EUROPE – US-based material science and manufacturing company Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials is set to use Tosca’s plastic pallets to distribute its materials, aiming to reduce CO2 emissions across its European supply chain.
Avery Dennison LPM claims that the switch will save over 800 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions from its European supply chain annually.
The firm explains that plastic pallets are more durable than their wooden counterparts, as they can be reused more often and are less prone to breakages which can help reduce the risk of damage and waste in the supply chain.
Tosca estimates that its plastic pallets can be used over 100 times and will be recycled at their end-of-life.
Eric Frank, CEO at Tosca said: “This is an exciting development for Tosca in the non-food industry and one we are confident will be a huge success.
“We look forward to collaborating with Avery Dennison and their partner network in the years ahead and seeing how much CO2 emission reductions can be achieved together.”
Set to take effect across factories and distribution centers in the EU, UK, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey, the collaboration is expected to benefit Tosca’s pooling program, in which clean, empty pallets are delivered to the company’s sites from service centers across Europe at the end of the year.
Tosca is said to inspect and wash the pallets after every rotation, and participating companies receive a CO2 reduction certificate.
The program has been the subject of an almost year-long trial at Avery Dennison’s distribution center in Dublin.
Violeta Gómez, central packaging leader at Avery Dennison, said: “The pooling program has been a success in Ireland and is helping us to reduce our carbon footprint and eliminate waste within the supply chain.
“Customers appreciate that plastic pallets offer standard quality: they are cleaner (dust-free) and have less risk of damaging their products.”
According to Tosca, reusable plastic packaging and reusable plastic pallets also offer other advantages in areas that can directly impact environmental sustainability, for example, loading efficiency and weight.
Reusable plastic pallets are robust by design and uniform in size, shape, and weight thus can be stacked and loaded more efficiently, making better use of the storage and transport space.
This results in fuller truckloads, reducing the number of trips needed, and saving fuel and CO2 emissions.
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