As soon as inventory of wood pallets has been exhausted, all products from PepsiCo.'s Gatorade, Quaker Foods and Tropicana business units will be shipped on plastic pallets.
As of April 1, Gatorade and Quaker will begin integrating recyclable plastic pallets with RFID-tracking chips, exclusively from iGPS, according to a press release. Tropicana begins the effort May 1.
In a letter PepsiCo sent to its customers March 20, the company touted the iGPS pallets as "fire-retardant, with a significantly lower burn index than wood pallets. iGPS pallets are fully edge rackable (2,800 lbs capacity) and 20 – 27 lbs. lighter than the average wood pooled pallet. If an iGPS pallet should become damaged, it will be remolded into new ones, making its useful life indefinite."
Other companies are making pallet choice a part of their sustainability process. For instance, Cole’s Quality Foods has switched to reusable Chep pallets instead of one-way pallets.