Environmental packaging advantage

Abstract

A recyclable package for retail product contains two major parts: a receptacle section, containing a receptacle for the packaged product, and a tray section. The two sections are assembled and mechanically held together to form the package for the product, but are readily separated by a recycler. The two sections are formed of different kinds of packaging material, such as transparent plastic for one section and corrugated cardboard for the other. Each section may be treated separately for recycling, making recycling of the materials possible.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This non-provisional application for patent is related to an earlier-filed provisional application for patent by the inventor, Ser. No. 60 / 715,554, filed Sep. 8, 2005, entitled Environmental Packaging Advantage, the entire content of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Applicant claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) and 35 U.S.C. 120 based on the foregoing provisional application.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to an environmentally friendly package for retail product and, more particularly, a display package for displaying and securely packaging articles of value, such as memory chips, with the constituents that form the package being suitable for recycling. BACKGROUND [0003] The small size high value articles, such as add-on memory chips, have become commodities and are being sold through electronics departments of retail department stores and at discount warehouse superstores. The memor...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention is a recyclable package for retail products that consists of two major sections: a receptacle section and a tray section. These sections can be easily detached from each other, making recycling of each section possible. The tray section includes a holding device to prevent the receptacle section from being removed. The receptacle section is a slightly larger open box-like container with side walls and a base, while the tray section is a slightly larger open box-like container with side walls and side-wall extensions that capture the receptacle section between them. An additional sheet of strong plastic material may be placed on the receptacle section to prevent access to the receptacle. The technical effects of this invention are that it provides a convenient and practical way to recycle packaging materials separately, and it also prevents unauthorized access to the receptacle section."

Problems solved by technology

However, for reasons of product security (e.g. potential shrinkage), the toughness of the package plastic material prevents the customer from opening the package with the customer's bare hands.

So the package cannot be easily opened inside the store.

Even following the purchase after the packaged product is brought home, opening the package remains difficult.

Once the product is removed, the cut-up package debris that formed the clam-shell package is no longer useful and is discarded in the trash.

Because so many products are available in plastic packages and cannot be recycled, the package debris creates stress on the landfill.

That contributes to a landfill that's filled, staying filled, and the problems that a filled landfill creates, one of which is to create a need for more land to use as landfill far from one's neighborhood.

If paper is intermingled with the plastic and cannot be easily separated out, then the plastic is effectively non-recyclable.

That being the case, the packaging waste is too time consuming to separate into separate components of plastic and cardboard and, hence, is too expensive a procedure.

A major reason the plastic clamshell package is popular with retailers is that a shoplifter cannot easily pilfer the product.

Images