Choosing the right pallet wrap can be a way for businesses to streamline operations and pare down costs. But many companies still rely on outmoded plastic stretch wrap that’s less efficient, potentially unsafe, and bad for the planet as well.
Here’s an introduction to plastic pallet wrap alternatives, including:
With new pallet wrap choices on the market today, there’s no reason to resort to plastic wrap anymore. If performance is a key metric in choosing pallet wrap for your business, sustainable wrap will check many boxes for you.
Pallet wrapping groups items together for greater stability in loading, storage, and transport. Whether you have “A profile” loads that are entirely uniform or “C profile” stacks that are irregular, pallet wrapping keeps goods contained on their base, preventing them from toppling over.
Many industries use pallet wrap in their daily operation, including:
This in turn reduces damage to merchandise, and it significantly lowers the risk of injury to workers, either at your business or at the receiving end of shipments. Forklift and pallet injuries result in costly worker downtime, insurance claims, and fines for businesses every year across the United States. There are even instances of employee fatalities related to shifting items under pallet wrap.
Proper pallet wrapping not only safeguards goods and workers, it improves efficiency. But companies need to choose the right pallet wrap. Using poor quality wrap contributes to reduced load stability and slower movement of merchandise. Increasing the amount of pallet wrap may not always remedy this, and it is at best wasteful and an avoidable expense.
Another reason to practice correct pallet wrapping is to prevent theft or tampering with merchandise. Improperly wrapped pallets are a particular liability for businesses selling food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and expensive items.
Because secure and efficient pallet wrapping is so important to businesses of all types, companies are seeking the best pallet wrap available, including pallet wrap alternatives to plastic. As you’ll read below, plastic pallet wrap has devastating consequences for our earth. But it also has a serious practical downside to consider: it’s simply less effective than high-quality sustainable pallet wrap made from kraft paper.
Load stability goes hand in hand with protecting both merchandise and workers. But many companies compromise that stability by using plastic pallet wrap, mostly because it’s a less expensive option. And for some businesses, it’s just a habit, having used plastic stretch wrap for decades when nothing better was available.
However, now, you can use kraft paper pallet wrap to get superior load stability. Its slit-paper design leverages the power of honeycomb structure for the ideal combination of stretch and strength. In fact, the right paper pallet wrap can handle palletized loads of up to 5,400 pounds while getting a 30% increase in stability.
Because improved load stability brings more all-around safety, workers can operate at their optimum speed. This reduces labor costs and helps you meet deadlines.
Using sustainable paper pallet wrap lowers other kinds of waste beyond time waste. If you have to use excessive amounts of plastic wrap just to get the bare minimum load stability you want, you need to account for its storage and disposal. That requires space you might better allocate to other priorities. You can learn more about disposal issues related to single use waste versus recyclable products below.
Sometimes businesses resort to using excess pallet wrap because the brand they buy only comes in one size, which doesn’t really meet their needs. It’s good to know that some sustainable paper pallet wrap is customizable and can be purchased in three different widths, letting you wrap 30 to 90 pallets per hour—without using tons of extra wrap.
Businesses that use pallets are larger so savings per pallet add up fast. Working faster, reducing waste, and improving load stability will save your company a serious amount of money over time. This helps businesses increase their profitability through lowering expenses.
Selecting sustainable packaging like paper pallet wrap is vastly more environmentally friendly than using plastic stretch wrap. Why?
Plastic wrap that ends up in landfills takes anywhere from a few decades to a few centuries to decompose. Meanwhile, it adds unwanted chemicals to the earth, and it often breaks down into microplastics. Microplastics are everywhere now, even present in rain and snow. They harm animal life, including our food sources, and they are linked to multiple disease states in humans, some potentially fatal, like cardiovascular disease.
It might sound like a nice extra to choose eco-friendly pallet wrap, but the decision to use sustainable packaging is rapidly becoming a financial asset. If you do business with clients who are committed to sustainability for their brand or their customers’ demands, it will give you a leg up against the competition.
Additionally, regulations against single-use plastic packaging are on the rise. Soon, many US states as well as European Union nations will require sustainable packaging. Companies that are still using old-fashioned plastic stretch wrap will be behind the curve.
Want to test for yourself how much better sustainable paper pallet wrap is compared to traditional plastic stretch wrap? Send HexcelPack your merchandise, and we’ll re-wrap it using our extraordinary HexcelStretch™ pallet wrap and send it back.
HexcelStretch™ is part of our suite of sustainable packaging products that includes void fill, product wrap, and wood-free crating. Our team is happy to tailor paper packing material and dispensing solutions to your unique business needs. Questions? Reach out to our team today.