Life Cycle Assessment of One-way and Pooled Pallet Alternatives

Questions remain over the environmental performance of pooled pallets compared to one-way pallet alternatives. The environmental impacts of softwood, hardwood, plastic and cardboard pallets, for use in one-way and pooled pallet systems with manufacturing in either China or Australia, were compared with the use of life cycle assessment. The use of wood and regular maintenance leads to lesser environmental impact, as well as reduced servicing costs, in many typical applications through allowing a greater number of pallet uses between servicing and over the whole lifecycle. The environmental benefits of one-way pallets emerge for specific scenarios involving longer transport distances outside pooling catchments.