Herman Miller turns ocean-bound plastic into returnable shipping crates

A global manufacturer of office furniture and equipment, along with home furnishings, headquartered in Zeeland, Mich., Herman Miller has manufacturing facilities all around the world, as well as sales offices, dealers, licensees and customers in more than 100 countries. With a legacy of environmental stewardship, the company constantly seeks out ways to make its supply chain more sustainable.

Herman Miller’s purpose is to design for the good of humankind. This mindset, along with its history, led the company to NextWave Plastics: a consortium of multi-national brands collaborating to keep plastic waste out of the ocean and in the economy. NextWave member companies work to establish ocean-bound plastics as a commodity, reducing the volume of plastic waste before it enters the ocean.

Soon after joining NextWave, Herman Miller looked for ways it could make the biggest impact with ocean-bound plastic, starting with its supply chain packaging. As with most of its packaging processes, Herman Miller sought to eliminate damage to parts, maximize space in trucks and optimize warehouse space. Within this process, Herman Miller’s NextWave representatives recognized a broader opportunity to become more sustainable.

As a long-time customer of an international reusable plastic packaging manufacturer, Herman Miller wanted to use ocean-bound plastic in its existing fleet of returnable shipping containers. ORBIS collaborated with Herman Miller to incorporate recovered coastline plastic — waste at risk of entering our oceans —into its standard plastic bulk shipping bins.

“We realized that we could have a huge impact on a global problem by partnering with a company like ORBIS to incorporate ocean-bound material in our returnable shipping crates,” says Bob Teasley, director of new product development for supply management at Herman Miller. “[The company] created the perfect mix of materials to maximize the amount of ocean-bound plastic material, while ensuring optimal durability and usefulness. These containers have held up and continue to perform well in our supply chain.”

Herman Miller orders these returnable shipping crates in bulk. The initial order incorporated about 3,875 pounds of ocean-bound plastic, which equates to keeping 30,000 milk jugs and 600,000 caps out of our oceans.

Through its work with NextWave, Herman Miller intends to continue working with the manufacturer and other suppliers, and encourages other companies to incorporate ocean-bound plastic into their supply chains, too.

“Aside from the sustainable benefits we’ve seen to our business, the biggest benefit of incorporating ocean-bound plastic is that we’ve now demonstrated the use case to other members of the consortium,” states Gabe Wing, director of sustainability for Herman Miller. “We want to show other companies the value of these solutions to both the environment and their bottom line.”

Looking to the future, Herman Miller intends to reduce single-use materials and incorporate ocean-bound plastic to new and existing packaging applications in its supply chain. Within its packaging processes, Herman Miller has committed to significantly reducing its single-use materials and using minimal materials that are less carbon intensive and easier to recycle.

ORBIS Corporation
(800) 890-7292