Triangle Tower
Triangle Tower
| School: | Rochester Institute of Technology |
| Team: | Michele Loebbaka, Emily Ortiz, Shlok Trivedi, Jameson Wang |
The best way to make packaging more sustainable? Reduce it! Our 7-Eleven combo meal packaging almost completely eliminates secondary packaging. We also redesigned the primary packaging to reduce material waste, and took the potential unpredictability of driving for delivery drivers into consideration. Our redesigned packaging had in mind the following 7-Eleven combo meal: 1-2 slices of pizza, 1 order of wings, 2 cookies or dessert of choice, and a drink. However, the menu combos can be set as 7-Eleven sees fit, since our packaging is adaptable and will accommodate 3-4 varying items!
A drink cup in a paper tray might be great for holding, but is unpredictable when left on a car seat. And a cup in a plastic bag is unstable and would be placed in a cup holder. The best solution is to not have secondary packaging for the drink cup and hand it to the delivery driver. They can then simply place it in their cup holder and hand it off to the customer.
The plastic window currently in 7-Eleven pizza boxes felt unnecessary. Consumers don’t need to view the product in the package since they either see it unpackaged in the store, or they see an image online. Eliminating the plastic window has a multitude of benefits: it eliminates paper waste. The package becomes cheaper and easier to produce since there isn't extra material or extra manufacturing steps. Lastly, removing the plastic makes the pizza box more eco friendly, as it can more easily decompose in a landfill, and being single layer allows it to be recycled easier, as long as there are no contaminants.
We kept the current triangular shape of the pizza slice boxes, as the slice fits perfectly for their shape, and has the lowest packaging to item ratio. Triangle boxes are also efficient when manufacturing, as the flat cutouts can fit together nicely and minimize scrap. For these reasons, and ease of stacking, we stuck with the triangle shape for all items.
7-Eleven keeps pre-portioned wings in paper food trays in a warmer in the store. Currently, the tray would be placed in a composite paper and plastic bag, and then taped shut. We designed a triangular box with the same shape as the pizza box, but a taller height. This way, the tray of wings can fit inside, and the triangle box will fit nicely in the tower.
The desserts are currently put in a paper bag that needs tape to be closed. In the triangle boxes, the desserts are able to be put on a flat surface and can easily be grabbed.
Finally, here is the rationale behind our secondary packaging. For this design, we went with polyethylene strips to hold the food boxes, and reinforced it with kraft paper at the top and bottom. This minimal use of material keeps the carbon footprint low, and combines the benefits of paper and plastic.
