Wouldn’t it be smarter to limit the use of noble woods to uses that are perfectly suited to them, such as the production of furniture, toys or construction elements?
With this reasonable (and reasonable) question in mind, a Dutch company, CocoPallet, based in Indonesia, has turned its attention to a type of wood that until now has had almost no market: coconut wood. Coconut is like a pig: everything is good.
The start-up has relied on two types of knowledge to develop its method: the traditional know-how of Jakarta’s craftsmen and the advice of researchers at Wageningen University. The recipe? Coconut shells are ground and the natural glue contained in their fibers, lignin, allows the ground particles to coagulate under the effect of heat. In the end, the company produces its transport pallets without adding any synthetic solvent!
For those who like numbers, it takes about 70 hulls to produce one pallet. Not content with its environmentally friendly design, the pallet is also perfectly nestable, which significantly reduces storage space. To top it off, the news is jovial for the circular economy: at the end of their life, these coir pallets will be recyclable and transformable into biomass.
CocoPallet is now looking for partners in Indonesia to move beyond the artisanal stage and supply its production to Asian industries. The first step of an expansion?
