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Proposal: Pallet Wrap Alternative

For WAGAP Bingen Food Bank

H. Peter Fink

Date:

6/21/2022

⁠

From: Peter Fink

To: Janeal Booren;

WAGAP Bingen Food Bank⁠

115 W Steuben Street, Bingen

Proposal:

To purchase a

Pallet Wrapz®⁠

4’ Reusable Pallet Wrap Cover to replace plastic shrink wrap used for the transport of pallets between and within the warehouse and storage of the WAGAP Bingen Food Bank and other WAGAP locations

—Cost: $169.00 per wrap (Not including shipping)

Current Situation:

When transporting tall or potentially unstable pallets using pallet jacks or forklifts, staff and volunteers spend an average of 3-4min wrapping pallets with plastic wrap before transporting the wrapped pallet often less than 200ft to another location within the facility

Once there, volunteers or workers must spend 30sec-1min unwrapping and discarding the plastic film used to secure the pallet.

Sometimes, the plastic wrap is used to secure the load for transport inside vehicles to other locations. Often these are to other WAGAP facilities. Other times they are to external sites and the pallets are not seen again.

Problems:

A 18”x1000' Hand Stretch Film Roll can wrap on average

8-13⁠

pallets and costs around

$19/roll⁠

. This means, each pallet costs on average $1.50-2.00 to wrap with plastic

Plastic film

isn’t fully recyclable⁠

and its production and destruction is

highly toxic⁠

, producing carcinogenic dioxins in the process

“In the US, $3.0B dollars are spent each year on shrink warp with projected growth of 5% annually. This results in 1.0B pounds of petroleum based resin used in manufacturing,

77M pounds of wasted materials⁠

(95% is expected to end up in landfills), 450M kg of CO2.”

Alternatives:

Numerous tried and tested

alternatives to pallet shrink wrap⁠

exist.

Cargo nets were used to secure cargo for centuries before the the invention of plastic.

⁠

P.C. Net™⁠

is a modern alternative to plastic wrap in the style of the cargo net but updated with modern technology.

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This link can't be embedded.⁠

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In a similar vain

PalletPAL Reusable Load Straps⁠

can be used for strapping loads. However, they may be less time efficient and require bending and maneuvering.

⁠

Aero Rubber Pallet Bands⁠

can also be used to help secure loads from horizontal shifting. They aren’t ideal for securing high density loads at inclines however.

⁠

This link can't be embedded.⁠

⁠

“Pallet Wrapz® are an eco-friendly reusable alternative to plastic stretch film made of heavy duty ventilated and breathable mesh or opaque vinyl. These reusable wraps are designed for 2500+ uses which typically averages 3-4 years.”

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This link can't be embedded.⁠

⁠

They come in a 2’ tall, a 4’ tall and a 6’ft tall size with a $169.00 price tag for a 4’tall

Justification:

I recommend purchasing one 4’ Pallet Wrapz® Reusable Pallet Wrap Cover, as a proof of concept with the potential to purchase more for facility use later.

Plastic Saved:

Pallet Wrapz® estimates that “one 4' Pallet Wrapz will save at least 500 lbs of plastic stretch film waste going to American landfills annually.”

Time Saved:

Reusable pallet wraps reduce time needed for wrapping and unwrapping to less than a fourth of conventional plastic wrap

Money Saved:

Using conventional plastic it costs on average

$1.50-$2.00⁠

to wrap a pallet. After a year (~50 weekends) of bringing on average 1.5 pallets up the small incline, the cost of wrapping with plastic is already greater than the cost of a Pallet Wrapz®

Over its lifetime, a Pallet Wrapz® costs 5 cents per pallet: an reduction in price of 30x!

Safety and Comfort Prioritized:

Workers/volunteers are not required to bend their back to wrap pallets

Conventional plastic wrap can be a tripping hazard

Note:

In some circumstances using the Pallet Wrapz may not be wise. For example, when sending a pallet to another facility where its fate is unknown, or when a pallet must sit for long periods of time with the wrap holding it together. For these reasons, WAGAP Bingen Food Bank may wish to retain a few rolls of plastic wrap. However, the goal is to reduce need for plastic overall.

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