The UK construction industry gets through 18m wooden pallets annually, roughly 90 percent of which are used only once.
Pallet use, over one year, in the UK alone, is responsible for: 100,000,000kg of CO2, 400,000 trees felled and 275,000 tons of wood waste.
Now, The Pallet LOOP aims to target that destruction and waste and help the construction sector to meet green targets set by the UK government.
The initiative uses distinctive green pallets, which are built to be twice as strong as traditional designs. Building material manufacturers will pay a deposit to use LOOP pallets, with the fee moving through the supply chain to builders’ merchants and, finally, to end users.
Deposits are redeemed in full when pallets are collected and recirculated back into the supply chain.
Even though their distinctive green pallets are still made out of wood, The Pallet LOOP says widespread adoption of their system across the sector would cut CO2 emissions by 40 percent and timber use by three-quarters.