Making pallets from recycled materials is nothing new, but it's possible that nobody does it quite the way Kinder & Co. does. In an article on the Ferret product directory website, the Australian supplier of bulk handling conveyors said it is recycling its customers' worn-out conveyor rollers into pallets. The old rollers are shredded, granulated, and mixed with other materials, then cut to size and used to build new pallets. Kinder loads the recycled pallets with new rollers and ships them back to its customers, bringing new meaning to the term "closed-loop system." Some customers are even buying the recycled pallets for their own use.

The recycling process is carried out through an arrangement with Australian Composite Technology (ACT). ACT says the pallet material is immune to insects and fungi, and does not need to be fumigated for export. They can also be fireproofed without the use of chemicals, said an ACT spokesman.