For the past decade, the Avery Dennison Remanufactured Pallet Initiative team has been working to solve a specific challenge - how to source high-quality and affordably priced shipping pallets in the face of an increasingly limited supply. Their answer, it turns out, is good for the bottom line and the environment.
Sustainable solution
In 2008, once plentiful and affordable hardwood shipping pallets faced a price increase and supply limitations after a heavy rain season slashed the amount of hardwood lumber available.
When it became clear that repurposing our own used pallets was not feasible, the team at Avery Dennison partnered with Pallet Alliance to find a solution. Together, they found a way to reduce waste, lower cost and ensure continuity of the pallet supply by implementing sustainable practices.
The Pallet Alliance uses a holistic approach to develop relationships with remanufactured pallet manufacturers around the United States who now provide Avery Dennison with a product that not only meets, but exceeds our quality standards. The remanufactured pallets are created from discarded pallets that would otherwise wind up in a landfill.
The process is simple: the used pallets are collected, dismantled and sorted, and new pallets are manufactured from the reclaimed wood. The result is a win-win: affordable, high-quality pallets with a reduced environmental impact.
“Remanufactured pallets use discarded wood that would otherwise be destined for refuse. The new process allows us to lower our impact by letting us use less virgin lumber from forests, less fuel for hauling, and less waste in the end, since many of our pallets go on to be recycled into new pallets again,” says Avery Dennison Category Manager Pat Boyle.
