DC Velocity - April 2016

BY SUSAN K. LACEFIELD, EDITOR AT LARGE

PALLETS AND CONTAINERS

materialhandlingupdate

WITH THE RISE OF THE ENVIronmentally conscious consumer and the growing importance of sustainability to corporate boardrooms, more and more companies are looking to reduce their carbon footprint and the amount of waste they send to the landfill.

One area that is increasingly being viewed through a green lens is packaging. Pallet companies and trade groups have responded by touting their particular type of pallet—wood, corrugated, plastic, or metal—as a sustainable choice. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that each material has both strengths and weaknesses.

Here’s a rundown of each type of pallet’s impact on the planet.

WOOD IS GOOD

Wood is by far the most common type of material being used to make pallets today, and it has a lot to recommend it as far as sustainability goes.

Wood is a renewable resource, and, according to the
National Wooden Pallet and Container Association
(NWPCA), it requires far less energy to produce
than any other common type of pallet material. “You
plant a tree, you leave it, it grows,” says Patrick Atagi,
the group’s executive vice
president of advocacy and exter-
nal affairs.

Of course, it’s not quite as simple as that. Trees do not grow overnight; it takes 30 to 40 years before a tree is large enough to be harvested for wood. But decades of forest management efforts mean that the United States is in little danger of running low on wood, even if housing starts return to the levels seen during the housing bubble. According to the “National Report on Sustainable Forests” published by the U.S. Forest Service in 2010, the number of acres of forest in the United States has remained stable for the last 50 years and the amount of wood being produced per acre has actually increased.