CONSTRUCTION, housebuilding, and builders’ merchants across Scotland can claim a share of more than £1.5 million by returning bright green LOOP pallets for reuse.
That’s according to new figures released by The Pallet LOOP – the circular economy pallet reuse scheme for the construction sector that is part of BSW Group.
In its first six months, The Pallet LOOP has issued more than 450,000 of its green, reusable pallets to British Gypsum to transport its bagged plaster and plasterboard products. With a financial incentive of up to £4 available on each of these pallets when companies return them to The Pallet LOOP, there is now a huge pot of money available for businesses throughout the building materials supply chain that sign up for LOOP collections.
A growing number of companies are reaping the benefits of using The Pallet LOOP’s collection service and network – which includes pallet repatriation hubs near Aberdeen and Burntisland managed by Scott Pallets.
To date, The Pallet LOOP has paid out around £150,000 to users of the scheme including builders’ merchants, principal contractors and housebuilding companies. In October, the number of green pallets The Pallet LOOP collected was around 30% of the number it issued. This figure exceeds previous benchmarks for standard pallet return rates in the construction sector.
So far, The Pallet LOOP estimates it has saved companies returning pallets up to £800,000 on skip costs.
Paul Lewis, founder of The Pallet LOOP, said, “Getting a financial reward for returning pallets, and saving on waste costs is good news for merchants, principal contractors and housebuilding companies up and down the country as they face fresh operational headwinds and get to grips with changes coming into force as part of the recent budget. From the start, our model was designed to be financially equitable for everyone in the building materials supply chain, as well as better for the environment.
“What we’ve achieved in the first six months shows our vision is now a reality. Companies returning green LOOP pallets are getting a real boost to their bottom line. They can also access sustainability data relating to the number of pallets they have returned via our Power Bi platform. We are delighted with the progress made to date. But this is just the start – with more LOOP pallets set to hit the sector in the year ahead.
“From December, Isover will start moving its insulation materials on our circular economy pallets. We’re also in advanced discussions with other building material manufacturers that want to follow Saint Gobain’s sustainable leadership and switch to using LOOP.”
Further information about The Pallet LOOP is available at: www.thepalletloop.com
