The pallet industry is one of the largest consumers of lumber in the United States. Hundreds of millions of new wood pallets are manufactured in a typical year, and that is a lot of raw material. Without reuse and recycling, a significant portion of those pallets would end up in landfills after just a few trips.
Pallet reuse and recycling have real environmental benefits, but they are often described in sweeping terms. This guide sticks to the general mechanisms: how reusing a pallet avoids building a new one, what happens to wood in a landfill, and which choices businesses can make. For numbers specific to your operation, ask a supplier or an environmental professional.
Trees Saved: The Lumber Equation
A standard 48x40 pallet contains a meaningful amount of lumber. When a used pallet is repaired and put back into service, that is one fewer pallet that has to be built from newly harvested wood. Multiplied across the volume of pallets moving through supply chains, reuse reduces demand for lumber.
The pallet recycling industry recovers and reuses a large share of the pallets in circulation. Pallets that cannot be reused in their original form are often processed into mulch, animal bedding, biomass fuel, or engineered wood products, so even damaged pallets can avoid the landfill, depending on the recycler.
There is also a forest benefit. Standing forests absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, so reducing demand for virgin lumber can help keep more forest in place over time. The size of that benefit depends on forestry practices and the wider timber market, but the direction is clear: reuse is generally better than building new.
Landfill Diversion: Keeping Wood Out of the Ground
Wood pallets are among the more visible items in commercial solid waste. Without reuse and recycling, large numbers of pallets would enter municipal and commercial landfills every year, taking up space that could be used for materials that have no other outlet.
When wood decomposes in a landfill, particularly in low-oxygen conditions below the surface, part of it can break down into methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Keeping wood in use, or converting it into mulch or fuel, avoids at least some of that decomposition in a landfill.
Diversion also avoids the emissions tied to producing a replacement pallet. Those benefits add up across an entire industry, even though the figure for any single pallet is small.
Carbon Footprint Reduction: The Full Lifecycle
Lifecycle analyses of pallet production generally find that reused and repaired pallets carry a lower carbon footprint than new pallets. Building a new pallet from raw lumber involves logging, transportation to the sawmill, kiln drying, milling, transportation to the pallet manufacturer, and assembly. Each of these steps uses energy and generates emissions.
Lifecycle Steps Compared
General comparison of typical steps; actual processes vary by supplier.
Repair involves collecting used pallets, sorting them, and replacing damaged boards, which skips the most energy-intensive stages of new pallet production, namely logging, sawmilling, and kiln drying. That is the main reason a repaired pallet usually has a smaller footprint than a new one.
For businesses tracking indirect (Scope 3) emissions in their supply chain, switching from new to reused pallets where the application allows is one of the simpler changes available. If you report on emissions, ask your supplier for whatever documentation they can provide, and use recognized methods rather than rule-of-thumb figures.
What Your Business Can Do
Every business that uses pallets has an opportunity to make a meaningful environmental impact. Here are concrete steps you can take today:
Phoenix Pallet Recycling is a referral service. It takes a quote request through the form and passes it to partner suppliers that serve Phoenix and the Valley, who can discuss buying used pallets, repair, recycling, and resale. Availability depends on partner suppliers.