With the ‘Plastic Packaging Tax’ due to take effect from 1st April, visitors to IntraLogisteX 2022 will find it very useful paying a visit to Castle Industrial Supplies on Stand 722.
The company supplies an extensive range of packaging products, although its main area of expertise is pallet wrap and pallet load stability – ensuring pallets are wrapped correctly and are safe while in transit – which is achieved using its high-performance ‘Shield Pallet Wrap’.
“Some great brands throughout the UK have been using our services – L’Oréal and Carpetright to name just a couple,” reports Tristan James from Castle’s Marketing and Business Development department.
L’Oréal has seen great benefits from switching from its previous pallet wrap to Castle’s Shield Pallet Wrap. “They reduced their spend on pallet wrap by almost 50% and the plastic saving was equivalent to 13 tonnes a year, while at the same time they have noted the improvement in film quality without any faulty batches,” James says.
For L’Oréal, shrink wrap constituted the majority of its plastic waste. So, when at the beginning of 2020, it was challenged to remove plastic consumables wherever possible – and where it wasn’t possible to try and reduce them – it looked more closely at the 230,000 pallets that were being dispatched from its Trafford Park DC every year.
According to Dave Potts, Order Prep Manager at L’Oréal, he and his team had never really thought about checking wrap thickness, or whether it was using too much or not enough of it. That’s where the full stability analysis from Castle proved a game-changer. Following the results, the cosmetics giant decided upon the 10-micron nano wrap from Castle and straight away that delivered a 33% saving of plastic on the 15-micron equivalent from another supplier. Stretching that plastic a bit further led to the savings in plastic, which is not only good for the environment but with the new Plastic Tax soon coming into force imminently, good for the balance sheets also.
Castle will be demonstrating the Shield Pallet Wrap at IntraLogisteX. This 55-layer pallet wrap helps reduce CO2 emissions, reduce costs, improve pallet load stability, and reduce a company’s overall plastic waste. “We boast some of the most innovative testing equipment available, which can provide a load stability graph for the full height of a pallet, instead of testing just one spot, like most other companies,” states James.
“Our 15-micron pallet wrap contains 30% recycled content,” James continues. “This is the thinnest film that I have come across so far in the UK. The next closest is 17 microns and is only a standard five- to seven-layer film, not a 33-layer nanofilm like ours. We have two new 67-layer nano machines being commissioned in the factory as we speak, so the films will be ready by mid to end of 2022. This will enable our films to be produced thinner while maintaining/increasing strength. We are also developing our ‘Nano Bio’ film with Dow – this film is partially made from woodchips (12% so far) but is still under development.”
At IntraLogisteX, the company will also be unveiling a new hand pallet wrapping dispenser. “It’s a ‘fatigue fighter’,” James highlights, “designed to solve consistency issues” for hand pallet wrapping.
In an industry where high-tech often grabs the headlines, we mustn’t forget the practical solutions where the payback can be substantial. “Some key benefits include faster wrapping, anti-fatigue/injury, wrapping to the bottom of pallets, adjustable tension, easy installation and film changing, and finally no more film snapping.
“We do not just sell stretch film – we offer that full-load stability package that paid such dividends for L’Oréal at no extra cost,” James continues. “This means you have access to our team whenever you need them and they will come to your site and carry out regular testing, ensuring your film and machines performing as they should be, maximising performance.
- Castle Industrial Supplies is exhibiting at IntraLogisteX on Stand 722. To register for the event, which takes place on 29th and 30th March 2022, at the CBS Arena in Coventry, please click here. More information about the UK’s largest annual intralogistics event can be found at www.intralogistex.co.uk
