There are many packing materials to use when shipping items: envelopes, cardboard boxes, pallets and other sustainable options. However, the question arises: is it possible to ship any item inside a plastic box and ship it aboard as such? Read more to find out.
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Can I ship in plastic boxes?
Plastic boxes or plastic storage bins is not recommended form of packing. There are many ways to pack your shipment but this is the least adviced one. Continue reading to find out why.
Why is it not recommended to ship items in a plastic box?
Transfer shocks that occur during transport are the main reason why plastic boxes and other plastic storage bins are not a recommended packaging form for shipping items. Plastic may be known as a resistant material, however, when it comes to an outside shipping cover, it can easily break.
We do not recommend shipping in plastic boxes due to various reasons:
- Such boxes are easily breakable as they cannot bend as the corrugated ones.
- Risk of the content inside being damaged.
- They are also heavier than the corrugated boxes, so they automatically add weight to your order.
- It is more difficult to find tailored sizes of plastic boxes.
- They have sharper edges and harder surface, so they can also damage the items inside of the box as well as the ones surrounding it or the person handling the parcel.
- They can, therefore, bring you extra costs that can easily be avoided if using corrugated boxes, which are also cheaper and recyclable and this is definitely another plus.
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Plastic boxes, plastic storage bins or plastic bags, are not an allowed form of packaging when shipping items to another location. If the customer wants to ship items in a poly storage box, the selected courier service may choose to refuse to collect the package.
The appropriate materials for shipping items are:
- Envelopes,
- Carboard boxes,
- Pallets.
Once you have chosen the right form of packaging you can proceed further with the order.
Alternatives to poly containers for shipping items?
Even though transporting items with a poly container, plastic box or plastic container bins is not recommended, you can still ship items in a poly box.
Just make sure that you put the plastic box in a proper cardboard box and fill the voids inside. There are several options for filling voids inside a package and adding cushioning:
- Bubble wrap,
- Packing peanuts,
- Crinkle paper,
- Inflatables,
- Ornament shred,
- Fabrics. or other.
These will protect the inside plastic box and avoid breaking. Continue reading about eco alternatives for filling the inside of a package here.
Packing in plastics can be used as a packaging form for prints or rolled canvas paintings. However, make sure you have properly secured the inside content with plastic wrap, bubble wrap and additional protection to fill the voids.
What are the recommended packaging forms?
If the content of the shipment is sensitive, packing in PVC boxes is not always the right choice.
What we recommend for such items are the corrugated carton boxes. These boxes can be easily purchased from online stores. For more details, you can visit our page dedicated to packaging materials and all about shipping boxes.
Before making your order make sure you have the correct measures of the boxes. If you have any doubts regarding the size of the packaging material our customer support team would be happy to help you.
If you care about the environment when using plastics what we recommend is using Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) plastics material instead of PVC ones. Make sure you follow the instructions on how to secure them in an additional corrugated carton box to avoid damaging.