Barcodes: Beyond the Supply Chain
Almost every discussion about barcodes is about the critical role they play in supply chains, but barcodes have usefulness far beyond tracking a product from manufacture to the end user. Of equal importance—some would say greater importance—is the role barcodes play in sustainability.
Sustainability in the Supply Chain
- Supply Chain Efficiency: Barcodes help in tracking products throughout the supply chain, preventing loss and the energy wasted by misdirecting a shipment. Barcodes also enable more
efficient inventory management and reducing waste associated with overstocking or stockouts. - Food Waste: In the food industry, barcodes facilitate better expiration date tracking, helping to reduce food waste by ensuring products are sold before they expire.
- Product Traceability: Barcodes enable quick and accurate tracing of products back to their source, which is crucial for identifying and addressing issues like food contamination or product recalls. This capability helps in reducing the environmental impact of recalls by minimizing the scope and duration of recalls.
- Sustainable Packaging: Although the barcode is usually thought of as a way to identify and track a product, it equally well tracks the package and can flag it for its environmental attributes, good or bad.
- Consumer Awareness: Barcodes can provide consumers with information about a product’s sustainability attributes, such as its environmental footprint, certifications, or sourcing practices, enabling more informed purchasing decisions.
Overall, barcodes contribute to sustainability by improving supply chain efficiency, reducing waste, enabling traceability, promoting sustainable packaging practices, and fostering consumer awareness.
Sustainability After the Supply Chain
Barcodes are useful in recycling in several ways:
- Sorting and Identification: Barcodes help in the automated sorting of recyclable materials at recycling facilities. By scanning barcodes on packaging, sorting machines can quickly identify and separate different types of materials such as plastic, glass, paper, and metal, streamlining the recycling process.
- Tracking and Traceability: Barcodes can be used to track materials throughout the recycling chain, from collection to processing to manufacturing of new products. This traceability helps ensure that materials are properly recycled and can be used to monitor recycling rates and identify areas for improvement in recycling programs.
None of this is possible if the barcode fails to work, either by failing to scan, or by incorrectly decoding. A properly scanning barcode is a sustainability solution from product packaging at manufacturing and its journey through the supply chain to the end user, to package recycling and reuse. It is important to realize that the barcode identifies much more than just the contents of the package–it can identify the package itself.
Make sure your barcodes work right. It’s more important that ever. We can help.
