Assessing the life-cycle environmental impacts of the wood pallet sector in the United States

Wood pallets play a critical role in the movement and storage of goods worldwide. They are an important component complex global supply chain used by almost every industry. It is therefore to assess environmental implications wood pallet identify optimization strategies that can be implemented. In this paper, primary 2018 annual production data collected from U.S. manufacturers were develop first industry-average life-cycle inventory (LCI). A new functional unit was proposed perform more refined accurate assessment chain. Using LCI developed, cradle-to-grave impact performed. This novel approach quantifies impacts generic multi-use pallet, including repair remanufacturing. The total warming 10.4 kg CO2e per 45.4 t loads product delivered using pallets. manufacturing stage contributed most, about 35%, followed raw material stage. About 41% energy consumption renewable sources, with most sourced biomass. Fossil fuels comprised 52% (225 MJ unit) consumption. Total significantly affected two main parameters: reference service life load-bearing capacity. Pallet also found chain, which has low footprint compared overall enables mitigation extending life. At end-of-life, common industry practices demonstrated substantial potential benefits minimize impact.