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A pallet delivery, recovery and re-use proposition for the construction industry. Today 15 million pallets are being used through the construction sector and not being re-used.
About
To introduce a high quality, standard pallet in to the construction sector. The pallet is of a much higher specification that those currently in use (that are made to a price) and therefore improves the safety throughout the supply chain. The standard format for the pallet allows the pallets to be recovered, repaired and re-used across all construction manufacturing businesses. The scheme involves a deposit to be applied to the pallet when issued, which enables a lower operating cost for the manufacturers whilst ensuring pallets are returned by the end users (similar to carrier bag or bottle deposit schemes). The scheme is proposed by a Joint venture business between the UK's largest pallet manufacturer and a specialist team. The scheme has had an LCA carried out and validated by the University of Loughborough (Dr Colwill). Discussions are ongoing between The Pallet Loop team and Steve Weller and Mark Griffiths of Tarmac.
Key Benefits
Over 3000 acres of forestry felled p.a. to manufacture 15,000,000 construction industry pallets, with re-use figures less than 5%. This model can reduce CO2 by 70% whilst consuming 80% less timber. It maximises the use of our natural resource.
Applications
This is applicable to Construction materials manufacturers because it drives the re-use of pallets through the supply chain. This ensures that there are significant CO2 and timber savings. Whilst improving safety of the pallets in use - by using a higher specification pallet. In addition the use of a standard design ensures that all users throughout the supply chain can optimise the handling and storage of materials in their sites. The use of RFID technology in the pallet design also enables improvements to be pursued for the information and tracking associated with pallet movements.