Finalist De Gouden Noot 33rd edition NESTAX
NESTAX by Spondaan B.V.
Return logistics is the blind spot of the supply chain. Empty steel cages, boxes with lids and foldable crates take up almost as much space on the way back as they did on the way out. That means extra truck movements, extra cost and avoidable CO2, for packaging that is doing nothing at all. The reason is a design dilemma nobody had solved: transport packaging is either stackable when loaded, or nestable when empty, but never both.
NESTAX is a patented reusable transport system that is both. It consists of a nestable pallet in recycled HDPE and a sleeve in recycled PP that clicks onto it. Loaded, the two form a rigid, stackable unit on a standard Euro pallet footprint (1200x 800 around 12kg combined), where the pallet of the unit above doubles as the lid of the unit below. No separate lid to store, track or lose. Empty, the sleeve comes off and the pallets nest: 561 units on a single return shipment. The standard Euro is the main example but it will also be available in 1200x800, 800x600 or US 48 x 40inch.
Everything is made from 100% recycled plastic, with handles and reinforcements integrated into the wall geometry so there are no inserts or fasteners. Over a minimum of 30 cycles including logistics, NESTAX comes out at about 56 kg CO2 at the lowest total cost of any system compared. It is available as Packaging As A Service: rental, cleaning, RFID tracking and end-of-life recycling through pooling partners.
NESTAX was not born at a drawing board. Our own production site simply has no room for steel cages or stacked boxes, and the question was how to build a reusable return system on the smallest possible footprint. That constraint turned into a system that wins on space, cost and CO2 at the same time, and that answers the EU PPWR requirements for reusable and recyclable transport packaging well ahead of 2030.
Registrant: Spondaan B.V., in collaboration with Multi Tray B.V.
Patent: P139312NL00