David and Stewart (2007) and Seideman (2009) argue that tertiary packaging is used mainly in large-scale, international trade where large amounts of goods are to be transported for long distances. As well, tertiary packaging techniques are used for delivering large amounts of goods to retail and wholesale stores, which makes tertiary packaging a widely used packaging type.
References
David, Pierre, & Stewart, Richard (2007). International Logistics. Mason, OH: Thomson.
ECR. (2006). Secondary and Tertiary Packaging. Efficient Consumer Response, pp. 1 – 2.
Salazar, D. (2009). What is Secondary Packaging? Web.
Seideman, S. (2009). Introduction to Food Packaging. Web.