Pallets made from recycled plastic
“If all goes well, we will be able to launch these products on the Dutch market by the end of 2026.”
Published on May 30, 2025
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In Europe, around 650 million pallets are used in logistics every year. In the Netherlands, the figure is estimated at around 20 million. These are made of wood, break easily, and are therefore not very sustainable. Through his start-up EUclp, Yibo Su hopes to make a serious contribution to replacing these pallets with sustainable, lightweight ones made from recycled plastic, which are also cheaper.
(This report previously appeared on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus website)
Chinese national Yibo Su (37) discovered his love for materials while studying in Sheffield (Great Britain). In 2012, he came to the Netherlands to do his PhD research at the University of Twente. He obtained his PhD with a thesis on a strong bonding method for lightweight materials made from fibers and thermoplastic polymers, which should lead to lighter materials in the aircraft and automotive industries.
Through TNO, he ended up at the Brightlands Materials Center on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen in 2017. “At the time, there was a trend to make cars as light as possible so that they would consume less fuel.” After about four years, he switched to circular packaging. "At the time, much of our plastic waste went to China, but when that came to an end, we had to start recycling in Europe ourselves. The idea was that the circular economy of plastic waste should benefit both the environment and the economy." Recycling plastics should, in theory, be cheaper than using fossil fuels for plastics because it consumes less energy. This would also make us less dependent on other countries that supply us with oil or gas.
The circular economy for plastic is also an important part of the European Green Deal: becoming climate neutral by 2050.
Dynamics Brightlands
Yibo Su worked with all the major packaging manufacturers, petrochemical giants, and recyclers. Thanks to the dynamics at the Brightlands Campus. "In the past, we developed quite a few products with a circular concept, but they were rarely economically viable. This was partly due to low oil prices and cheap imports, but also to high production costs for recycled plastic, for example, due to high labor costs. That presents a problem: no one will buy it. I think that last year alone, around seven Dutch recyclers went bankrupt. I thought: how can I help? The circular economy will never succeed if recycled plastics are too expensive."
Replacing wooden pallets
So Yibo Su went in search of a way to develop cheaper recycled plastic with a better quality than the plastic pallets currently used mainly for internal logistics in factories. In 2024, he started his own start-up, EUclp (European Circular Logistic Packaging BV). According to Su, the performance of this type of recycled plastic pallet is such that they can also replace the conventional wooden pallets. These have a high damage rate, resulting in high repair costs, new wood, and intensive labor. “The operating costs of the new plastic pallets will be lower because they are durable, lightweight, recyclable, and maintenance-free.”
First prototype
Broken wooden pallets generate 250 tons of waste annually, about ten percent of total packaging waste. In order to produce the more than twenty million wooden pallets in the Netherlands, a considerable amount of wood has to be cut down. “I'm not sure we have enough trees in the Netherlands to meet the demand,” laughs Su. He hopes to present the first prototype at the Brightlands Materials Center in June. He will then test them with professional companies. He hopes that his company will grow large enough to stimulate the market to recycle more plastic waste, especially plastic packaging. Currently, less than fifty percent is recycled, while the EU is calling for 55 percent by 2030. Su is confident: “If all goes well, we will be able to launch these products on the Dutch market by the end of 2026.”
