Can you ship a walking pad without plastic?
Finally an update from the packaging supplier. They finished the prototype and will send it to me for testing.
This supplier specialises in large products and plastic free packaging. Looks very promising.
The part I did not expect
Now I just need to convince the other suppliers to use less plastic.
You would not believe how many plastic bags and stretch film they use. For example, every slat was supposed to be shipped in its own plastic bag, and every side panel is shipped wrapped in stretch foil.
The slats are luckily now shipped in a carton only. But the side panels need some kind of protection and I could not yet convince the supplier to use something else.
Why plastic free is harder for something this heavy
For a light product, paper packaging is easy. For 25 kg of wood and steel it is not.
Styrofoam is light and it cushions well. That is why almost everything heavy ships in it. Paper and cardboard can do the same job, but you need more material to do it, and more material means more weight.
The first prototype weighs about 6 kg. With the Office Walker at around 25 kg that puts us right at the DHL limit within Germany, and already over it internationally in some cases.
So there is a real trade off here, and it is not just a values question. Go too light and the product arrives damaged. Go too heavy and it cannot ship as a standard parcel at all.
The bit that is already going right
Size wise it already works as a standard parcel. That is a big advantage over other mechanical treadmills, which usually ship on a pallet with a delivery window and a signature, and which you then cannot get up a staircase.
Being a normal parcel means a normal delivery. It is one of the quieter advantages of building something at this size rather than the size most manual treadmills are.
What is next
I will do a test shipment and a drop test with the prototype. I have some ideas for removing material without losing much protection, hoping to save one or two kilos.
And I will keep working on the suppliers about the film.