So- what do bees have in common with cheese? Because Tosca has implemented Life Cycle Management for all its pooled containers, there is an intimate connection. After many years of use, the waxed wood panels that form the 640 cheese box eventually lose their structural integrity. Tosca then sells the spent components to a company in Florida for the manufacture of beehives. Talk about good recycling buzz! One busy life leads to another, and Tosca fulfills a promise made to its container pool participants. Tosca will Reuse, Repair, and Recycle all returnable packaging owned, pooled, managed, and reconditioned by Tosca Limited.
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Basically, significant Reuse of distribution packaging became an option with the introduction of professionally managed returnable container systems. By replacing expendable packaging with pooled containers maintained to deliver years of service, Tosca helps to change the environmental equation from waste formation to continuous resource recovery. Full utilization of pooled returnable containers begins with the selection process. Using performance-based criteria, Tosca works with the finest container design and manufacturing companies in the world to source the most effective and most durable solutions for your pooling application. For Tosca, each dedicated pool of plastic containers also represents a valuable investment in engineered resin. Sustainable Conservation is the goal Tosca shares with its customers, energizing incentive programs to achieve more turns from each container, more efficiencies in the supply chain, and more life out of each pound of resin. 
Expert repair and reconditioning of returnable containers has predictable outcomes: peak packaging performance, each and every trip; reduced replacement costs; and life extension for the total pool. Tosca has a comprehensive repair program administered by a team of professionals certified, for example, in the welding techniques required for the return to 'as new' status of plastic containers. Headquartered in Green Bay, the Tosca Repair Team operates like a pit crew for company-owned returnable containers, and performs repair services for customer-owned containers managed by Tosca as well, both in-house and in mobile mode, according to customer needs. Tosca calculates that each successful container repair is equivalent to 50-75% of the purchase price of a new container. 
The transformation of veteran 640 cheese box panels into beehives is only part of the Tosca recycling story. Tosca has also pioneered the reuse and recycling of materials unique to its containers, such as the wax applied to the 640 cheese box. Water utilized in Tosca's washing and reconditioning operations is recycled, filtered, and responsibly evacuated. Every returnable container pooled or managed by Tosca has an end-of-life, or tertiary recycling scenario. In the past, Tosca owned and operated a recycling division for plastics, and the ethic of material recovery is deeply engrained. Tosca works with used plastics brokers all over the country to ensure that spent containers, and debris generated by repair activities are recycled into useful products, and not landfilled. At Tosca, continuous improvement in operations includes resourceful recycling. Tosca wins, the customer wins, and the environment wins!