Life cycle assessment of the wood pallet repair and remanufacturing sector in the United States

Abstract

Wood pallets are ubiquitous products that can be recovered and reused to enhance their service life and environmental performance. Repair/remanufacturing has an important role in extending the service life of the wood pallet. To quantify environmental performances of wood pallet reuse, this study developed representative life cycle inventory data for pallet repair/remanufacturing in the United States based on comprehensive industry-wide production data for 2018. A gate-to-gate life cycle assessment covering raw material supply, raw material transportation and pallet repair/remanufacturing showed that repair/ remanufacturing often had the highest impacts, including primary energy consumption at 5.09MJ and global warming impact at 0.355kg CO₂ eq per repaired/remanufactured pallet. Electricity consumed onsite followed by nail input and the fuel used by forklifts during the manufacturing drove much of the impacts on the environment. The results of this study provide valuable information on the repair/remanufacturing impacts, allowing quantification and evaluation of the recovery stage on the overall environmental performance of wood pallets.

Citation

Alanya‐Rosenbaum, Sevda; Bergman, Richard; Gething, Brad; Mousavi‐Avval, Seyed Hashem. 2022. Life cycle assessment of the wood pallet repair and remanufacturing sector in the United States. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining. 16(5): 1342-1352. https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.2379.