You may have seen photos and videos of KODAs being delivered on low-bed trucks or lifted with cranes, while wrapped in white. So what is this plastic covering that we use and how to recycle it after having received your KODA?
Indeed, the KODAs that travel from our manufacturing facilities across countries need to be securely wrapped in order to be delivered to our clients in the best condition. In addition to fastening the furniture inside, we use shrink wrap plastic covering bags that are tailor-made for each KODA by an Estonian company HEAT3.
HEAT3 has been operating for a decade, during which they’ve worked with different material producers across the world, but have now transpired to using the best of the best – Dr. Shrinkfrom the US. HEAT3 uses its know-how to prefabricate heat-shrinkable bags, with or without flame retardancy – excellent for packing up especially large objects such as houses, yachts or industrial machinery.
Heat-shrinkable bags protect against damage and staining which may occur during long ship and land transport in unfavourable weather conditions. The advantage of such packaging is gaining the most optimal size covering and producing as little waste as possible.
Let’s take PVC in comparison. It can be used several times (actually most likely once or twice before breaking), but it is not recyclable, nor will it decompose in a natural environment. PVC cannot be wrapped tightly, which may damage the product and the cover itself during transport; it is also 3-5 times heavier, which for a KODA packaging would mean about 150kg extra weight.
You could also use the shrink wrap from the roll and package the oversized item yourself, however it is likely you will produce an excessive amount of waste, as the width may not be suitable. For example when packaging a KODA, we would need to cut and throw away up to 64sqm/10 kg of excess plastic. The panes from the wrap roll also tend to separate during transport as the micro dust at production facilities prevents proper attachment of the layers when they are being heat-welded together.
You could also ask – why not use biodegradable plastic. Purely because they are more fragile and prone to braking, so are not suitable for protecting oversized items. Additionally, you cannot simply leave it lying around post-use, thinking it will decompose in nature: biodegradable plastic should only be processed in a special industrial composter, of which there aren’t many in Europe.
So here we are – having landed with HEAT³ and their manufactured HEAT³ EasyPack™, which provides us with the most optimum size of the packaging. “We will not use a single sqm extra nor cut anything off. It is quick and easy to cover the KODA with a bag and shrink it with special heat tools,” says Tanel Kolk, CEO of HEAT3. This also leads us back to the original idea behind plastic packaging from decades ago: to keep packages light and simple, thus minimising greenhouse gas emissions and also our ecological footprint.
After having unwrapped the KODA, you can take the packaging to a waste management company, who will make sure it will be carefully recycled. And who knows, one day you might be wearing a raincoat or rubber boots made out of KODA wrapping.
The custom-made HEAT³ EasyPack™ heat-shrinkable bags have proven their quality worldwide and can be shipped also today in numerous locations across the globe.
Read more about packaging with HEAT³ EasyPack™ and recycling