A Green, Recyclable Shipping Pallet
Shipping pallets might not seem like a big problem for the environment, but approximately 40% of the hardwood that is harvested in the United States is used to manufacture shipping pallets! That’s a huge amount of trees that are being lumbered for pallets that generally get used for a one way trip.
Around two-thirds of the pallets manufactured are only used for one shipping trip, only one-third are used several times before being replaced. And, even those normally only get used three times before they’re damaged so badly they are either replaced with new ones or have to be serviced.
An Orlando company, iGPS manufacturers plastic pallets that are much more eco friendly. The pallets are created from a virgin plastic that is derived from natural gas and weigh about half as much as the traditional wooden pallets.
The company rents the plastic pallets which can last for as much as 100 trips, over 30 times what wood pallets last. Once the pallets are damaged and no longer usable, the company recycles them into other products such as particleboard or paper.
The lighter plastic pallets won’t only save thousands of trees each year, the lighter weight means that less emissions are released during the transportation of products.