An extensive survey of the used pallet supply market has revealed that 7.5 million pallets were lost to landfill and premature chipping in the past three years.
The National Association of Pallet Distributors (NAPD) said its survey made “grim reading” and revealed a critical shortage of used pallets in the UK.
It said Britain’s poor interpretation of EU moves to reduce packaging waste was resulting in sending pallets to energy-efficient uses long before the end of their useful lives.
The NAPD wants the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to explain why production of one-use pallets was soaring. It believes DEFRA should study overseas solutions, where pallet hire pools, exchange, reuse and repair are proving successful, instead of spending large sums of money trying to establish precise statistics in the various packaging waste sectors.
