A new way with one-way export pallets

Chairman, Laurie Maher said, “Our objective is for Biofiba to replace timber, polystyrene and plastics in the manufacturing of one-way, one-use export shipping pallets. “Millions of export pallets are used everyday all over the world. In fact, 40% of timber harvested around the world is used to make export pallets.”

Biofiba decomposes rapidly so is a much greener alternative to plastic and polystyrene pallets which take hundreds of thousands of years to decompose, or timber pallets which must be burned or sent to landfill – all environmentally unfriendly options. There is a worldwide timber shortage and plastics production utilises expensive petrochemical fossil fuels with high carbon emissions.

“There is nothing else like Biofiba. It’s clean and green and is an answer to the prayers of industry worldwide, where pallets and their disposal are becoming big, expensive issues,” said Mr Maher. The global pallet market is worth US$90 million per year and Biofiba Ltd hopes to capture a substantial percentage of that market within the next five years.

“We do feel like we are taking on the world, but Biofiba has the potential to play a huge part in reducing global carbon emissions and protecting rainforests. The support and involvement of the CSIRO and AusIndustry is very encouraging and a sign that we are onto something significant,” he added.

Even before development is complete, Biofiba already has potential licensees lodging expressions of interest to manufacture in Australia, China, Malaysia, India and the USA – a sign of the relevance of the product to the international market. Mr Maher said that the organisation may soon be seeking further investment for the international rollout. “It would be great if we could attract more investment money from the Central Coast and really keep this local,” he said.

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