Staying sustainable and keeping the Earth healthy are important in any industry. In the pallet racking and warehouse shelving industry however, staying sustainable can be difficult. Most of the components that go into pallet racking and shelving are made of steel, and making steel isn’t the most environmentally friendly process. But there’s ways to minimise the environmental impacts of steel and still supply a high quality racking product for our clients. What’s more, the way we here at Colby Dandenong are able to keep our environmental impacts down actually benefits not only the planet, but our customers as well through saving both time and money while also giving clients more choice in their pallet racking and industrial shelving.
Curious to know how we do it?
At Colby Dandenong, We Keep Packaging Material To A Minimum
Let’s start with what’s most noticeable to our clients. When a customer’s pallet racking is delivered for installation, they’ll notice there’s not much packaging involved. Packaging anything, including pallet racking and shelving, during shipping is important to protect the product, but there are ways to keep pallet racking protected without having to have too much cardboard or wood packaging. And there’s no reason to waste too much steel in packaging either.
The prime example of minimal packaging is on our Colby pallet racking beams. These only travel with a small amount of degradable plastic on each end; this is used to protect the powder coating. For safety and to keep the beams together, a small amount of steel strapping is used as well, but this is easily recyclable. Similarly, with our racking frames, only a few steel straps are used to keep everything together. And again, that’s recyclable too.
Any other packaging, however minimally, is usually made of cardboard and wood, which can be recycled locally as well.
While all of this is obviously environmentally friendly, it’s client friendly as well. If you’ve just purchased new pallet racking for your warehouse, you don’t want to deal with tons of packaging that takes both time and money to get rid of. So minimal packaging is good for the end user too.
At Colby Dandenong, We Keep Continuity Between Products
Another area for potential waste is when a newer version of a product doesn’t work with the older version of the same product. If a small part of the product needs to be replaced, it often means that the whole thing needs to be replaced.
With Colby pallet racking, however, the essence of the racking’s design is maintained even after new versions of the racking come out. This means that even if you’re using older Colby pallet racking and need to replace a beam or frame due to damage, you can replace just that part even if your type of racking isn’t made anymore. For example, a pallet racking safety inspection may require a client to replace a beam. That’s easy to do with Colby products.
Once again, keeping continuity between products is great for the environment because it reduces waste, but it’s also great for the client because it saves them both time and money since they don’t have to replace their entire racking system for just one damaged part.
At Colby Dandenong, We Keep Manufacturing Local
There are a lot of choices in pallet racking and warehouse shelving, but not all of it is manufactured locally in Australia. All Colby racking is made from Bluescope Steel in Woolongong, New South Wales. The racking itself is made in Colby’s facility based in Belrose, New South Wales. This is a relatively quick road or rail trip for the steel coils.
Once the racking or shelving is manufactured in Belrose, it’s easy to quickly transport it anywhere in Australia to the end user.
We here at Colby Dandenong are proud that we’re supplying an Australian made product to our customers. Not only does having a locally sourced steel and racking ensure the highest possible quality of the finished product, it also means our clients get their pallet racking and shelving more quickly since it doesn’t have to travel as far. And of course, the reduced transport distances not only save money, but also reduces the carbon footprint of the final product.
At Colby Dandenong, We Keep Second Hand Pallet Racking Available
Although we have new pallet racking available, we also offer pallet racking buy back services. This means that if a client is upgrading their racking, moving sites, or simply doesn’t have a use for it anymore, we’re able to buy back that racking and sell it to another client second hand.
We already know that Colby pallet racking is of the highest quality and has great longevity, so it’s completely safe to be used again and again by different businesses. All of the used pallet racking that we buy and sell is professionally inspected for both safety and quality as well.
Obviously reusing any product, including pallet racking, cuts down on waste. The market for second hand racking keeps that racking out of landfill and recycling plants. It prolongs the life of the pallet racking and can significantly reduce its carbon footprint over the years it’s being used. For clients, offering a pallet racking buy back option works well for them as it can offset the cost of their new racking or warehouse move. And for clients on a budget, used pallet racking is a great option!
Stay Sustainable With Colby Racking And Shelving
Staying environmentally sustainable isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. By supplying a more sustainable product to our clients, we here at Colby Dandenong are actually able to supply a better product to our clients at a better price and with more convenience than with a product that isn’t as environmentally friendly. All in all, that’s win-win.
