Costa Rica is harnessing its incredible biodiversity and strong agricultural sector to become a destination of choice for agritech and biomaterials innovation and investment.
Yellow Pallet: Banana fibre pallets substantially reduce CO2 emissions
Approximately 21 million pallets are needed each year for the export of fruit from the tropics. These pallets need large amounts of wood and too much energy is consumed in their distribution. Start-up Yellow Pallet makes pallets from banana fiber; a more sustainable option that counters deforestation.
Banana plants grow fast and are abundantly available. “That makes them very suitable to make into pallets,” says Hein van Opstal, founder of Yellow Pallet. Their first factory is stationed in Costa Rica.
The company supplies banana pallets to, for example, Chiquita and Agrofair, two of the largest fruit exporters in the world. The pallets are not yet made 100% out of banana fiber, as the planks are still made from wood. But the blocks between the planks are made out of compressed fiber from banana plants. This already saves eighteen percent on CO2 emissions. What’s more, it’s slightly cheaper than wood.
Fruit export on banana pallets substantially reduces CO2 emissions
Wooden pallets are a thing of the past if it is up to start-up Yellow Pallet. The company makes pallets from banana fiber. This is more sustainable and prevents deforestation.
7 January 2021
Wooden pallets are a thing of the past if it is up to start-up Yellow Pallet. Just for the export of fruit from the tropics, 21 million pallets are needed each year. These are twice as polluting. Tropical countries do not have the right wood to make pallets. For one thing, wood is imported from the Amazon and subsequently shipped as pallets from the tropics to Europe. Not to mention the thousands of hectares of forest that are felled for them. Things can be done differently: With Yellow Pallets, made from banana fiber.