After reading that heading, you may be thinking, "What do bags at the grocery store have to do with shipping pallets?" There are actually a lot of similarities. Just like paper bags at the grocery store are a better solution to plastic bags, PBPallets of Chatsworth, GA, has a better solution in many cases to a plastic shipping pallet.

How many times have you gone though the checkout counter at your grocery store or supermarket and been asked the question, "Paper or plastic?" ?

Perhaps if you were just going to throw either one in the trash, you really didn't care. You just wanted whatever was the most convenient for you at the time. However, if you are someone who recycles, who is trying to be as earth friendly as possible, the options may not be so clear.

The original raw material, wood, to manufacture a paper bag did come from harvesting trees. However, the paper pulp used is actually a byproduct from scrap wood, and recycled paper products.

The plastic bag also may be made from recycled plastic but the original raw material came from tapping our oil resources, or from a very inefficient recycling process.

Both are said to be 'recyclable' but are we comparing apples to apples? I don't think so. On the one hand we have the paper bag, which is totally recyclable and biodegradable. On the other hand we have plastic, which can be recycled through a complex process, but will take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to decompose if placed in a landfill (while giving off very nasty toxins).

Sometimes, maybe you need plastic rather than paper. That's fine, but if you can go with paper, paper is the way to go.

Continue reading below for a comparison of Paperboard Pallets Versus Plastic Pallets.

You can find an excellent article on Paper Bags versus Plastic Bags at:

Paper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything you need to know.

Many companies are looking for ways to become more earth friendly, and to protect our natural resources. While many of these companies are doing this voluntarily because they actually care and have genuine concern for our natural resources, others will have no choice due to recent regulation in the shipping industry.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has given guidelines released as ISPM 15, placing strict requirements on how wood packaging materials should be handled, including wood pallets.

Many export and domestic ports are slowly closing to wood pallets by mandated law (ISPM 15) due to insect infestation. Many landfills are not accepting wood pallets.

Other factors are the shortage of wood (restrictions are being put on the harvesting of trees in the US), fuel cost and weight to transport.

According to industry reports there are 1.9 billion pallets in circulation yearly in the US. Over 60% of the 1.9 billion pallets are replaced by new pallets.

Approximately 92% of the current market is wood pallets, the plastic pallet is 6%, and the corrugated pallet, paper pallet, and paperboard pallet is 2%.

Manufacturers must be looking for alternatives to wood pallets to save the environment and to save cost. This brings up the question...

"Paper Pallet or Plastic Pallet?" What is the best choice?

While paperboard pallets cannot replace plastic pallets or wooden pallets in all cases, there are many situations where they are a better alternative to the other materials.

While corrugated pallets have been most often used over the past years to construct relatively light weight pallet for the advantage of their handling safety advantages, they were not always suitable in situations that required heavy load requirements

That has changed now with the introduction of a paperboard pallet introduced to the U.S. by a company in Chatsworth, GA, by the name of PBpallets, a division of North Georgia Paperboard, in partnership with ELTETE TPM Ltd of Finland. These pallets have actually been used in Europe and other parts of the world for many years.

The PBPallets' paperboard pallet is NOT a corrugated pallet. The tube, runner, wrap, basically everything is high compression pressed paperboard (lots of layers of brown paper pressed together with natural glues). The 'top' platform (on top of the runners), 'can' be corrugated if that's what a customer wants or it can be a pressed paperboard top. But, the corrugated is not regular cardboard box type corrugated. It is a thick material with compressed paperboard as a top and a bottom and a heavy duty paperboard flute. High compression paperboard is far stronger than corrugated cardboard.

The PBpallets full paperboard pallet has been laboratory tested to sustain up to 10 tons of static weight! The PBRunners contain cylinders which make it one of the strongest paperboard pallets on the market today.

The biggest advantage is that they greatly reduce disposal and recycling problems. They are made from 100% recycled material and are 100% recyclable. Corrugated cardboard and other forms of paperboard are also the most-recycled packaging material on earth, with a recovery rate in 2007 of 78.3% .

The original purchase price of the PBPallet is about the same as a wood pallet, making them very cost effective for the shipper, especially considering saved warehouse space, lighter weight, and safety issues.

End-users can easily dispose of the the high compression paperboard pallet together with other corrugated packaging material. End users derive revenues from the sale of OCC (old corrugated containers) including the shipping pallet. Growing demand for and market value of OCC gives businesses a good economic reason to recycle corrugated.

The pallet could also be re-used for shipping, warehouse storage, or they make great floor ready displays! The PBpallet can go straight from the loading dock to the sales floor!

Some users of pallets such as grocery retailers, do not wish to become involved in the pallet business. Their ideal pallet would appear with minimal cost when needed, and disappear without effort or cost when not needed. Corrugated pallets or paperboard pallets come closer to plastic pallets or wooden pallets to achieving this ideal, as they can be placed into existing, and often well established, cardboard recycling systems.

Other benefits of paperboard pallets over wooden pallets include:

• lighter weight - saving on shipping cost, easier to handle and less chance of injury.
• No splinters or nails - again easier to handle and less chance of injury.
• Does not need to meet phytosanitary requirements for export.

An obvious disadvantage of paperboard pallets is their susceptibility to moisture. The PBRunner U-profile is reinforced by wet strengthened kraftliner giving high protection from moisture and humidity. PBpallets need no treatments like wood.

Another disavantage is that they will not hold up to the abuse that a plastic pallet can withstand and therefore would have a shorter lifespan and less re-uses of a plastic pallet.

Export:

Paperboard pallets are being accepted in all countries without any restrictions.

High compression paperboard pallets and corrugated pallets are often used in exporting goods because they're lightweight, they aren't subject to phytosanitary regulations and nearly every country in the world has a means of recycling them. Their weight makes them especially attractive for air freight.

EWG News Release

• CONTACT: EWG Public Affairs, (202) 667-6982
• FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 24, 2009

Animal Studies Link Chemical to Cancer, Brain and Reproductive Disorders

WASHINGTON, -- Large plastic pallets used to ship, cool and store produce contain decabromodiphenyl ether (Deca), a flame retardant chemical and known neurotoxin that may leach onto the fruits and vegetables inside. 

 Environmental Working Group (EWG), urged Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the federal Food and Drug Administration, to order the food industry to stop using plastic pallets made with Deca.

Read the entire article here.

Plastic is currently the most often chosen alternative material for pallet construction because it offers many benefits over wood.

Benefits of plastic pallets over wooden pallets are:

• More durable - longer service life, often lasting a hundred or more trips.
• Waterproof and easily sanitized, making it the pallet of choice for the food and beverage industry. (As long as food is not exposed to pallet surfaces containing Decabromodiphenyl , also know as deca.)
• Resistant to odor, rot, and chemicals
• lighter weight - saving on shipping cost, easier to handle and less chance of injury.
• No splinters or nails - again easier to handle and less chance of injury.
• Does not need to meet phytosanitary requirements for export.
• More uniform in size, shape and weight.

Two factors will determine the exact characterics of plastic pallets, the type of resin and the molding technique. Plastic pallets are often made of new HDPE(High-density polyethylene) or recycled PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) i.e. plastic drink bottles. HDPE is impervious to most acids, and toxic chemicals clean from them easily.

Many plastic pallets have the following features:

• Rackable – Some of the strongest plastic pallets available are able to withstand their weight capacities on an open rack system that does not have decking.
• Stackable – Many of these pallets are designed with a bottom deck that allows you to stack pallets on top of other loaded pallets without damaging the load.
• Nestable – These are a very popular distribution pallet due to their space saving advantage. The legs of these pallets nest inside each other to maximize your floor space when not in use. Most nestable pallets ship 30 - 75 to an 8' stack.
• Export Pallets – Available in both Stackable and Nestable versions, these inexpensive plastic pallets designed for one-way shipments or general light warehouse and storage use. The most cost effective pallets are manufactured in a 40 x 48 size to “cube out” shipping containers. They vary greatly in weight capacities and life expectancy.
• Drum Pallets – These plastic pallets are specifically designed to handle four fifty-gallon drums. Drum pallets are available in a variety of qualities from export to spill containment.
• Solid Deck Pallets – The deck or top of the pallet is solid plastic. These are available in a variety of configurations. Options also include reinforcement bars to handle the heavy loads, anti skid surfaces, and perimeter lips to keep your load in place.

Some disadvantages to plastic pallets are as follows:

• Many contain Decabromodiphenyl (deca), a fire retardent which may seep into the contents of food products.
• Some plastic pallets can collapse from plastic creep if used to store heavy loads for long periods of time.
• Plastic pallets cannot easily be repaired, and can be ten times as expensive as hardwood.
• The major disadvantage of most plastic pallets is their higher cost. Irregularly sized plastic pallets are especially expensive because they require custom molds. Most companies that invest in durable plastic pallets plan to reuse them again and again and, therefore, must develop an effective pallet management system to make their investment worthwhile.
• From an environmental standpoint, Plastic degrades very slowly. If a plastic pallet is not recycled, it could last thousands of years in a landfill. Plastic pallets can be recycled, but it is a complex process, and the purity of the material tends to degrade with each cycle. Also, the manufacturing of plastics often creates large quantities of chemical pollutants.
• In some cases, burning plastic can release toxic fumes.