The Q+ display quarter pallet has been created to help European retail sector reduce waste from single-use tertiary packaging – specifically one-way display pallets used for promotions.
In the recent years, both retailers and manufacturers have put increased sustainability high on their agendas, but packaging waste is still a major issue.
CHEP is one of the largest circular economy businesses in the world and introduced the concept of pooling pallets into the supply chain. High quality pallets are continuously shared and reused, coordinated by CHEP, delivering supply chain efficiencies and significant savings in CO2 and waste reduction.
When first launched in 1992 the quarter display pallet was made with 100% virgin plastic. Over time with the product redesign and new features, the company has sought to reduce the use of virgin plastic up to 50%, with the other 50% being recycled polypropylene (PP). With an ambition to make 30% of its portfolio from post-consumer plastic by 2025, CHEP redesigned the Q+ to fit with this commitment. Aiming to make supply chains not just sustainable, but regenerative: putting more back into the planet than they take out, the plastic product Q+ needed to reflect this vision.
Throughout 2021, the product innovation team used collaboration and circular design principles to redesign the core product, Q+ static, so that it could recover and reuse more plastic from the post-consumer world – without compromising on durability, quality and safety. After more than 100 simulations, tests and iterations, a final structural design and material mix were confirmed. The product now uses no virgin plastic at all – just 100% post-consumer polypropylene waste. And at least 70% comes from upcycled material from certified residential and commercial recycled sources. With this CHEP will recover around 5,000 tons of waste plastics per year from the environment (enough to fill 2 Olympic pools) and use that to a produce a display pallet that can be reused up to 10 years through its circular model. The Q+ display pallet has the required standards for certification under the EuCertPlast Scheme for European Plastics Recyclers, which seeks to increase transparency and traceability to determine the best recycling and trading practices.
CHEP’s new Q+ display pallet has gone through many tests, internally and externally, by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Germany conforming the product’s performance even in extreme conditions.
Even though the new Q+ is a low emissions product confirmed by the scientific, peer reviewed Lifecycle Analysis, there are residual emissions which represent approximately 10.350 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. So CHEP has invested in regeneration projects across the globe to make this product 100% Carbon Neutral®. In 2022 high-quality certified carbon credits were allocated to projects certified either Gold Standards, VCS, CCB, REDD+, CDM, through a partnership which Climate Impact Partners (ex Natural Capital Partners) have had with CHEP since 2014.
With this redesign the company supports various SDGs, particularly with SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. More details available upon request.