Evidence on pallets and the environment
Each page takes one dataset or study, gives its numbers with the citation, explains the method and says what it can't tell you.
- EPA's wood packaging data, 1960–2018EPA's full series for wood containers and packaging (mostly pallets): tons generated, recycled, combusted and landfilled from 1960 to 2018, with what the figures do and don't measure.
- Are 27% or 95% of pallets recycled? Why both figures existReconciling EPA's wood packaging figures (about 27% recycled by our arithmetic) with the industry's '95% of pallets recycled' claim: different units, denominators and definitions.
- Pallets landfilled in the US, 1998 vs 2016What Virginia Tech's landfill surveys found about wood pallets landfilled and recovered at US municipal solid waste landfills in 1998 and 2016.
- The USDA life-cycle assessment of US wooden palletsWhat the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's cradle-to-grave LCA of wooden pallets (FPL-RP-707, 2020) measured, found and left out.
- Wood vs plastic pallets: what the evidence can and can't sayWhy comparisons of wood and plastic pallets' environmental impact depend on trips, return rates and end of life, and what to ask before trusting one.
- Why WARM credits landfilled wood with carbon storageHow EPA's WARM model treats carbon in landfilled pallets, why that makes the landfill factor negative, and why reuse still beats landfill.