On the environmental impacts of pallet management operations

Recent Developments in Green and Sustainable Supply Chains

Edited by Alfred L. Guiffrida and Pratim Datta

1 Introduction

Supply chains are growing more and more complex. This is due to many factors, including the expansion of global markets and product storage keeping units, an increased variety of shipping and distribution modes, and rising expectations from customers, particularly with respect to service levels and delivery times. At the same time, companies are striving to make their supply chains more efficient and more sustainable. One way to do so is to evaluate their shipping and distribution operations. Pallets, being the most common unit load platform for handling and storing goods, are a critical component of these operations. Because many pallets are used when producing and distributing large quantities, the environmental impact associated with the use of a single pallet is greatly magnified.

The Department of Transportation ([4] BTS, 2009) estimates that transportation represents roughly 10 percent of the US gross domestic product, or approximately $1.4 trillion. In 2006, some 8.8 million trucks traveled approximately 263 billion miles. Freight, in its many forms, accounts for 470 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually (7.8 percent of total US CO₂ emissions), and it contributes about 50 percent of NOx emissions and 40 percent of particulate matter emissions from transportation sources ([12] FHA, 2010; Environmental Protection Agency ([21] EPA, 2006)). Truck freight accounts for 70 percent of all these emissions. Pallets, the most common unit load platform, allow the transportation of goods in an efficient, reliable and seamless way. It is estimated that 80 percent of US trade is carried on pallets ([19] Raballan and Aldaz-Carroll, 2005). Every year, 500 million new pallets are manufactured and become part of the large pool (roughly 2 billion) of pallets that are in circulation in the USA. In the EU some 280 million pallets are in circulation every year. Many of these pallets are used only a few times and end up meeting a variety of end-of-life scenarios (e.g. landfill, municipal incineration or downcycling) while others are repaired and reused many times. As companies set goals to become more sustainable, a thorough understanding of the environmental impacts of their operations becomes critical.

The ability to control the end of life of...