Whilst most packaging companies have bent over backwards to make themselves environment-friendly, businesses associated with the timber pallet trade have found that they have one of the most environmentally sustainable products around. TIMCON operates a strict code of practice amongst its 100-plus members, to ensure the highest levels of quality, safety, integrity and reliability when it comes to timber sourcing, production and service standards.
More than 90 per cent of the softwood used in the UK is sourced from the European forest body, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which recognises that its future is firmly linked to the protection and expansion of its forests. These protected forests are professionally managed by the FSC, and its timber harvesting subcontractors, and more trees are planted annually than harvested, with forests expanding by an area the size of Cyprus every year.
The timber pallet industry is big business, and a total of two million cubic metres of the 11 million m3 of timber produced in Britain a year is used to make timber pallets.
Kirkcudbrightshire-based Howie Forest Products has seen an increase in demand for home-grown timber amongst fresh produce distributors. The timber producer was one of the first UK sawmills to achieve accreditation from the FSC, and sources a good deal of material from the local Dalbeattie Forest, which is protected by the FSC. “Timber has to be better than aluminium or plastic, especially for timber pallets,” says Neil Cowen, round tree buyer at Howie, who decides which trees come into the company’s sawmill from forests like the one in Dalbeattie. “Timber is a carbon-neutral product. The trees being harvested at the moment [in Dalbeattie Forest] will have been there for 30 years, but as soon as they are harvested more will be planted in their place - and so the cycle continues. About 20 per cent of our wood goes to timber pallet manufacturers, and this would be a hard business without the timber pallet industry.”
Producing in the region of 140,000m3 of timber product a year, Howie has always been an energy-efficient business, but last year the company took its credentials a step further by opening a new, purpose-built sawmill on its site. Previously, when a load of logs arrived at Howie’s sawmill, each log would be measured by hand to determine how many planks of what size could be produced. This would then be calculated with the amount of logs in the load, to give an estimate of how much end product the load would produce.
Now, with state-of-the-art machinery, a computer system can accurately predict how many planks will materialise from the logs and what size they will be. “This has saved a lot of time and money,” says Keith Ainslie, sales director at Howie. “The 3D scanner builds a three-dimensional view of the total log, so we know how much will be used. This is very useful, as if the log is not the specification agreed, we can reject it right there and then before it is physically cut. Also, with curve-sawing technology, logs are now cut following the grain of wood, which means it will straighten when it is dried in the kiln. Before we had this technology we used to lose more than 15 per cent of the logs brought in, because they were curved.”
Howie’s production site is, now more than ever, focused on being environmentally stable, from its timber production to its boiler powered by the company’s left-over wood co-product. “A total of 55 per cent of what goes into the sawmill will become planks to go out to construction companies and the like, then the side panels of the log are used in the timber pallet industry, as well as wood chippings,” says Ainslie. “Anything left over is used to fuel the boiler on site, which in turn fuels the kilns, which dry and heat treat the timber to ISPM15 standards. Very occasionally we buy in wood to heat the kilns, which is usually about this time of year because the air is so damp, but this year we haven’t. We are practically self-sufficient.”
The timber pallet wood is then sold onto pallet manufacturers and pooling companies, who rent out the pallets to fresh produce distributors, amongst others. One such company is Unit Pallets Ltd in Warrington. A TIMCON member and provider of timber pallet to pooling companies like CHEP and IPP Logipal, the company prides itself on offering yet more environmental credentials to the process. “TIMCON has a very important story to tell about how sustainable the industry is and how it can make a difference to a company’s environmental reputation,” says Gil Covey, managing director of Unit Pallets and former president of TIMCON. “We are shouting out about the contribution we are making environmentally, and the issues which are important to those customers who want to be environment-friendly. At the end of the day, we are producing a product of which every part of it can be repaired, recycled and re-used.”
At the company’s open site, 1,400 timber pallets are made a day, and more are repaired. As well as being concerned about the environment, the company is very much involved with the issue of health and safety. Covey is concerned that timber pallet buyers may be tempted to cut back on pallet specifications, and warns that packaging companies could cause accidents by making this decision. “TIMCON’s code of practice is in everyone’s interest, and buyers have to be responsible,” he says. “Companies are looking for cost savings all the time, and pallets are an easy target.”
TIMCON and its members, like Unit Pallets, are pushing forward the importance of ISPM15 - the internationally agreed standard for the treatment of all kinds of solid wood packaging - which ensures the eradication of pests such as the pine wood nematode and the Asian longhorn beetle, originally found in China, that can potentially destroy forests. Described as the passport for packaging, the ISPM15 standard provides traceability, and its worldwide acceptance was given a major boost by China signing up to the standard in 2006. “ISPM15 scientists are continually looking into treatments that will deliver the most effective and environment-friendly extermination of the pests, and hopefully by 2009, procedures will be advanced even further,” says Covey. “We have a responsibility to protect this sustainable and environment-friendly resource for future generations.”
TIMCON WATCHING ITS FOOTPRINT
TIMCON has launched its own carbon calculator software to demonstrate to the timber pallet industry, and its customers, how little carbon is used in timber pallet production.
The calculator has been launched in conjunction with the Swedish Forest Industries Federation (SKOGS) and Wood For Good, a generic wood campaign which aims to achieve substantial change in attitudes to wood, leading to an increase in consumption in the UK.
Available to members only, the software has been formulated independently by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management. The calculator is designed to accurately compute the carbon intensities of timber pallets. The programme requires the user to input the type and quantity of material used in manufacturing the pallet, the country of manufacture and the distance transported to the customer. The results section then provides a breakdown of greenhouse gases associated with the specified pallet.
FRESH PRODUCE INDUSTRY VOTES FOR TIMBER
Timber pallets are almost unique in the way that they come from a sustainable and renewable resource, and are a perfect way for a distribution company to demonstrate its environment-friendly credentials, says Phil Storer, managing director of IPP Logipal (UK).
In the UK, we will rent out approximately 250,000 timber pallets to growers, manufacturers and producers, which will then be used to distribute products to the retail supply chain - and the fresh produce sector is a huge part of that business.
IPP Logipal is the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) pooling business of the international Faber Halbertsma Group, which is Europe’s largest manufacturer of timber pallets, as well as a pallet pooling business. The group manufactures a total of 18 million timber pallets, and clocks up more than 35m pallet trips a year.
The rental of timber pallets [known as pooling] means that the pallets can be used again and again. I am finding that environmental issues are increasingly becoming part of our customers’ agendas, because it is important to their customers and it is, of course, the responsible thing to do.
We mainly source timber from accredited sources, and in the places we source timber from overseas, we try to introduce similar schemes to guarantee sustainability.
Another issue that is increasing in importance is carbon footprint and we are addressing this within the company. If you cannot measure your carbon footprint, you cannot reduce it, so the first stage of our plan is to assess the impact of our operation on the environment. Our logistics system is quite good anyway and makes effective use of existing transport on British roads, but as we have a fairly complex supply chain, the process may take a little time.
We work with all different sizes of companies, like Asda’s supply partner International Produce and independent growers such as HE Hall, but they all have similar demands. First on the customer’s list is availability - they need to know they will have enough pallets to ship their orders to customers; second, our customers need to be able to rely on the system; and the third priority is value-driven - what the industry wants and needs is a cost-effective, no hassle solution.
At IPP Logipal, our aim is to take the management of pallets away from the customers. Growers should not be pallet managers; that is a service they should get from us. I always say: pallets should be seen and not heard. The customer should not have to deal with any problems with their timber pallets. Our customers ship their product to their customer and then we liaise with those customers to get the pallets back to repair, if needed.
I do not agree with people who say that wood is good for everything, but neither do I agree with the use of plastic pallets. But the timber pallet system has been proven to be the most environment-friendly and low-cost solution for the retail market. Other types of pallets may have appropriate uses in other areas, but timber pallets are the most appropriate in today’s industry, and we see that continuing.
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