Swedish-based furniture company Ikea is planning to replace its wooden and metallic pallets in Nordic countries with cardboard pallets, which do not require transporting back to Sweden. When the company’s return hauls to Sweden decrease, so does also its carbon footprint, says Juha Taskinen, Logistics Manager of Ikea Finland.
Pallets can be changed in 1–2 years. Material of cardboard pallets is tested to be manufactured durable enough to stand more than one use.
The pallets are developed in Finland and they are going to be tested in Ikea’s stores and storages in the rest of the Europé as well, in order to test them in larger volumes. Until 2017, costs of return hauls in Finland decreased the carbon footprint by close to 30 percent. The decrease equals to 150 truck loads.
According to Taskinen, this results in savings of EUR 100,000–200,000 annually. Cardboard pallets require also less space than wooden and metallic ones. Because of this, occupancy of trucks can be increased by 15 percent.
However, cardboard pallet stands only 500 kilos’ weight, while wooden pallet carries 750 kilos. In turn, cardboard pallet itself weighs less than one tenth of a wooden pallet, which means that the load of the truck lightens 1,500–2,000 kilos. Cardboard pallet is also fully recyclable.