The future belongs to sustainable plastic pallets
By bayshoreOctober 2, 2012December 30th, 2020Food & Beverage, General, Industry News, Member News, Pallets, Products, RPA News, Services, Supply Chain Management, Trade Shows & Pavilion Programs
Sustainability is playing an increasingly important role in logistics: not only in view of the increasing number of laws and regulations, but also because of a growing awareness in companies. In addition, rapidly rising energy and commodity prices have become an important factor. This is why Cabka has developed pallet solutions which take account of all the facets of sustainability: ecology, economy and social responsibility. Our pallets are light and at the same time robust, durable, hygienic and tough – even our export pallets take numerous trips in their stride. Because empty nestable pallets take up much less space. It is possible to transport and store up to five times as many of them. This enables savings on energy, transport and storage costs, and it also induces huge reductions in companies' ecological footprints, at the end our pallets are the sustainable alternative to wooden pallets.
Cabka manufactures most of its pallets from recycled plastic. This means that old plastics no longer need to be incinerated as waste and are consequently much more environmentally friendly. What is more, Cabka products can also be recycled several times without losing any of their technical and functional properties. Which all goes to show there's more than just one life in Cabka pallets and boxes. As a rule, wooden pallets must be removed from circulation after only a few trips," explains St. Louis based Cabka sales manager Nate Franck. "A plastic pallet can go back and forth many more times."
Multifunctional uses
Plastic has many other positive properties: It is an incredibly flexible material. Suppliers which have an innovative and creative tooling capability, as Cabka does, can produce optimum pallet solutions for practically every conceivable application. While plastic pallets were originally favoured in environments which need to meet especially high standards of hygiene, such as in the chemicals, pharmaceuticals or food industries, they are now used in many other fields as well. More and more automobile components suppliers or mechanical engineering firms, for example, are glad to avoid the dirt and damage which wooden pallets can cause to their precision parts – more and more logistics service providers are making use of the environmentally friendly multi-use pallets supplied by pooling providers.
A tough lightweight
In relation to their enormous load-carrying capacity plastic pallets are extremely light. Lightweight construction depends critically on the optimum distribution of the plastic in the pallet's supporting structure. Regardless of whether it is made of new or recycled material. Cabka is one of the first suppliers to recognise the demand of logistics companies for lighter, easier-to-use, economical and environmentally friendly transport solutions and to respond with systems which offer food retailers, for example, significant added value. Most companies in this industry seek to use Cabka's light, nestable and hygienic plastic pallets for commissioning.
Nestable and extremely space saving
The weight-reduced design of plastic pallets not only eliminates the backbreaking work of lifting and carrying for staff in logistics centres or shops. A truck load of plastic pallets also weighs at least 1,000 pounds less than a comparable load of wooden pallets, and consequently cuts down on the amount of CO2 emitted.
Cabka plastic pallets are cost-efficient solutions and at the same time pave the way for sustainable and greener logistics.
This year at PACKEXPO Cabka is introducing several new pallets that will optimize the pallet logistics, including our new CPP 100 which in addition to freight savings offers a competitive price-point to wood.
We are also offering the nestable, light-weight pallet for conveyor technique: The CPP 130. 12 oversized feet ensure a smooth run on roller or chain conveyors, but still allow space savings when the empty pallets are nested. A considerable cost advantage on return transport.
About Cabka
Cabka manufactures plastic pallets and boxes in St. Louis, MO (USA) and Toronto, ON (Canada) and Weira (Germany). The company employs around 300 people in Europe and North America. Cabka products are in use in more than 40 countries.