Reuse and recycling of loading pallets
Organisation or Company
Type of organisation or company
Country
Finland
City
Järvenpää
Language for original content
Key Area
Sector
Submitted by
Lassila & Tikanoja Oyj
Ongoing
Yes
Type of funding
Lassila & Tikanoja
Description
Every year, two million renovated pallets do another tour in serving the industry.
Wooden pallets can be reused again and again, and eventually a worn-out pallet will be utilised as energy for heating. Pallets are collected at the central warehouses of stores and the industry and finally transported to a production unit that locates in Järvenpää. A robotic machine line of the plant assists in sorting functions by carrying out the heavy work. After sorting, reparable pallets are repaired and stored, while the pallets that cannot be repaired are recycled as chippings and used as solid recovered fuel for energy production. A customer can choose from some 50 different pallet types, the most common being the EUR pallet and the FIN pallet.
Main activity field
Main results
- In past decades, the material efficiency of the processing and reparation of pallets has improved;
- A constantly growing number of pallets can be recycled;
- Pallets that before would have been taken to landfills or burned as chips for heating now get a much longer lifecycle, as they are reused five to ten times;
- One cubic metre of wood is required in order to manufacture 22 new EUR loading pallets; however, one cubic metre of wood can be used to repair 150 recycled EUR loading pallets.