What’s the point of a seal?

It makes sense for carriers to haul it, but most of plastic "recycling " ends up in a landfill - just not in our country. Words like smokescreen and boondoggle come to mind with plastic recycling. Cardboard and paper at least actually get recycled and are an integral part of paper makers business plans.

Plastic, not so much. Plus I hate drinking out of plastic.

 

Plastic is worth more than paper. Industrial recyclers have been at it for a long time now. Where the wheels fall off is municipal recycling programs. They were forced on them by the bunny fondlers and cost money to operate. They have too many man hours into sorting it to sell it profitably. Not so commercial recyclers, that’s already to go. And that’s the majority of the recycling. That 2/3 diverted to landfill is municipal program numbers.

 

I no nothing about current conditions or "if aldi still does their refusing to acknowledge Intact SEALS", but in '16 or '17 I delivered 2 Loads to the location X 79, I-85, East Spencer, NC and the 2nd time they stated "we don't check seals" I said "You will this time or I'll take the freight Home and that's Directly From The Company OWNER!!". I had to wait a wee bit for a D. C. (miss)Manager who stated the same thing, yet relented.
They marked the B.O.L. as SEAL INTACT, much to their chagrin. That was Our LAST load to those "people".

Reason for aggravating the aldi receiver:
1st Load in, they stated "we don't check seals" yet they came back on the Transport Company (which I was driving for) for "Missing Freight", 2 Months after delivery. They LOST the claim.

 

If you're talking about pre-consumer, then I'll concede the point. I was thinking about post consumption.

 

Same here.

 

Yea. Industrial plastic recycling is easy. After all they know exactly what plastic is being recycled. For home recycling I can name a dozen different types I have in my house right now for my 3d printers. That doesn't include the subtypes of, for example ABS, that have different additives or different base resins.
A water bottle (pet) is different than a kids toy (abs) and is different than a gear in your vacuum (nylon) and so forth.

 

I haul dry van and it is about 50/50 with my customers. It ranges from not really caring at all, where they hand you the seal and bills, all the way to DHL , where they seal it with a bolt and then have you padlock the other door.

Back when I was hauling reefer to grocery warehouses, UT didn't seem to matter to many of them...right up until you had a claim.

 

I haul refrigerated pharmaceuticals. When loading, the shipper seals with bolt or metal seals most times. A couple places let you seal it when you pull up. Almost every receiver has to witness the seal being broken and keep the broken seal. They photocopy the seal and it goes with the paperwork.
It’s an even bigger deal when you haul ‘screened’ freight to the airport. I pick it up at the pharma plant, haul to a place that screens it. Has the bomb sniffer dogs walk around it and put the pallets into ‘enviro-containers’. They reload them and I drag it to assorted airports. I always take pics of load securement and the sealed trailer. The airport unloaders have to witness you breaking the seal.

 

Those cosmetic containers were all through the same Customs Broker and only 2 steamship lines. Most went to a 3rd party warehouse so the shortages were noted on the POD.

Some were off-loaded into our warehouse and after the first few were obviously pilfered, and the broker notified; we started to take a lot of pictures.

This was high-value stuff and was not the usual floor loaded with boxes sized to exactly cube a container like most imports.

This was shrink wrapped on pallets and not a full container. You could see how most shrink wrap was torn at the top and a few layers were messed with.

Now the shipper filed a claim on their insurance and collected the lost value.

Their insurance found a US 'ambulance chaser' to file against the steamship line, customs broker/forwarder, and the drayage carrier.

That fine law firm has filed individual lawsuits for most of the shipments only combining a handful from the least used steamship line.

The intact customs seals [bolt seals] and the documentation and pictures were a delight to the individual lawyer sent by the maritime cargo specalist lawfirm our cargo insurance hired.

A quick tour of our yard and photo's of the difference between container doors and van trailer doors that prove we could not have popped off a door, pilfered the cargo, and re-installed the doors with the original seal unbroken [unlike a van trailer] in the 50 minutes to 1.25 hr. between departing the pier and hitting the 3rd party dock twenty miles away. Phew!

The total value of the mising cosmetics was a lot higher than the cargo policy limits; even if it turned into a 3 way split, the company would have been paying some of the loss out of pocket...

Bottom line is there are a bunch of Italian longshoremen's girlfriends with a lifetime supply of cosmetics while the producer's insurance is facing three different cargo insurance companies, each with the lead off wielding his best bat just waiting to hit that ball back over the ocean, all for a hand full of seals.