Each year around seven million people worldwide die prematurely from air pollution. In fact, nine out of 10 people worldwide are exposed to levels of air pollutants that exceed World Health Organisation safe levels. Air pollution doesn't just impact human health and economic growth either, it also causes global warming.
Jim Hardisty, managing director of Goplasticpallets, said: "As the UK's leading independent supplier of plastic pallets and boxes we are committed to continually improving our performance and impact on the environment.
"Earlier this year we pledged to recycle every plastic pallet and box we supply to our customers to help create more sustainable supply chains. In doing so, when recovering customers' plastic pallets and boxes we ensure that all of our transportation trucks are loaded to the maximum possible weight and volume to ensure they are running at their maximum efficiency to limit carbon emissions.
"Wherever possible we also arrange that these trucks are fully loaded in both directions; on the outbound journey to our recycling plant in Belgium and on the return journey to our large warehouse in the UK.
"Today the team here at Goplasticpallets chose to take more sustainable methods of transport to work to help raise awareness of how our daily commuting habits can affect air pollution but equally to raise awareness of the environmental benefits of plastic pallets."
In terms of the environment, using plastic pallets in a closed recycled loop, instead of wooden pallets, reduces the need to cut down trees that take years to grow back and cause major deforestation, which is a big air polluter.
As well as causing a rise in global temperature, deforestation massively affects the air that we breathe. This is because trees take in carbon dioxide and other pollutants which when burnt are released into the atmosphere, resulting in dirtier, more polluted air.
Hardisty concluded: “Now is a crucial time to be preserving our forests to halt the effects of climate change and help beat air pollution.”
