Wood Pallets and Landfills - Status and Opportunities for Economic Recovery and Recycling

Wood pallet recovery, repair, and recycling are sound environmental activities that can reduce both forest resource demands and waste in landfills. Our studies found that 6.16 million tons of wood pallets (or 223.6 million pallets) entered municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition (C&D) landfill facilities in 1995. At the same time, wood pallet recovery, repair, and recycling by pallet firms reached 171 million pallets. Approximately 37.9 million pallets were recovered at landfills, mostly to lowor no-value uses. Because of the large amounts of recovered and unrecovered material landfills could be an additional source of