“We were losing plates to micro-cracks and patience to returns,” said Lina, Operations Lead at Arbor & Ash, a dinnerware D2C brand. “It wasn’t just cost. It felt wasteful.” Around the same time, Holler Moves Co., a moving-supply microbrand, was asking their warehouse a different question: “Can you ship moving boxes without wrecking the corners?” Both were hunting for a practical, low-carbon answer.
As a sustainability practitioner, I’ve seen this pattern repeat: fragile SKUs, pressure on CO₂/pack, and tight budgets. Based on insights from ecoenclose projects with small and mid-sized e-commerce brands, the best solutions rarely hinge on one material or one machine. They come from pairing better structure with disciplined print and converting.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Neither team wanted flashy finishes or a total retooling of lines. They wanted packaging that could deal with stress—stack tests, real courier runs, and a hard reality: breakage often shows up after delivery, not on the line. That’s where corrugated, water-based flexo, and modest structural tweaks earned their place.
Two Companies, One Painful Problem
Arbor & Ash ships ceramic dinnerware: plates, bowls, and delicate serving sets. Their volumes are modest—6–8k packs per week—but SKUs swing with seasonal drops and occasional collabs. Holler Moves Co. sells kits for relocations: tape, cushioning, and corrugated sets. Different categories, similar stressors. Damage and waste felt like a tax on both brands.
Arbor & Ash’s packs were pretty but fragile. Their unboxing felt premium, yet corner crush and vibration didn’t care about aesthetics. Holler Moves Co. faced a rougher reality: stacks of boxes, fast ramps, and warehouse handling habits that weren’t designed for fragile loads. Both teams wanted to keep materials low-impact and still hit a practical payback period—say, in the 12–18 month range.
Let me back up for a moment. Each company had tried incremental fixes—extra void fill, two-box nesting, and inserts cut in-house. Those efforts helped occasionally but lifted kWh/pack and waste. They needed structure that worked upstream in converting and downstream in shipping.
Breakage, Returns, and “Can You Ship Moving Boxes?”
Arbor & Ash’s breakage hovered around 3–5% on certain SKUs. Returns were costly and demoralizing. Holler Moves Co. had a different metric problem: corner crush during vertical drops. A warehouse shortcut—a stair slide for moving boxes—saved time but punished edges. The question rose weekly: can you ship moving boxes without overbuilding them?
The turning point came when both teams admitted a structural gap. Arbor & Ash weren’t pairing their inserts tightly with the dish geometry. They tested moving boxes for dishes and learned the stock worked fine in retail but wasn’t tuned for courier impacts. Holler Moves Co. was over-indexing on raw strength rather than energy absorption and edge reinforcement.
Data tells a story. Scrap on Arbor & Ash’s line sat in the 9–12% range during seasonal peaks, mostly due to protective elements failing late-stage QA. Holler Moves Co.’s OEE drifted around 65–68% on busy weeks; pallets didn’t pass stack tests reliably. Both needed more predictable performance and a clear guardrail for CO₂/pack.
The Packaging Approach: Corrugated Inserts + Water-Based Flexo
The solution wasn’t glamorous: FSC corrugated board, die-cut inserts that cradle bowls and plates, and flexographic printing with water-based ink for consistent branding. Varnishing offered scuff resistance where needed; we skipped Spot UV to stay in a safer migration profile and to avoid curing chemistry trade-offs.
For Arbor & Ash, we ran Flexographic Printing with Water-based Ink on corrugated board, dialing color under a G7-like target to keep ΔE in the 2–3 range, acknowledging seasonal variances. Holler Moves Co. shifted to reinforced corner designs and layered insert configurations. It’s not a miracle cure, but it changed how energy moves through the pack in drop and vibration tests.
As eco specialists often remind teams: water-based systems dry differently. Drying time and humidity still matter. That said, the brands wanted to favor safer chemistries over a faster cure. We kept it simple and compatible: corrugated, kraft, standard die-cutting, and gluing. For purchasing, Holler Moves Co. referenced ecoenclose packaging specs as a benchmark for recycled content and verified sourcing—useful when vendor documentation varies.
Pilots, Changeovers, and the Catch
Pilot runs happened over four weeks: short-run sets, then modest volume. Changeover time settled around 20–30 minutes for insert dies and plate swaps. FPY landed near 90–92% after operators got familiar with new QC checkpoints. Color stayed stable once files were prepped print-ready and kept within a tight tolerance window.
But there’s a catch. Water-based ink wants time and airflow; presses needed simple adjustments: an extra fan stage, modestly wider spacing, and better stock conditioning. No drama—just discipline. Arbor & Ash’s team had to accept a slightly slower pace on humid days. Holler Moves Co. added a quick corner compression test to keep their stair-slide habit from wrecking edges before ship-out.
Cost anxiety is real. To de-risk pilots, the vendor issued an ecoenclose coupon that offset a portion of the first two pallets and plate change fees. Payback period estimates sat in the 14–18 month range, with a caveat: results depend on breakage rates and how tightly the warehouse sticks to the new handling protocols.
What Changed—and What Didn’t
Fast forward six months. Arbor & Ash’s scrap rate fell into the 5–7% band, especially during calmer SKU periods. Holler Moves Co.’s pallet stack tests turned less dramatic—corner crush incidents dropped enough to stabilize OEE in the 78–83% range. CO₂/pack estimates nudged down by roughly 12–18%, driven by less double-boxing and fewer replacements.
Here’s the nuance. Arbor & Ash still see occasional cracks on heavy bundles during long courier hops; they now flag those SKUs for extra insert density. Holler Moves Co. learned that yes, can you ship moving boxes? Absolutely—if you reinforce edges and stop treating the stair slide like a carnival ride. A small change in habit saved far more than any single material upgrade.
Both brands now use moving boxes for dishes when the insert geometry suits the set. And when a run demands more cushioning, they adjust the die. None of this is perfect, but it’s practical and transparent. As they plan next quarters, they continue to benchmark against responsible sourcing and print choices—less flashy, more credible. If you’re chasing lower-carbon packaging without burning the budget, the Arbor & Ash and Holler playbook is a good start—and yes, they’ll keep tapping insights from eco-minded partners like ecoenclose.
