Executive Summary
To reduce waste and create a more sustainable supply chain, HAVI Sweden has developed a fully circular pallet system that recycles broken plastic bread crates and transforms them into reusable logistics pallets, replacing traditional wooden EUR pallets. By connecting two previously separate material streams into a single closed loop, this ingenious solution lowers emissions, reduces dependence on virgin resources, and delivers measurable operational benefits across the supply chain.
Key highlights
- 17 tons of broken plastic bread crates diverted from waste annually
- New pallets manufactured from 100% recycled material—no virgin resources required
- Lighter than wooden pallets, reducing fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions per delivery run
- Each pallet can be recycled into new pallets up to 10 times, dramatically extending material lifecycle
- Materials remain entirely within HAVI’s value chain, ensuring full traceability and closed-loop control
The Challenge
The European pallet market is one of the most critical (yet overlooked) components of the modern supply chain. With more than 650 million EPAL Euro pallets in global circulation, the humble pallet keeps goods moving at scale. Yet the dominant model is far from sustainable. Most European pallets are made from virgin wood and used approximately 20 times before reaching end-of-life, where incineration remains a common outcome. At the same time, timber prices have faced significant volatility, driven by global demand and declining forest cover, adding cost pressure and supply risk for businesses that depend on a steady pallet supply.
The EU’s regulatory bodies are also pushing toward circularity, tighter emissions standards, and traceable supply chains, particularly in the food and beverage sector.
HAVI Sweden were all too familiar with this challenge in their own operations. Each year, approximately 17 tonnes of plastic bread crates are broken beyond repair. These damaged crates were being removed from service and sent outside HAVI’s value chain for disposal. Meanwhile, HAVI continued to depend on wooden EUR pallets that requiring continuous replacement with fresh virgin material, with limited reuse potential and no meaningful recovery at end-of-life. This presented an opportunity alongside our partners at Aryzta and McDonald’s to come up with a more sustainable solution that would benefit both the planet and our operations.
The Solution: A Circular Pallet Model
Working in partnership with Aryzta, Food Folk, and recycling specialist AION, HAVI Sweden developed a closed-loop system that connected these two material streams for a more sustainable supply chain.
As with all great initiatives, the process relied on close collaboration with HAVI’s partners. Aryzta bakes hamburger buns and delivers them to HAVI in plastic bread crates, stacked on trolleys. HAVI stores and distributes the bread to McDonald’s restaurants across Sweden, then collects the empty crates and returns them to the bakery to be washed and refilled. Crates too damaged to continue in service are collected separately, transported to a processing facility, ground into small plastic pieces, and melted down. These are then remolded into brand-new pallets that re-enter HAVI’s logistics operations.
What makes this solution so great is its circularity: operational waste became a durable logistics asset. The loop closed entirely within HAVI’s value chain, without introducing new material inputs or external dependencies.
The Impact
The new pallets are manufactured from 100% recycled plastic, requiring no virgin raw materials, no new land use, and no forestry impact. They are significantly more durable than traditional wooden pallets, capable of handling considerably more delivery cycles over their operational life. When they do eventually reach end-of-life, the material can be recycled into new pallets up to 10 times, extending the circular journey far beyond what a conventional wooden pallet allows.
Because plastic pallets are lighter than their wooden equivalents, every delivery run benefits from reduced dead weight, translating directly into lower fuel consumption and reduced CO₂ emissions. The lighter handling also improves day-to-day working conditions for the people moving pallets across the supply chain.
From a business and supply chain perspective, keeping materials within HAVI’s own value chain eliminates waste leakage, removes dependency on external recycling or disposal partners, and provides full traceability over the lifecycle of each material unit. By reducing reliance on virgin timber, the model also insulates operations from raw material price volatility facing the current timber market.
The Power of Closing the Loop
HAVI Sweden’s circular pallet initiative shows what can be achieved when collaborating with our fantastic partners to solve operational challenges and advocate for a sustainable supply chain together. The initiative’s success in Sweden will serve as an inspirational model we can scale across markets, reflects HAVI’s broader commitment to building supply chains that are as resilient as they are responsible.
