Packing for rubber and other commodities

A plastics tray system for packaging a plurality of rubber bales of cuboidal configuration, each having top and bottom surfaces and four side surfaces comprising:

• a plastics base tray of a first type for providing a lower support for stacking such rubber bales;
• at least one intermediate, plastics tray of a second type for positioning between adjacent layers of such rubber bales in said stack;
• and
• a plastics cover tray for disposal over the top of such stacked bales;
• said base tray of said first type having an integral, substantially rectangular base portion, the whole of the lateral edge of said base portion being extended therefrom to protect bales of rubber on the outside of the stack from external contamination and to laterally constrain the rubber, said base portion having a plurality of depressions, each having a smoothly rounded profile, and arranged in orthogonal rows whereby the remaining floor area of the tray provided by the base is a matrix of mutually perpendicular, substantially planar sections, whereby some rubber of each of said bales adjacent the base portion is received in said depressions by cold flow whereby at least part of the rubber of that bale effectively acts as a structural part of the tray to provide additional rigidity and strength to the overall package, and said base portion defining external recesses which provide locations for strapping and for fork lift access;
• and
• the tray of said second type having projections and recesses for mechanically engage the rubber bales disposed immediately above and below that tray to reduce lateral cold flow of the rubber, wherein said trays of said second type have a substantially flat base portion having a lateral edge which is extended upwardly from said base portion and also projected below the base portion, the height and depth of projection of said lateral edge of the tray upwards and downwards being dimensioned so that said side surfaces of the bales on the outside of said stack are fully covered by said lateral edges of the trays of said second type.