Liberty Intercept Blog

Today's guest post was contributed by Albert Greenhut of EMI. We happily welcome his input - Albert's photo and bio appear below the article.

I was once invited to be a salesman for a supply company. I have been told that I am personable and relatively well spoken, leading this HR representative to make such an offer. I mulled over this decision and turned down the offer because I thought that under the pressure of a sale I couldn’t perform, or that I would find my silver tongue corroding under pressure.

We've discussed here before the notion that manufacturers and distributors of packaging take a beating in the press, particularly from those who (rightfully) would have us be "greener" or more "eco-friendly". The fact is, the packaging industry makes changes to implement a more environmentally friendly focus daily. New materials, processes, waste elimination, recycling and upcycling capabilities and more are always in progress, coming to a grocery or factory shelf near you. More discussion is given in the mainstream press about retail packaging, however, the same eco-friendly mindset is being established within all industries, not just those to which the consumer has direct access.

Within the business journals I read most days (chiefly, Industrial News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), all in the business community seem to agree that the recent Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Columbia, and Panama will be a boon for the United States’ economy. This enthusiasm is easily recognized when industry-leading businesses seem genuinely excited about this news. Here are some past quotes from prominent U.S. industry CEOs:

I read an article in Packaging News this week admonishing people within the packaging industry (specifically food packaging, but it could apply to all) to stop playing the victim. That phrasing took me by surprise briefly, but I understand. Packaging, particularly in the retail realm, is often thought of as wasteful and unnecessary. According to this article, at the Ardagh Group’s sustainable packaging event in Paris, Professor Dr. Michael Braungart told Packaging News, "the packaging industry is saving more lives than any other industry, by protecting food and ensuring longer shelf-life for food." He went on to accuse the packaging industry of "guilt management", for example, "we were 100% bad and now we are 90% bad and our goal is to minimise our impact".

Manufacturing companies seeking to save time by eliminating the application of protective oils to their products may want to consider heavy duty barrier packaging as a solution. Besides time savings, other benefits to this approach include cleaner products and cleaner more streamlined operations.

Manufacturers looking to contain costs often consider outdoor storage for unused items: large machinery and vehicles are often stored outdoors so precious warehouse space can be reserved for other items. With the right packaging, outdoor storage is the perfect cost-saving solution for many companies.

Because Liberty Packaging is in the industrial packaging business, when information comes out regarding exporting, we pay attention.  The big picture in this fragile economy requires U.S. manufacturers to export more and Liberty Packaging wants to do our part to help.  For our economy to grow and come out of this unemployment slump, we can’t depend upon our government or U.S. consumers to drive sales; there is not enough demand here for the type of high value manufactured goods that our country produces.  As most every informed citizen knows, a great quantity of the manufacturing of low end consumer goods has left our shores to be produced in economies with less expensive labor.