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Carton

Carton

[[Karton]] (Danish), [[Kartonnen pakje]]/doos (Dutch), [[Schachtel]], [[Packung]] (German), [[Scatolone]] (Italian), [[Caixa]] (Portuguese), [[Kartong]] (Swedish) all these words have one thing in common, these are words for [[Carton]] in different languages. The origin of the word carton comes from the Latin word carta i.e. paper made out of the papyrus. 

The dictionary meaning for the Carton is a container made from the coated paper or cardboard. In the most common pronunciation it is pronounced in French way as kahr-tn. Grammatically Carton can be used as a noun as well as a verb.
Apart from these diversities Cartons have a very interesting history behind them. In the history of art, the carton was used as design on ordinary cardboard which was used in the designing of the valuable clothing generally possessed by wealthiest buyers of those times.
Cardboard is said to be invented in China in 15th century but commercial cardboard boxes came into existence only in 1817 in England but the official cartons were invented by Robert Gair, an American in 1890 due to an accident while working in his printing press. By 20th century these cardboard cartons started to replace wooden crates and wooden boxes which were used for trade before that.
After that cartons were generally left to be known as packaging materials mainly for food items. Cartons are used to sell a wide variety of products such as milk, eggs, water, juices, cigarettes etc.therefore cartons come in different shapes and sizes depending upon the requirement of the items to be packed. The design of cartons has become quiet customized according to the products giving the products more safety and firm packing for example cartons used for packing of milk are upright boxes with openings at the top for milk while the cartons used for packing eggs long boxes having cup shaped structures in them made especially to hold the packed eggs in upright position to protect the eggs during transportation.
In the beginning milk cartons were also used to find missing children in United States. In 1980’s milk cartons used to contain faces of the missing children with some sort of notes from the family of the children and his small description. As a surprise around 1500 cases of missing children were solved with the help of this campaign
There are many types of raw materials which are used in the manufacturing of cartons prominent among them being Polyethylene Terephthalate also known as PET and other plastics, Styrofoam and recycled paper. Often a combination of these is used to give more strength and functionality to the carton. Plastics are very easy to shape according to the product so these are becoming very popular as raw materials for cartons. Kieckhefer Container Company, US is said to be the pioneer in the use of cartons as packaging materials and this company popularized the use of shipping containers made of fibers.
Cuboids is the most common shape of cartons but as said earlier shape mainly depends upon the product and it is also not uncommon that you can find a carton that lacks in corners and right angles such as cartons used for ice creams. Irregularly shaped objects can use other substances such as polystyrene to standardize the shape of the product according to the carton or container.
A good and attractive look to the cartons is provided by the labeling on the cartons which are generally used to provide information about the product in the carton. These labels contains almost all the necessary information which can be used by the consumer before buying the product inside such as contents of the carton, nutritional information about the product in the container, ingredients used in the manufacturing of the product etc.
But that’s not all when it comes to the uses of cartons. Even after being used as packing material cartons can also have some innovative use both for children and adults. Egg cartons can be used to make innovative design, characters and as decorative items by children thus helping in nurturing their talents without spending an extra penny as these cartons are easy to mould in any design. Many websites are providing necessary tutorials for the children to help them in bringing out their talents and some even provide with prizes for exceptional innovative ideas and designs.
It would be surprising to note that an empty egg carton can have a numerous after uses such as it can be used for storing small items such as coins, buttons, fasteners etc. These can be used to start seedlings and bottom halves can be used to make ice. These can also be used to reinforce your trash can when used below it and can also be used as gift packing for small goodies and cookies with proper wrapping outside.
But as the world is becoming more environment conscious the carton industry is seeing a downfall mainly in cartons made out of the paper and plastics as both of these carton effects the environment in one or the other ways. But as results companies across the world are innovating new ideas for new cartons which are both useful and environment friendly. Companies are putting a lot of dollars into research and development to tackles these challenges and come up with some sort of solution. Many new materials have come into existence due to these efforts which are being used extensively in the packing industry all over the world.
Seeing this kind of situation companies are looking for consolidations within the industry to get the benefit of economies of scale and use research and development facilities more effectively and economically. E-commerce has also started to play important part in carton industry as it can help in easy data collection about forecasts, sales, purchase and replenishment and can help companies to cut down costs up to some level.