Plastic Pallet Carbon Footprint Survey

03 June 2010

Midlands based specialist company, PPS Equipment Management Ltd has just commissioned a survey to measure the carbon footprint of their plastic pallets operations.

For years, PPS has been managing a considerable fleet of plastic pallets on behalf of its customers – these are largely in the food industry where the use of plastic pallets has been steadily growing over the past number of years.

However by far the largest percentage of pallets used today is timber. However, PPS in their efforts to promote plastic pallets has initiated a programme showing the favourable carbon footprint of plastic pallets, particularly in the food sector.

This survey, due for completion in June this year will show the positive uses of plastic pallets and that versus timber, plastic pallets show a better overall carbon footprint. The primary reason is that plastic pallets are expected to have a considerably longer life cycle than those made of wood. Plastic pallets in a typical pooling system, as operated by PPS may have an active life of up to 10 years or even more.

PPS does recycle its plastic pallets and is continually refreshing its pool of plastic pallets and other returnable transit equipment.

The carbon footprint report for plastic pallets will also include a report on returnable plastic food crates.