By Ryan Luetzow, Luetzow Industries
In the plastic industry there is a term called 'Up-gauging'. This is when a manufacturer makes a product at a gauge thicker than needed. The reason this is done is almost always to sell more plastic per year, fattening the bottom line.
The devil is always in the details. So let's dive in.
21x7x40" .65 mil gauge, 27# net, provides 556 bags. The very same poly at .5 mil provides 723 bags. It’s possible to get 30% more bags per pound for the same cost roll. The thicker the poly, the higher your cost to cover each garment will be.
The same holds true for Poly used on Sankosha and Metalprogetti machines.
28" 50# Net poly, .85 mil provides 2,626 feet .The same poly at .75 mil provides 2,976 feet. This is 13.3% more feet per pound. Sankosha machines are designed to work with poly as thin as .65 mil, Metalprogetti .75 mil. These machines run just as reliable with the .65 or .75 mil gauge as they do the .85 - 1.0.
Some may say that a lower gauge poly will be brittle or that the machines won’t run well. This just is not true. Polymer technology has advanced over the past decade to negate all of the above concerns. Thousands of dry cleaners use properly gauged poly each and every day. These cleaners may very well be your competitors who have a few thousand dollars more per year to throw at advertising and branding while you are spending that cash on inefficient poly.
By using appropriately gauged poly, cleaners can reduce the total pounds of poly used per year by 13 - 30%.This reduction in single use packaging material weight can be an opportunity to market to your customers that you are doing what you can to reduce single use plastic waste.
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Poly Factory Direct plastic Factory
Made in USA Since 1956
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