The Nederlandse Emballage- en Palletindustrie Vereniging (EPV) continues to maintain, even after the second opinion into the environmental impact of plastic and wooden pallets, that the wooden pallet is less burdensome than a plastic pallet.
To dispel incorrect reports about the two materials, the EPV carried out a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the environmental impact of the wooden pallet compared to the plastic variant in 2014. That study, conducted by research firm NIBE, found that the wooden pallet can have up to 25 per cent less environmental impact than a plastic pallet. The EPV has since widely propagated these results.
Second opinion
Producers of plastic pallets reacted indignantly to this conclusion. Especially since they were not given the floor in the report to highlight their side. A second opinion, conducted by CE Delft, was the result. The second study showed that the 25 per cent percentage, which EPV had previously arrived at, only applies to the pallet with pressed bobbin, while it was assumed that this applies to all wooden pallets. For other wooden pallets, the environmental impact would be 15 to 25 per cent lower than the best plastic pallet. The environmental benefit would be overestimated by a factor of 1.7 for a large proportion of pallets.
Criticisms of second opinion substantively refuted
EPV now reveals that after this second opinion, it sees no reason to question the results from the first report. The research institutes NIBE and IVAM (peer review) are said to have refuted the content of the criticisms of the second opinion.
EPV also refutes the criticism that manufacturers of plastic pallets did not have a say. "In the context of research reliability, we asked the plastic packaging industry for information and cooperation in the creation of this study. Trade association NRK Packaging (NRK) was also approached but NRK (and hence its members) did not provide sufficient cooperation," EPV states. "With the LCA, the power of wood has been confirmed in an objective and scientifically substantiated way. Wood is the most responsible and environmentally friendly raw material for packaging there is. It is strong, durable, eternally renewable and reusable many times over."
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