One of the biggest challenges when moving away from plastic is assuming the new packaging can follow the same design. Brands sometimes keep the same can spacing and dimensions, then simply switch to a different material. That approach often runs into trouble because paperboard and plastic handle strength in very different ways. Our durable services provide many more for your brand. Plastic can flex and stretch under pressure, while paperboard cannot. Its strength has to come from the right fold geometry, board structure, and glue placement.
What a Real Asheville Brewery Project Taught Us About Handle Design
Design, structural engineering, and printing all happen at our own facility. When a plastic-free carrier needs a small adjustment, a tighter glue point or a different fold angle, we can make that change ourselves rather than waiting on a separate supplier.
- Fold-strength testing built into every design before production
What Brands Need to Know Before Switching to Plastic-Free Carriers
We work with breweries in Asheville and bottled water brands in San Diego, building a plastic-free water carrier, and the strength question comes up in almost every conversation. With the right fold design, a plastic-free carrier can match or exceed a plastic version, but it has to be engineered for paperboard from the start- the same precision behind our Custom Rigid Boxes USA line.
Cost is the other common question. Plastic-free carriers can run higher per unit, mainly due to board weight for fold strength. Many brands find that offset by the marketing value of going plastic-free, plus avoiding the disposal questions plastic increasingly raises.
