The National Association of Pallet Distributors (NAPD) says the European Packaging Waste Regulations have failed in the UK.
The regulations were intended to increase the repair and reuse of wood pallets and decrease the production of one-trip pallets, thus reducing the amount of material going for landfill. A Europe-wide pallet repair standard EN 18613 was produced to facilitate this.
But Paul Tait, secretary of the NAPD, said: “Because of poor interpretation of the European Directive by the UK government there are now more one-trip throw-away pallets being made than ever before. We feel that DEFRA should be pressing for an EU-wide interpretation of the Directive that really does encourage reduction of packaging waste.”
He said his claim was backed by a recent NAPD members survey which showed that between 1990 and 2000 an average annual increase of 16% of pallets were reused or repaired.
As the Packaging Waste Regulations began to bite between 2000 and 2002 an average annual decrease of 17% wood pallets were reused or repaired.
This, he said, was a result of increased use of weaker one-trip pallets which had to be chipped as they were hardly worth repairing.
