Optimising storage space

Earlier this year The Guardian reported that three-quarters of UK warehouse owners said they have no space as inquiries soared by up to 25% in just three months. The UK Warehousing Association (UKWA) whose 750 members have more than 9.3m sq. metres of space nationwide also commented that there was a shortage of space close to major cities for stockpiling goods in case of the anticipated holdups at ports.

With storage space at a premium, warehouse managers need to ensure existing space is being utilised as efficiently as possible. This might include introducing high-bay racking systems; reducing aisle width in the racking area; using stackable and rackable pallets and containers; adopting leaner inventory processes; and implementing measures to ensure all packaging waste is efficiently disposed of.

Reducing packaging waste

Cutting down packaging waste should be a key priority for everyone who works in a warehouse, whether that is management, operatives or administrational staff. Waste materials are not just bad for the environment and profit margins but also create a health and safety hazard.

Here at Goplasticpallets.com we pride ourselves on being an environmentally-conscious business – one of our four core values – and uphold a strong environmental policy.

In February this year, we pledged to recycle every plastic pallet and box we supply to our customers; ultimately, our mission is to help our customers create more sustainable supply chains by providing them with long lasting, reusable plastic pallets and boxes, and ensuring that they’re responsibly recycled when they’re no longer needed. 

For warehouse managers this means that when our plastic pallets and boxes are no longer required or have come to the end of their working use, rather than them laying around for weeks or months taking up valuable storage space, we will arrange a quick collection and ensure they’re professionally recycled.    

Our recycling process

We’ve tried to make it as simple as possible for our customers to recycle the products we supply. Depending on the volume that customers wish to recycle, they can choose from one of our two recycling solutions. 

For volumes in excess of 1500kg, customers can take advantage of our hassle-free collection service, where we will arrange a collection and transport the products straight to our partner’s recycling facility in Belgium. Customers can arrange for smaller loads to be dropped off at our warehouse at their own convenience, where once consolidated we will transport in full truck loads to Belgium – ensuring our trucks are running at their maximum efficiency.

Here, the plastic pallets and boxes, along with other domestic recycling waste – such as bottle tops and detergent bottles – are washed, processed and then ground down into fine granules. These granules are then injected under extreme pressure and heat into a massive mould to create new plastic pallets, ready to be used again. It’s a continuing cycle!

There are several reasons why we’ve chosen to recycle our products in Belgium. Firstly, our partner’s recycling factory located there is one of only three in Europe with a pallet recycling facility adjacent to the manufacturing plant, and it’s the closet one to the UK. Secondly, we can guarantee that the plastic pallets and boxes we recover from our customers are correctly recycled at a fully licensed facility, which we monitor through regular visits. Finally, by returning our products to Belgium we know exactly which plastics are being used to create the next wave of high quality, long life plastic pallets and boxes.

How can you benefit?

As a customer of Goplasticpallets.com, by taking our pledge you’re not only guaranteed that your plastic pallets and boxes will be professionally recycled, so that they don’t end up in landfill, but you’ll be taking a positive step forward to improving your waste disposal processes for packaging waste.

This year we’ve set ourselves the ambitious target of recycling 350 tonnes of plastic waste from our customers’ used plastic pallets and boxes. 

So far we’ve had a really positive response from customers. In the first two months, six customers have taken the pledge allowing us to recycle approximately 2,700 plastic pallets, as well as a full trailer load of mixed plastic pallets and trays, totalling just over 43 tonnes of plastic waste.

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