The Mheda Journal

It’s a Summer Friday, so I thought I’d take a cue from my colleague Dan Vest and post something a little more fun today. Pallets have been in the news for many of the wrong reasons in recent weeks, but I ran across something that may help the wooden shipping pallet restore its image a bit.

Apparently, it’s common practice in Austin, Texas, to build houses out of shipping pallets. (See the photo, below left.) According to the website apartmentthearpy.com (that’s where the photos are from, too), these shipping-pallet houses were created by the architecture firm I-Beam, and “designed as temporary homes for refugees.” Advantages are they can be easily assembled and taken down and can be built with a wide array of features (see flower box in the second photo). I’m guessing price is also a huge advantage. Disadvantages include, well, living in a house made of shipping pallets. As the site says, “While a bit drafty in this incarnation, the houses can be made into more permanent dwellings using local materials like mud and adobe.” Good to know. 

Have a great weekend, everyone. Don’t forget to visit the new online home of The MHEDA Journal Online!

I don’t know how many people are aware of it, but there’s an interesting battle being waged in the material handling industry about, of all things, pallets. It’s a classic tale of the old-fashioned, long-time market leader being taken on by a relative industry newcomer.

In this case, the veteran is the wooden pallet, while the industry upstart is the plastic pallet. A conflict has been ongoing for the better part of a year now about which is better/more productive/more efficient/more environmentally friendly. 

The most recent salvo came from plastic pallet maker Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS), who called on the FDA to investigate the safety and health issues of using wooden pallets for food transport.  Interestingly, the NWPCA responded yesterday by supporting the investigation and even providing previous studies that show wooden pallets are not harmful. 

This all comes on the heels of last month’s debate between iGPS and the NWPCA about which pallets contain deca-bromine, a fire retardant. The discord between these two competing factions is understandable–after all, the marketplace is a dog-eat-dog competition for the desires of the consumer. But is rare to see, at least in the material handling industry, such issues play out in such a public way. Each time one side issues a press release, the other side is hot on its heels with a reply. Good business, sure. Not to mention, good entertainment.

Again, the animosity is easy to comprehend…what’s harder to figure is what’s going to happen next.