Worldwide shipping of COVID-19 test kits with the Landbox Straw

In the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, our customer QIAGEN started to switch its refrigerated packaging from EPS to straw after a thorough validation process. For more information regarding this extensive validation, refer to this link.

The focus at the time was on vaccinations, testing, and quarantine measures. QIAGEN was one of the only companies at that point that could offer a COVID-19 test kit, which had to be swiftly packed and shipped to destinations worldwide.

QIAGEN serves more than 500,000 customers around the globe with hundreds of different testing kits. Most of these tests function by taking DNA and comparing it against a sample. The accuracy of these tests is extremely crucial; otherwise, the results are useless. Consequently, production must be contamination-free and temperature-controlled at all times. These high standards have to be maintained during transportation as well – most products have to be shipped in a narrow temperature range during several days around the world. The cold chain can not be broken or compromised in the slightest.

This is where the Landbox Straw comes into play: With its excellent insulating capacity, the Landbox ensures that the temperature during the whole transportation process is continuously held at a certain level, as QIAGEN had been used to with its previous EPS packaging.

For Landpack, the challenge was – for the first time to this extent – to ensure worldwide shipping of the Landbox Straw: to the United States, Australia, Latin America, and to Asia. Landpack had to navigate the complex process of ensuring that the import of straw-based packaging was permissible in each of the 177 countries where QIAGEN’s customers are located.

For three years now, QIAGEN has been shipping its test kits using the Landbox Straw as a reliable packaging option all around the world – supported by a strong partnership with UPS Healthcare. “When you work in a warehouse and see how much material goes through our hands every day, it’s clear we have to find more sustainable solutions,” said Andy Cain, Operations Manager, UPS Healthcare.

Landpack feels honored to have shown that natural fiber-based packaging and international shipping go together.

By eliminating EPS boxes, QIAGEN has reduced its amount of plastic packaging in distribution by 30 tons in 2022.

For more information watch this CNN video.