When environmental pressures mounted on newspapers a few years back, the industry, including vendors, responded accordingly.
Environmentally friendly inks, washes and solutions, more efficient equipment, and recycled newsprint were some of the ways the earthly issues were addressed.
Still there is one area newspapers -- and other commercial industries -- can continue to improve upon: pallets. While the move to plastic or modular cart and bulk loading systems has grown recently, the industry still relies heavily on wooden pallets to transport product. It's a dependency that has proven costly environmentally.
The pallet market in the United States is extremely lucrative, taking in roughly $7 billion per year ($30 billion worldwide). To feed that consumption level, though, nearly 40 percent of all hardwood lumber goes towards wooden pallet production. That makes the pallet industry the second largest consumer of lumber, behind only the construction industry.
The massive resources it takes to produce that type of volume is just part of the problem. Most important is what happens when the pallets are no longer usable.
In the United States, an estimated 150 million wooden pallets, weighing 4 million tons, are put into landfills each year. Aside from the sheer bulk, the pallets also take decades to decompose. Because of those factors, according to the Wall Street Journal, an estimated one third of U.S. landfills no longer accepts pallets.
A three-year-old Canadian company, Dura Skids Inc., a subsidiary of Dura Products International Inc. Co., recognized the difficult situation. To counter the environmental dilemma wooden pallets pose, Dura Skid introduced a different type of skid, Duraskids.
Duraskids are made from about half industrial cellulose waste and half recycled high-density plastic, as well as a special binding agent, to produce a sturdy, environmentally safe alternative pallet.
"There is a tremendous opportunity in many industries, in many applications for a recycled material that can be very cost effective, with great mechanical properties, to replace wood products, given all the situations surrounding wood," said Craig Prentice, president of Dura Skid. "When you're working with recycled materials, it adds a couple levels of complexity that have to be managed, but we've been able to do that successfully."
Unlike wood pallets, which vary in size and weight, can be damaged easily, have a relatively short production life and sometimes pose safety concerns, Duraskids are uniformly designed for the figurative long haul to offer lower cost per use.
The recycled content used to produce Duraskids is loaded into an extrusion machine. There it is heated and forced through a die process. The process creates a composite material from which the pallets are made. Profiles of the material are cut into the required lengths and then bolted together to form the platform.
Each pallet measures 48 inches (long)-by-40 inches (wide)-by-5.87 inches (high) and weighs 55 pounds. Unlike wood pallets, Duraskids are rackable to 5,000 pounds and can handle a static load of 12,000 pounds.
Also, the pallet will not absorb water and is easy to clean. In addition, its design allows for four-way entry by forklifts. They also are available in various colors with custom logos.
Because of their composition and design, Duraskids cost more than wood pallets, but not quite as much as plastic versions. Quality hardwood pallets cost around $20, while good plastic ones near $50. Duraskids are $22.50. The company has nearly 15,000 in circulation currently.
"Pallet users are becoming more sophisticated in terms of their knowledge of what their costs are related to distribution," Prentice said. "When you can start to introduce the idea of cost-per-use, it starts to make sense.
"We realize most of the decisions will be financially driven, but we have a lot of residual benefits that are very attractive," he added. "There aren't many companies who would buy it because they are doing something good for the environment, but the fact that we are is certainly a high-ground position we can go in on.
"Plus, pallet disposal is a big cost for a lot of companies. They just don't have anywhere to put them."
Additionally, if a Duraskids pallet should be worn or damaged, Dura Skid offers a recycling credit program. Any returned pallet is worth 15 percent off the purchase of a new pallet. Duraskids are 100 percent recyclable.
At this point, Dura Skid can't meet the burgeoning demand for Duraskids, as it is selling all 600 pallets it makes per day, mostly to the industrial market.
To address that, it is expanding capacity at its Canadian plant and also will be opening a new 133,000 square-foot facility just outside of Boston later this summer. When it becomes operational, the plant is expected to produce more than 1 million Duraskids per year. Additional plants are planned throughout the United States.
"We think having a national infrastructure is important for having national customer service," Prentice said. "I doesn't make sense to ship empty pallets more than a few hundred miles."
For more information call Dura Skid at 416-679-0556 or visit the company's Web site at http:// www.duraproducts.com.