Green At Timber

Clearing the Air

For strength and durability relative to cost, wood is the smart choice for pallet construction. And wood is just as smart from an environmental conservation perspective.

Wood pallets are a responsible way to use natural resources, and that’s thanks to the efforts of the forestry industry. Using well-planned, sustainable harvest practices, foresters place an equal or greater emphasis on the trees to remain in an area as those that are cleared. The forest product industry and private timberland owners are role models for sustainable business practices and are responsible for the vast majority of new trees planted each year. In commercial forests, new plantings exceed harvest and other loss by as much as 50 percent, according to industry statistics. The USA has more trees today than we did 70 years ago.

Next, most wood pallets are designed to be used over and over again. In fact, one of our metrics in the pallet industry is "life to first repair." Wood pallets can be repaired and reused many times.

Even at the end of their effective service, wood pallets are still a valuable resource. Every day, pallets are turned into wood mulch, animal bedding, wood stove pellets, and construction materials. In addition, the steel nails that hold pallets together are routinely sold as scrap metal for reuse.

In the rare cases pallets enter the waste stream (less than 3 percent end up in landfills, according to a government study), the wood breaks down naturally just as it would as deadfall in a forest.

Wood: The natural "green" construction material.