Falling Is for Leaves on Trees, Not Workers on the Job

Every workplace, no matter if it’s a gritty urban warehouse or a nest of cubicles in the suburbs, has its perils in terms of falling. You don’t have to be weighed down with a 50 lb. bag of cement or window-washing a skyscraper at 35 stories to suffer a serious work-related injury, or worse. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in 2009 alone, over 212,000 workers were seriously injured by falls, slips, or trips while at their place of work. Sadly, the same report cited a figure of 605 workers who died as a result of injuries sustained by falling during the same time period. That’s a figure that we should all let sink in if we’re ever going to help bring about a change in that.

Stamar has long made it a priority to provide for workers’ safety in every possible way. Our track record more than proves it: in another blog from earlier this year, we talked about the wildly successful blood donation campaign we initiated at our company on behalf of local hospitals. But it’s the products we offer that speak more to the issue: what we provide and distribute to other companies is a way for these companies to promote worker safety – including slips and falls. When it comes to fall prevention, Stamar provides items ranging from wet floor janitorial signs, wet mops, and a specialized oil dry product that absorbs almost any form of spill – including oil, grease, acids, water, and admixtures of soluble oils and water. We’re serious about safety. It’s something we will always practice strongly.

Plastic or Wooden Pallets? The Choice Is Pretty Straightforward

While there is one distinct advantage wooden pallets have over plastic ones – they are biodegradable – there is a whole host of reasons why plastic plastics are, in the long run, preferable to wood when conducting a successful shipping and handling business. One of the chief reasons is durability: to put it simply, plastic pallets can go through a lot more punishment than can wooden ones. Not only is plastic resilient against decomposition, but it’s generally more effective at handling the bumps, bangs, dings, and assorted lacerations that are par for the course in materials handling. Whether you’re running a warehouse operation that provides for a single city, or whether you’re running a long-distance freight truck company that delivers goods to distant States, your best bet for your dollar is going to be in plastic. Generally speaking, plastic pallets have been found to be almost 50 times more durable than their wooden counterparts.

Furthermore, the advantage of a wooden pallet being recyclable gets overwritten by the fact that a plastic pallet can just as easily be recycled. Numerous plastic recycling centers exist in most regions of the United States and southern Canada. These facilities aren’t the type to simply recycle plastic bottles of pop or Poland Spring. They’re fully capable of recycling larger-scale plastic pallets into other, vitally needed products. Not only that, but any company that trades in its plastic waste to one of these recycling centers can make a brisk side-business in terms of cost-savings. And generally speaking, plastic pays higher premiums than does wood or paper.

At Stamar, we not only carry plastic pallets for any variety of application or weight-load, we also are deeply engaged with green recycling. Not only is it cost-effective for our own business, but it’s all part of our strategy to leave less of an industrial footprint from the products we use and supply. To find out more about Stamar’s plastic pallet capabilities, contact us today.