Recycling pallets is one way to incorporate sustainable practices into your business. This practice is beneficial to the environment as it helps prevent various damage resulting from unsustainable waste practices. Another way to use your old pallets to help the environment is upcycling pallets. This practice reuses the timber from old pallets to create products that exceed the value of the original pallet.
Here are just a few ways recycling pallets helps the environment.
Benefits of recycling pallets
Reduces the need to create more plastic
Plastic is toxic to the environment in all stages of its life. Creating plastic requires a lot of energy, sourced from non-renewable fuels and leading to a production of greenhouse gases. The highly durable nature of plastic also entails that it stays in our environment long after it has been discarded. Plastic is especially dangerous to the natural environment when it has been discarded irresponsibly resulting in it floating in our oceans and harming species that call it their home.
Recycling plastic pallets is a step forward in reducing our need to create more plastic. As the pallets stay within the market, there is less of a need to build new plastic pallets to meet the needs of business owners.
Reduces the need to fell trees
In the same way recycling plastic pallets reduces the need to create more plastic, recycling timber pallets reduces the need to fell trees. The increased pace of cutting down trees is seeing a large number of forests being cleared out causing permanent damage to the land these forests sit upon. In addition to wild animals losing their habitat, cutting down trees sees an increase of carbon dioxide released into the air, trapping heat back into the atmosphere. Eventually this trapped heat increases the average temperatures of the earth – an issue that requires immediate attention and a conscious effort to fix.
By recycling your timber pallets your business will be able to do its part in reusing the timber currently in the market. As the scale of your recycling increases, so will the impact on preserving forests to keep the earth cool.
Reduces rubbish going out from businesses
As timber and plastic pallets classify as construction waste, there is less chance that it will break down like organic waste and create methane which traps heat in the atmosphere. Regardless, sending timber pallets to landfill still has negative consequences on the environment. One of these consequences is the increased strain on our waste management system. As there are other sustainable ways to take care of pallets once their life is over, disposing them as regular waste takes up unnecessary space in landfills. The more landfills there are reaching capacity, the more space we will need to need to allocate for landfills resulting in a loss of animal habitats from clearing land.
By recycling your pallets, timber and plastic, you will be reducing the waste sent out to landfill and lowering the strain on our waste management system.
Promotes Sustainability
By recycling pallets, your business is taking that first step to promoting sustainability in your business. These efforts will soon branch out to taking sustainable measures in other business areas which increase your business’ constructive impact on the environment. Eventually, your team will create a culture which puts sustainability and the environment at the forefront of business decisions. In addition to the positive change your business’ sustainable culture will make on the environment, it will also encourage other businesses to follow suit. This multiplied effect of several businesses valuing the environment in their business practices will make a significant impact on the surrounding environment to protect it for future generations to come.
Looking to recycle your pallets? We can help! Export Pallets is passionate about sustainability and incorporating practices that reduce our impact on the natural environment. We recycle timber and plastic pallets for local businesses and step you through the whole process. Contact us to start recycling your pallets!