Plastic waste that until recently would have ended up in incinerators or landfills is gradually becoming a valuable industrial raw material. One example is the production of hybrid pallets combining wood with low-grade plastic waste by the Czech company Flexipal. What began as a project to manufacture plastic blocks has evolved into the development of comprehensive circular economy solutions, from pallet design to robotic repairs. To support this work, the company has brought in experts from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Brno University of Technology.
Hybrid pallets were developed as an alternative to conventional wooden pallets, which require substantial amounts of timber to produce and have a limited lifespan. In the hybrid version, the wooden blocks are replaced with rigid plastic made from low-grade plastic waste rejected during sorting. Around 200,000 tonnes of this low-value plastic waste are separated in the Czech Republic each year, and until recently there was no practical way to recycle it into new products.
Flexipal came up with the idea of using this material to produce hybrid pallets and last year opened a new production line in the village of Stanoviště, with a capacity of up to half a million pallets annually. “Using plastic blocks saves around 30% of the wood. One tonne of low-grade plastic waste replaces approximately three cubic metres of raw timber,” explained Flexipal owner Tomáš Vojtěch at the time. Hybrid pallets also last at least twice as long as conventional wooden pallets, offer greater resistance to moisture and chemicals, and are collected for recycling at the end of their useful life. The company has therefore protected its hybrid pallet design through a utility model registration.
Experts from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at BUT have also become increasingly involved in the development process. What began as a series of consultations expanded after Flexipal joined the consortium of the National Competence Centre for Mechatronics and Smart Technologies for Mechanical Engineering (NCK MESTEC). “We are currently working with the company on three projects. One of them focuses directly on further developing the hybrid pallet,” says Jiří Marek from the Institute of Production Machines, Systems and Robotics.
The project focuses specifically on developing the bottom sections of the pallet, known as runners, which are typically made of wood. These components are particularly prone to wear because they come into direct contact with the ground. “When wood is in contact with the ground, it eventually rots. If we could make these parts from low-grade plastic waste as well, we could significantly extend the pallet's lifespan,” Marek explains.
However, the technical challenges are considerable. Low-grade plastic waste is a highly heterogeneous material containing unwanted substances, including aluminium foil, which is permitted in the yellow recycling bins used for plastic waste in the Czech Republic. The researchers are therefore developing a prototype mould and a simple press to test how the material can be used to produce boards with sufficient strength and dimensional stability. The project is expected to deliver a complete set of technical documentation for the equipment.
The other two projects involving Flexipal and robotics experts from FME focus on automated pallet repairs. The faculty has already developed a prototype sorting line that uses lasers and machine vision to detect damage, identify defects and sort pallets into several categories according to the type of repair required. “The next step is a robotic workstation capable of automatically repairing wooden pallets,” says Marek.
There are also plans to introduce mobile repair units in the future. The robotic equipment would be housed in containers that could be transported directly to customers' premises. “We don't want to build more factories. The aim is to bring the technology to wherever the pallets are, repair them on site and then move on,” Marek explains, describing the concept of a “mobile factory”.
Flexipal is also planning to expand its production capacity. A new plant is expected to be built in northern Moravia, capable of processing up to 20,000 tonnes of low-grade plastic waste annually – roughly a tenth of the total amount generated in the Czech Republic each year.
Hybrid pallets are thus gradually becoming more than just a logistics product. They are also an example of the circular economy in action, turning waste into a valuable resource while helping to reduce environmental impacts in several ways.