Wooden pallets are more and more popular in logistics and warehouse industry. While wooden pallets are significantly less expensive than their plastic or aluminum counterparts, they still retain their value well over time. The potential resale value can help your business recoup some of its investment if your transportation needs change in the future.
Preliminary results of a research project conducted by Virginia Tech on the disposal of wood pallets at landfill sites reveal that 95% of wooden pallets are being recycled.
The landfill avoidance study was independently conducted at Virginia Tech over the course of two years. Both municipal and solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition (C&D) landfill facilities were surveyed to better understand how pallets were being handled at these facilities.
According to the study, the number of pallets entering the landfill reduced by 86%, for both MSW and C&D facilities. Environmental awareness, limited space and a desire to be more waste efficient have driven many of these facilities to sort and recover certain types of waste. The overall presence of wood pallets at landfill facilities has also significantly decreased.
“Our industry is thrilled that the data proves the wood packaging sector, more than any other, is closing in on zero-waste,” said Larry Howell of Cottondale Wood Products and NWPCA Chair. “Wood pallets are 100% recyclable, and the newest research from Virginia Tech shows that our industry has the highest recovery rate at 95%, compared to other prevalent materials.”
“Data of this kind had not been collected since 1998,” said Dr. Brad Gething, NWPCA Director of Science and Technology Integration. “The wood packaging sector has long been touting their recyclable efforts for decades, and now the data proves it.” Wooden pallets get used, reused, and when they are no longer useful, they are converted to mulch, animal bedding or biofuel. But this is not the optimum selection. When wooden pallets are not useful, they are the best raw materials for compressed wood pallets. It not only can settle the wood waste, but also can get presswood pallet. Meantime, the progress of molded wood pallet production is very simple. Besides, the molded wood pallet is as good as wooden pallet. What’s more, the raw materials of compressed wood pallets are branches, wood chips, sawdust, and anything contains wood fiber.
“Of those wooden pallets that arrive at landfills, both MSW and C&D facilities recycle even further,” added Dr. Laszlo Horvath, Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech. “The results show that landfill facilities have increased their wood and wood pallet recovery areas over the past two decades. For MSW facilities, this number increased from 33% to 62% of facilities, while for C&D facilities, the number increased from 27% to 45%.”
“It’s great news for our environment, as well as the public. Landfill facilities provide recycled by-products, such as mulch, to their local communities,” said NWPCA President. The preliminary results of the landfill avoidance study, along with a recent industry market survey, are being submitted for peer-reviewed journals.
The competitive advantage of molded wood pallet by compressed wood pallet machine
- Saving Space
Same size of compressed wood pallets is nestable. And, they can be easily separated from a stack with a fork lift truck. Nesting pallets reduces storage space by up to 70% than conventional wooden pallets.
For example, the height of 20 pieces of molded nestable pallets is about 0.75 meter. However, the height of 20 pieces of traditional wooden pallets is 2.7 meters.
- Lighter weight
Compressed wood pallet is 60% lighter than conventional wooden pallet. But, the same load capacity.
- Safe
Compressed wood pallet is one-piece design. There are no nails or staples to reduce product and package damage. And eliminating burrs help reduce employee and customer injuries.
On the contrary, nails and burrs of wooden pallet will hurt the goods and the workers. And warping and shrinking maybe occur all the time.
- Recyclable and renewable
Old pallets which are no longer usable can be shredded and re-glued to make new compressed wood pallet. And the waste wooden pallets are only as the raw materials of compressed wood pallets.
PalletMach is committed to environmental protection career. We have provided the pallet production lines and unique system solutions for more than 300 clients who come from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and Australia. And PalletMach got various patents of innovating electromagnetic production line and pallet press machine.
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