Sizing standardisation is being discussed. PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

An effort to set international standards relating to environmental considerations of packaging may eventually impact on the way forklifts in the US are designed and built for carrying unit loads.

International meetings last month in Beijing, China created a draft that is primarily based on existing European Union standards. Earlier, multiple US group meetings occurred to form the US position on seven proposed standards, says Michael Ogle, vice president for educational and technical services with the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) in Charlotte.

The trade group MHIA has a leading role in the review and development of standards at the international level.

The American National Standards Institute accredits MHIA to administer three US technical committees dealing with pallets, freight containers and packaging. The committees review and provide voting recommendations on international standards under the Organization for International Standardization.

"The packaging and environment standards have little connection to forklift trucks," Ogle says. "If packaging types are modified, then there may be an effect on how unit loads are built and carried by the trucks, but otherwise there is no direct connection."

Ogle serves as secretary for the MHIA-administered MH10 unit-loads and transport-packaging organisation within the US Technical Advisory Group to the international TC122 subcommittee on packaging and environment.

Marilyn Baker of the Coca-Cola Co in Atlanta, Georgia is overall chair for US task groups. Individual task group chairs include Brian O'Banion of the Fibre Box Association in Elk Grove Village, Illinois; Ramani Narayan of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan; Laura Rowell of MeadWestvaco Corp in Glen Allen, Virginia; Bill Armstrong of Sealed Air Corp in Danbury, Connecticut; Fred Hayes of the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute in Arlington, Virginia; Paul Rankin of the Reusable Industrial Packaging Association in Landover, Maryland; and Jeff Wooster with Dow Chemical Co's North American plastics unit in Houston, Texas.

Organisers project completion of the standards during 2012.