What's Behind the "Wrap & Strap"?

Why Wrap?

“Just think of it, if the driver stops short and bags are on the pallet, you have 10 154-pound [69kg] projectiles flying across the container,” says Anne Ceraolo, Director of Corporate Support Services for RPM warehouse in New Jersey. It's for this reason that pallets are wrapped in layers of plastic wrap – thin plastic sheets like the kind used to preserve and cover a bowl of food for later – that keep the pallet together, to create the stability that is key to moving pallets of coffee across the country. “Wrapping also guards against weather and other contamination,” says Kevin Carrington, General Manager of Vollers UK.

The Origins of Wrapping

Wrapping has been a part of the coffee industry since the early advent of plastics. Before the 1970s, wrapping was done with large plastic bags that were fitted over each pallet. Then, a large oven heated the plastic so that it shrunk to cover the pallet. However, the energy crisis in the 1970s led most warehouses to switch from large ovens, which needed to be continuously heated, to thin plastic wrap, which could be wrapped and secured without any heat.

How It Works

Today, there are two ways to wrap pallets. The first is just as you’d imagine: two people hold large rolls of plastic wrap and walk around the pallet, wrapping as they go. It’s a fairly old-school and manual way to wrap pallets, but, especially for larger pallets, it’s the kind that’s more often used, Anne explains.

The second way is more for smaller pallets that hold up to 10 bags at a time (also called grocery pallets). For these pallets, a machine is used that can wrap them automatically. Similar to the plastic wrapping services available for suitcases at the airport, the pallet is placed on a spinning platform that rotates the pallet as the plastic wrap is held stationary, wrapping the pallet.

What’s Next?

While plastic wrapping has some obvious advantages: it’s easy, quick and simple for roasters to dispose of plastic wrap upon delivery, it also has a large waste footprint. Because of this, there are efforts to find alternatives that use less single-use plastics.

Plastic straps, while still single-use plastics, do reduce the overall plastic footprint of each pallet. These straps are wrapped around the pallet and stapled in place. Some customers may ask for straps instead of wrapping, but most specialty coffee is both wrapped and strapped, Kevin says.  

There are several products available today that can be substituted for plastic wrap. Products range from reusable wrappers that can be cinched around a pallet to lidded boxes that fit a single bag and can be strapped together for easy packing.

“At the moment, the price just isn’t feasible,” Anne explains. But RPM, Vollers and other warehousing companies are on the lookout for alternatives that reduce plastic waste.

A major downside to almost all these options is cost. Buying reusable wrapping products costs more money than buying plastic wrap. Additionally, “the problem of re-usable is that the products would have to be sent back to the warehouses for re-use,” Kevin says. And when you have to deal with customers returning wrapping products, just as they do pallets, you need to purchase far more units than you use at any one time to account for the fact that many clients will collect pallets and wraps from several deliveries before returning everything. This can add up quickly.

One key product with big potential is reusable stretch bands. They are made of rubber and, like plastic straps, can be placed around a pallet to hold the bags in place. These are easier to misplace and may have a shorter use life than boxes or large cloth wrappers, but they may be a bridge alternative that reduces plastic waste while acclimating customers and warehouses to the system of reusable wrapping.

Another idea is single-use, biodegradable packaging, Kevin says. “The best way forward for the industry would be to adopt single-use organic biodegradable products, which can be disposed of safely. In Kenya for instance, some bags are compostable and provide nutrients into the soil where they are disposed of. These are now used in coffee nurseries.” The hope is that companies supplying plastic products like GrainPro and plastic cling wrap will develop biodegradable packaging that can have a second life as nutrients for the soil.

At the moment, reusable or biodegradable wrapping materials are not available at most warehouses, but expressing your interest to your warehousing partners can help tip the scales in their favor. Next time you place an order, ask about reusable wrapping alternatives and register your interest with your warehousing partners.