FP Corrugated Paper Pallets – The Only Real Solution for Shippers!

Introduction

Worldwide, well over 500 million wooden pallets are made each year and the world pallet industry generated a staggering USD 30 billion in revenues with more than 1.9 billion pallets shipped in and out of the United States in 2003 alone.

We, at Forward Pallet Pte Ltd, believe that we are witnessing the dawn of a new era in the world of shipping and commerce as the wooden pallet is fast becoming a highly uneconomical and obsolete product with a tainted history of causing incalculable environmental damage.

Effects on the Environment

Nearly 200,000,000 trees are felled each year or more than 500,000 trees each day just to make wooden pallets! With fewer trees to help absorb the ever-increasing carbon dioxide emissions from our use of fossil, carbon rich fuels and pollution causing heavy industries, Global Warming has become a serious worldwide problem.

Every day, thousands of discarded wooden pallets ended up in landfills or worse, simply left lying around to rot and posed a fire and health hazard to the environment and us.

Many countries including the United States of America and Europe found their native flora and fauna devastated by foreign pests and insects that have been traced back to wood packaging materials, which had arrived by ship and airplanes carrying goods into these countries. Governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in a vain attempt to eradicate deadly insects such as the Asian long horned beetle, which had killed over 3,500 trees in New York City in 2003 alone!

Human Health Risks

Protruding nails and wood splinters from wooden pallets injure scores of people and damaged thousands of goods daily, with many wooden pallets handlers constantly injuring themselves during back-breaking manual lifting operations. Annually, many companies settle numerous medical and compensations claims relating to wooden pallets.

Toxic substances in chemically treated wooden pallets regularly contaminate the food and medical products carried on it, resulting in expensive lawsuits and insurance claims. Indeed, certain sectors in the food and medical industries have restricted or banned the use of wooden pallets in their processing plants altogether for safety and sanitary reasons.

Economic Costs to Exporters and Importers

The average wooden pallet measuring 40” x 48” weighs an average 18 kgs with the bigger ones weighing more than 30 kgs. Shippers and consignees have long endured the additional freight charges on the wooden pallets in excess of the freight already charged on the goods, thus further reducing profit margins.

Pallet end users must pay on average S$75 a ton to dispose of wooden pallets in landfills and this works out to approximately S$1.50 per 18 kgs pallet. If not, they would have to find storage space for them on their premises, thus taking up valuable space and creating an unsightly mess, which posed a fire hazard to building occupants and property.

International Legislation

The U.S Government and European Union have officially announced the implementation of stricter import regulations on wood packaging materials, which would be enforceable in these countries by 2005, with many other countries set to follow suit. All export shipments to these countries would now have to comply strictly with the International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM 15) as set out in the International Plant Protection Convention to eliminate the introduction of foreign pests to the native environment.

Financial Impact on Exporters and Importers

Pallet users will now have to bear the long-term costs of expensive and time-consuming heat-treatments, fumigation or chemical treatments that weaken and shorten the life span of treated wooden pallets. Shippers and Freight Forwarders facing real difficulties in differentiating between treated and non-treated pallets suffer the risks of slow custom clearance, quarantine or worse, denial of entry. As more and more countries begin enforcement of these standards, heat-treated wood will become scarce and more expensive, with some countries charging inspection fees for all wooden pallets.

Why Smart Exporters & Importers are Smiling

Not surprisingly, many savvy pallets users have promptly turned to Forward Pallet corrugated paper pallets as a viable costs saving alternative. Equal in strength to wooden pallets but with none of their disadvantages, they are hugely popular with shippers and forwarders alike as they are exempted from the new import regulations and prohibitive treatment costs levied on their wooden brethrens.

Forward Pallet is in the ideal position to revolutionize the market with our wide range of competitively priced pallets that include our flagship heavy-duty (HD) pallet range which is one of the most advanced in the world, providing the highest payload of up 3,000 kgs / 3 tons (Dynamic) and 5,000 kgs / 5 tons (Static).

Forward Pallet’s pallets are received enthusiastically by industries that are committed to keeping operating costs to a minimum, coupled with a strong desire to protect the environment and enhancing employee safety.