Praxas News

Sustainability is the necessary trend now. Innumerable initiatieves have been launched with the aim of creating a more sustainable world. Throwing away less food, recycling, living without natural gas, solar panels… We are all becoming more and more aware of the impact of our actions on the climate. Companies are also increasingly committed to reducing waste, and we regard that as a very positive development. Yet it seems to be a challenge to tackle waste chain-wide. Sustainability goes further than just its own link.

A delicious piece of chocolate cake, chocolate bar, muffin and a box of chocolates, most people cannot get enough of this brown (or white) gold. In Switzerland, most chocolate is consumed per person, but in the Netherlands we also eat an average of 5 kilos of chocolate per year. And did you know that the Netherlands is the number 1 importer of cocoa beans with an import value of 2.1 billion euros and an import quantity of 1.1 billion kilograms? Importing cocoa beans is not always without a struggle. A large part of cocoa imports is still being wasted due to damage that has occurred in the logistics process.

Internal discussions about under which budget the application of a container pack falls naturally occur regularly. Do they fall under the transport costs? Alternatively, the packaging costs? Does the container pack have to be added to the value of the load? Also, how does the value of the solution (preventing loss) relate to the investment? These issues are very logical because the costs for such a solution must be included under a specific budget.

The Netherlands is a real beer country. Not only is beer the most popular alcoholic beverage, but th...

Goods are shipped all over the world, and logistics companies have the task of organising this as effectively as possible for their customers. One of our customers, a logistics service provider in mainly personal care products, was commissioned to ship a load of soap blocks from Rotterdam to China.

Reefer containers are used for the worldwide export of perishables and temperature-sensitive goods such as vegetables, fruit, dairy products and meat, but also chemical and pharmaceutical products. It is connected to the ship’s electrical supply and cooled, in which the temperature is adjusted to the load. The temperature is monitored using sensors. Transporting with an operating reefer container is naturally more expensive than with a regular container.

It has already mentioned so many times, but still a very shocking figure: 500 billion dollars worth of goods is lost annually due te damage caused during container transport. Ten percent of it is due to moisture. In this time, in which the environment, waste and sustainability play an increasingly important role, this seems unthinkable. But that's not it. Complete loads are still thrown away because the damage has been caused by, for example, mould, caking, wet packaging, loosely soaked labels... Do you recognise it?

Not everybody is aware of the risks of sea freight. Each year 500 billion of goods are wasted because of container damage, with at least 10% because o...

You don’t immediately think about it, but together with the internet, the freight container is one of the biggest revolutions in modern times. The container was invented as a transport unit in the 1930s, but it was only in 1955 that it was put into use on a container ship. In 1966 the first container was unloaded in the Port of Rotterdam. Where it took months before shipping the cargo from one coast to another, and the chance of damage was still quite high, it now appeared possible to transfer the same load from coast to coast in a week, with the risk of damage being decreased. This made international trade possible on a large scale. The container is the basis for a new supply chain and enormous globalisation that has taken place. It has reduced waste, won wars and helped people in need.

Milk powder, make-up, cocoa, raw materials, medicines and paint... Just a small list of products that are produced and transported as dry powder via worldwide export. That dry powders are sensitive to moisture is a known problem. This is because powders tend to absorb moisture, causing caking. This influences the quality of the product and it is also a breeding ground for bacteria and insects.