Abstract:

The article examines the environmental impacts related to eco-innovative plastic pallets in reference to conventional plastic pallets through cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). The product eco-innovations involve replacement of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) that the plastic pallets are made of by post-consumer polyethylene (r-PE) (in 30% and 50%), whereas the business process eco-innovations (related to production process) involve replacing fossil energy with renewable energy (in 50%).

The study illustrates that both product eco-innovative and production process eco-innovative plastic pallets offer considerable environmental benefits compared to conventional ones. Ad exemplum, if plastic pallets are made of post-consumer polyethylene (r-PE), their environmental impacts can be lowered within the range of: 1.86% (human toxicity) – 43.18% (fossil depletion). If renewable energy is included in the manufacturing process, the environmental savings are from 6.87% in the category of fossil depletion up to 90.69% in the category of freshwater eutrophication.

The research proves that, firstly, there is still some room for improvement of the plastic pallet portfolio and, secondly, the eco-innovative plastic pallets can support the development of a European market for recycled plastics and renewable energy. Taking into consideration the aforementioned arguments, in the near future, the eco-innovative plastic pallets can constitute an interesting, relatively sustainable complement to the commonly used wooden pallets.