materialhandlingupdate PALLETS AND CONTAINERS
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damaged, a wooden pallet can easily be
repaired—typically, all that’s required
is to pull off the old board and hammer
on a new one. When a pallet can no longer be repaired or remanufactured into
a recycled pallet, it can be reprocessed
and the wood fibers used in such products as mulch, particleboard, and animal
bedding. All of these end-of-life efforts,
however, require that the pallet user have
effective waste management processes
in place, typically working with a pallet
recycler. (Companies looking to locate
a pallet recycler near their facilities can
search the online directory available on
NWPCA’s website.)
THE INCREDIBLE LIGHTNESS OF
CARDBOARD
Not everyone believes that wood pallets
are the best choice for the environment.
A nonprofit organization launched last
year called Change the Pallet is making
aggressive claims that switching to corrugated cardboard pallets could greatly
reduce carbon emissions. The group was
heavily involved in an attempt to pass a
bill in Oregon’s House of Representatives
to require state agencies to switch to
cardboard pallets where appropriate.
While the bill never made it out of committee, the governor did approve a pilot
with the Department of Corrections.
The reason that cardboard pallets
lead to reductions in carbon emissions,
according to the group’s executive director, Adam Pener, is weight. While wood
pallets typically weigh around 50 pounds,
cardboard pallets weigh about 10. When
trucks transport less weight, he says, they
consume less fuel.
A case in point is the global furniture
company Ikea, which made headlines in
The one area where cardboard pallets
do not measure up to their competitors
is in length of life. Although cardboard
pallets can be made as strong as wood,
they are typically designed to be used
only once. Skeptics have also expressed
concern about their durability and water
resistance, although Pener insists that
they can easily be treated with a waterproof coating.
Cardboard pallets, however, are much
easier to recycle than other pallet types.
According to Pener, companies can simply toss their cardboard pallets into a
baler and recycle them along with their
other corrugate.
PLASTICS FOR LIFE
In contrast to their counterparts over on
the cardboard pallet side, makers of plastic pallets stake their sustainability claims
on their pallets’ longevity. According to
Adam Gurga, national account manager, consumer packaged goods supply
chains, for the plastic pallet manufacturer Rehrig Pacific, plastic pallets often last
five to six years. “And I’ve been in some
of our customers’ facilities where they’re
still using pallets they purchased 10 years
ago,” he says.
That durability also helps the pallet to
better protect the product it is transporting. The less damage that occurs to both
the pallet and the product, the fewer
resources will be consumed in making
replacements. On top of that, companies
will be minimizing their carbon footprint because they won’t be transporting
as many replacement pallets and goods.
No matter how durable a pallet is,
While some plastic pallets are repairable,
most are not. Still, plastic pallets
can be recycled, and many
plastic pallet companies
will even pick up the
damaged units from
you. The pallets are
ground down into
