Wood pallets have a much higher negative environmental impact than iGPS plastic pallets. The most common wood pallet is a lightweight stringer pallet in which the boards of the top deck are nailed to a two-by-four stringer. Construction techniques for these vary, and stringer pallets can weigh anywhere from 33 to 48 pounds, a low weight if you’re comparing them to typical wood block pallets whose unloaded (tare) weight is generally around 65-75 pounds. If you’re concerned about saving weight on product shipments to reduce fuel costs and the CO2 emissions rate of your business, at first glance, stringer pallets can seem like a low-cost way to make transporting products more sustainable.
However, stringer pallets are flimsy and made for single one-way trips. These pallets will most often end up in a landfill, taking up space until they slowly rot away. Building and shipping a single use pallet is a terrible waste of the wood used to make the pallet and is environmentally irresponsible.
Block pallets improve on stringer pallets slightly because they are at least made for multiple trips. However, they are also much heavier than both stringer pallets and reusable iGPS plastic pallets, with a higher cost in fuel and CO2 emissions than either alternative. Heavy platforms like wood block pallets raise your Total Cost of Business (TCOB) and your company’s carbon footprint. While block pallets are reusable, eventually, just like stringer pallets, block pallets will still end up clogging a landfill.
Both types of pallets are also sometimes made from hardwoods like oak, slow-growing trees which aren’t easily replaced, magnifying the environmental impact of expendable and limited-use wood pallets. In comparison, lightweight, long-lived, and recyclable iGPS plastic pallets are better for the environment in every way.