Plastic Strapping V Stretch Wrap - What is the cost comparison per pallet wrapped/strapped?
It's not really that difficult to calculate, and if more people took the trouble it's likely there would be a significant reversion to using plastic strapping. There are of course many variables when it comes to applying stretch wrap so lets make some assumptions on which to establish a good cost per pallet approximation:
Stretch Film Assumptions:
Pallet weighing 500 kgs 1200 x 1000 x 1.0 metres high;
Stretch Film used 500mm wide x 23 micron x 20 revolutions to wrap.
Weight of film used 900 grams ( Take it off the pallet and weigh it).
Cost of film/tonne £1300 approx.
Cost of film used approx 43 pence/Pallet.
Strapping Assumptions:
Same pallet as above.
Strapping with a break strength of 300 Kgs weighing 7 grams/metre
Strap Used = 2 x 4.5 = 9 metres x 7 grams = 63 grams
Cost of strapping the pallet say with strap @ £15.00/per thousand metres i.e 1.5 pence/metre would be 1.5 x 9 = 13.5 pence.
Conclusions:
- Strapping is much more environmetally friendly using only 63 grams of material when compared with 900 grams of stretch film.
- The difference in the weight of material used is so large that even if the assumptions made for quantity of stretch wrapping used are 50% wrong, or the material is bought for 50% less .... strapping is by far the most economical of the two materials, for load unitisation.
- Use of stretchfilm is difficult to justify in many instances and particularly where product is already in cardboard boxes offering a good degree of protection to the primary product, and where the boxes are of reasonable size and can be interlocked layer by layer to provide good inherent load stability.
- On a more personal level... we ask - would you want a job that involved walking backwards in spirals in a crouched position around pallet after pallet - day after day.
