Rehrig Pacific makes a case for plastic pallets
Sustainability, automation and exports are three reasons interest in returnable plastic pallets is on the rise.
By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 5/17/2007
In the pallet world, wood is still the king of the hill. But the plastic pallet continues to make inroads in the right application.
“Customers are looking to gain efficiencies where they can with reusable packaging,” says J.D. Coult, national sales manager of material handling for plastic pallet maker Rehrig Pacific. “That, of course, is the theme we’ve heard for years, but it is more urgent today.”
Getting beyond the cost of plastic
The hurdle to implementing a plastic pallet program today is the same as it’s always been. While plastic has some advantages over wood, like cleanliness and durability, the price difference can be significant.
“When a manufacturer ships out its pallets and never sees them again, wood is going to be the primary choice,” says Coult. “When they can close their distribution loop, they’re asking us for options.”
In a closed loop, plastic can close the gap with wood on a cost per trip use, especially in industries like food services and the pharmaceutical industry, where cleanliness is a priority.
What’s driving the interest in plastic today? Coult sees three factors at work.
1) Sustainability. The cost of disposing of old pallets has always been a consideration. Now, the idea of sustainability is ratcheting up the interest in plastic as an alternative.
“It may be general market pressures, or it may be pressure from Wal-Mart since they announced their sustainability project,” says Coult. “People are asking the question.”2) Automation. As companies move from manual processes to automatic and semi-automatic warehouses, plastic pallets make sense inside the four walls of a facility. That’s because automated systems require repeatability to work properly. There's less variability in a plastic pallet than in a wooden pallet. What’s more, you’re not going to get a broken deck board from lift truck abuse with a plastic pallet that could hang up a conveyor or automated storage system.
“It’s expensive to manufacture a custom wood or custom plastic pallet to work with an automated system,” says Coult. “But when a company has invested millions in a new automated distribution center, the reliability of plastic becomes a determining factor.”3) Increased exports. Heightened regulations around insect infestation in wooden pallets was once thought to be the catalyst for plastic pallets in the export market. Coult says that for everyday products, the methods—and costs—of delivering a treated wooden pallet have improved. However, for high-value products and time-sensitive shipments that can’t afford a delay in delivery, plastic is on the rise.
“We’re hearing that some ports are holding up shipments of product on wood where they weren’t in the past,” says Coult. “The guy buying a plastic pallet for export is looking at it as an insurance option; they can’t risk a few extra days delay in delivery because of the pallets were quarantined.”
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