Reports that several blue chip companies, including IKEA are to replace wooden pallets with a plastic product clearly sounds a warning to the timber industry.
No doubt many of these companies will pride themselves on their environmental credentials and espouse their corporate social responsibility but, at a time when there is increasing international recognition of the many valuable benefits provided by wood and wood products, not to mention sustainably managed forests, it seems utterly perverse that forward-looking companies should choose plastic instead of wood pallets.
The simple fact that plastic is produced from oil – a finite source – should surely make someone within these organisations query such a decision.
We would wholeheartedly endorse the comments from TIMCON president John Dye; the timber pallet and packaging market is a vital one for many UK timber sawmillers and every effort must be made to protect and, if possible, expand the market for all wood products, not just pallets and packaging.
Those of us involved in forestry and timber know the unique benefits of wood and wood products and the good story that our products have to tell. The principal problem is that not enough people outside of the timber industry appreciate the story. And that, arguably, is the challenge for the wood sector: we need to shout it from the rooftops!
This inevitably brings us back to the old chestnut of timber promotion, if indeed this is the answer. Over the years our trade has raised large sums of money in the name of promotion, but has that money been spent to good effect?
Things simply have to change if we are to avoid materials with poor environmental credentials usurping timber’s rightful place in the market.
Tony Mitchell
President
UK?Forest Products Association
