It all sounds a bit too good to be true doesn’t it? A new take on what most would see as packaging’s most maligned material – plastic machine pallet wrap. Huge amounts of it are used across the globe every day and we estimate that the UK alone uses over 150,000 tons of pallet wrap every year. It’s hard to imagine what that kind of volume looks like. And how a product like this could possibly deliver sustainability on any level!
Pallet wrap has been with us one way or another for over 100 years. As with anything, machine pallet wrap has been subject to development and has continued to evolve to where we are today. But where is that actually? Well, we’re at a stage where some of the pallet wrap being used today is a whole lot smarter, delivering real environmental as well as cost benefits. How’s that? Let’s find out!
Firstly, how can machine pallet wrap be eco-friendly?
Its eco-credentials go hand in hand with its cost-saving attributes and it certainly isn’t commonplace for pallet wrap to achieve these kinds of benefits. iWrap is a high-performance intelligent machine pallet wrap and a best in class product. The single-use plastic savings are unparalleled compared to any other pallet wrap on the market today. It’s these plastic savings that have really spoken volumes to brands such as IKEA and ASDA and their commitment to reducing the amount of plastic.
One client we are working with has seen game-changing benefits with 42.13% less plastic going to landfill as well as a reduction of 2,467.2 kgs of cardboard used each year. Just from a simple product change! And these kind of savings are replicated time and time again with the customers we work with.
Who would have thought this huge reduction in environmental impact could be delivered by a machine pallet wrap! With the Plastic Packaging Tax now over 2 years after legislation, it’s important businesses realise and understand the scale of the issue and how this can and will affect them. With the levy as of April 2024 currently at £217.85 per tonne on all plastic packaging, large users still need to reduce to mitigate associated costs.
The answer has to be to use less plastic. It makes sense financially as well as environmentally. There is also the possibility of exemption if a user can get their plastic packaging consumption to under 10 tonnes. We estimate that if you’re wrapping over 400 pallets a day using a 23-micron machine pallet wrap, you’ll be consuming 23 tonnes of waste plastic a year wrapping your pallets.
So how could you bring that plastic usage down by over half to under just 10 tonnes? Using a high performance pallet wrap such as iWrap will deliver this kind of plastic reduction whilst still maintaining the same pallet stability, consistent pallet wrapping and damage-free deliveries to your customers – without having to use huge amounts of excess film. And imagine how delighted your customers will be when receiving pallets from you with that kind of reduction of plastic on your deliveries! You get to deliver a cost-saving to them too!
On average, we see a reduction of 40% or more on the plastic used with iWrap with up to a 50% cut in plastic.
So what cost savings can machine pallet wrap deliver?
We read above an example of the types of savings gained from one of our customers using iWrap. Let’s look a little closer at these figures. Of course, the impressive one is the huge saving on the cost of the film alone at £36,120. That’s a significant amount that any company would be overjoyed to save on their machine pallet wrap spend. The other cost savings are equally important and who wouldn’t appreciate gaining over a week back in time in the warehouse every year?! Imagine the impact of that in a busy warehouse – a 53 week year for the price of 52! Time savings and being able to free up resource is valuable for every business.
On average, we see a reduction of 35%+ on spend and in reality usually a lot more than this
The savings we have looked at here, combined with the ability to bring your machine pallet wrap usage to under 10 tonnes, avoiding the packaging tax are significant and very possible. Also, very large users can reduce their tax liability and end up paying a vastly reduced amount instead.
The easy way to understand the plastic and cost reductions for your own business is to get in touch with us for a plastic audit. It’s completely free and is a no-obligation meeting where we come to see your set-up and demo iWrap on your own pallet wrap machine. You can see for yourself what this high-performance stretch wrap could deliver for your business. We’re always excited to have the opportunity to run these demos, discovering savings for businesses nationwide. Our clients are pretty excited to see the results too!
So if this all sounds valuable to you, and if your company is committed to reducing environmental impact whilst looking at ways to cut costs – why not get in touch with us at [email protected]