One year ago a member of our team, Dai Evans, decided to do something about the enormous amount of pallet wrap (heavy duty cling film) that was being scrapped each day. Pallet wrap is a vital part of our product transportation, it keeps all our boxes firmly in place on their long and sometime rocky journeys around the globe – we deliver to 77 countries throughout the world.
While the importance of pallet wrap is clear, Dai was determined to do something to offset the amount of waste created – pallet wrap can only be used once and cannot be recycled, so it’s straight off to the landfill with tons of waste plastic each year.
Dai’s solution was a simple but ingenious one, and it has not only enormously reduced the amount of plastic we send to landfill, it’s also saved us money along the way!
While the pallet wrap was keeping the boxes secure from the outside, we used to use huge amounts of bubble wrap (yet more plastic…!) to fill gaps inside pallets, making sure boxes and products don’t bounce around in transit.
We now use the discarded pallet wrap in place of this bubble wrap.
It does the same job – stopping products and boxes from bouncing around and getting damaged while being transported, and we no longer need to buy bubble wrap. As I said – it’s such a simple solution, but it took one of our team members, working smart and thinking creatively, to come up with it.
So, here are the results for YEAR ONE of Dai’s pallet wrap project;
127 cubic metres of pallet wrap saved!
That’s equal to;
- 4,485 cubic feet
- 10.47 skips
- about four and a half school buses!
Not only that, but we DIDN’T buy (and therefore also commit to landfill) 185 rolls of bubble wrap (saving the business £4,159).
Amazing job Dai, and a wonderful first announcement for our brand new Eco Committee. We’ll report back on this project in another 12 months.
