Tag Archive for: pallets

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Women’s Impact in the Pallet Industry

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Over the past few years, the pallet industry has seen a significant shift in its workforce, with more women getting involved in the industry. This trend is a welcome development for an industry that has traditionally been male dominated. The changing demographics are bringing about new perspectives and ideas that are transforming the pallet industry. This Nature’s Packaging blog post will explore how women are getting more involved and changing the pallet industry.

The pallet industry is an essential component of the supply chain management system. It involves the production, transportation, and management of pallets that are used to transport goods and products across different stages of the supply chain.

The pallet industry is a crucial link between manufacturers, retailers, and consumers, ensuring that products are transported safely and efficiently. Over the years, the pallet industry has seen significant growth, with the demand for pallets increasing due to the rise of e-commerce and global trade.

In the past, the pallet industry was seen as a male-dominated industry, with women playing a minimal role in the sector. However, this trend has been changing in recent years, with more women getting involved in the pallet industry. Women are now involved in various roles within the industry, including management, production, and sales.

One of the main reasons for the increase in the number of women in the pallet industry is the growing awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Many companies are now actively seeking to hire and promote women in the industry, recognizing the value that diversity brings to the workplace. Women bring a unique perspective and approach to the industry, which can help drive innovation and growth.

Another reason for the increase in the number of women in the pallet industry is the changing perception of the industry itself. The industry is no longer seen as a dirty, manual labor-intensive sector.

Instead, it is recognized as a vital component of the supply chain management system, requiring skilled workers with a broad range of knowledge and expertise. Women are well-suited for many of the roles in the pallet industry, as they often possess the skills and attributes required for the job, such as attention to detail, organizational skills, and strong communication skills.

One of the ways that women are changing the pallet industry is through their approach to management. Women tend to bring a more collaborative and inclusive management style to the workplace, which can help foster teamwork and improve communication. This approach is particularly useful in the pallet industry, where teamwork and communication are essential for ensuring that pallets are produced and transported efficiently.

Women are also bringing new perspectives to the industry, particularly when it comes to sustainability and environmental impact. Women tend to be more environmentally conscious and aware of the impact that the pallet industry has on the environment. They are more likely to advocate for the use of sustainable materials and processes, which can help reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.

The pallet industry is seeing a significant shift and more women are choosing to getting involved in the sector. Women are bringing new perspectives, ideas, and approaches to the industry, which are transforming the sector. The increasing diversity in the industry is a welcome development, and companies that embrace this trend are likely to see significant benefits in terms of innovation, growth, and competitiveness. As the pallet industry continues to evolve, it is essential to recognize the value that women bring to the sector and to ensure that they have the opportunity to thrive and succeed.

The Recyclable Wood Pallet: Reducing Environmental Impact

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In this Nature’s Packaging blog post, we review the importance of recycling and reducing the environmental impact of our actions. We’ll be discussing the benefits of wood pallets as a recyclable and biodegradable material, and how it compares to other materials like plastic and metal alternatives.

Let’s begin with the recycling of wood pallets. Wood pallets are capable of being recycled throughout their functional life as a piece of material handling equipment. If a piece of a pallet is damaged during transport, once the pallet is returned for collection the damaged piece(s) can easily be removed and replaced. The pallet can then be re-used in the supply chain for transporting goods.

At the end of their functional life, a pallet is broken down into its component wood pieces and then recycled and repurposed into other wood products. These products include everything from mulch to animal bedding, to fuel, and even in some cases furniture. These repurposed products mean that the amount of wood waste that ends up in a landfill is reduced and this conserves resources.

Another advantage of wood pallets is that they are biodegradable. This means that, over time, the wood will break down naturally in the environment. Wood does not take hundreds of years to decompose. This also reduces the environmental impact of the pallets at the end of their useful life.

Now, let’s do a quick comparison of wood pallets to plastic and metal pallet alternatives. Plastic pallets can be a useful shipping platform and are sometimes the right choice for a given supply chain operation.

However, plastic pallets are not biodegradable and can take hundreds of years to decompose. Plastic pallets also require large amounts of fossil fuels to produce. And while they can be recycled, the processes used to recycle plastic pallets also utilize fossil fuels and thus add to carbon emissions.

In some supply chains, metal pallets are a preferred choice. Very often they are found in pharmaceutical supply chains that are closed loop, which means that the pallet will stay within a facility or only be used to transport materials from one location to another within a company supply chain.

In these situations, they are strictly controlled and inventoried. They are built to be extremely durable and designed to last for a long time. This makes them quite expensive to manufacture and metal pallets are not a good solution for widespread use in a supply chain. Also, they are not biodegradable and, like plastic pallets, require large amounts of energy to produce, leading to a high carbon footprint.

In contrast, wood is a renewable resource and can be regrown and replenished. Wood pallets are also relatively inexpensive compared to plastic or metal alternatives. And, wood pallets are a recyclable and biodegradable material that reduces the environmental impact of the pallets at the end of their useful life.

Wood pallets are a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to plastic and metal pallets. By choosing wood pallets, companies can help reduce the environmental impact of their supply chain operations and contribute to making a positive choice for a more sustainable future.

Circular Design – How Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Can Be Part of Product Design

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The principles of circular design are integral to the concept of a circular economy, a new economic model that values sustainability and efficiency. Many products don’t return to the manufacturer in today’s linear economy, nor would they arrive in a recyclable condition. Sustainability wasn’t a priority when mass consumption became the norm, and many products were never designed for systematic reuse. The economic system today follows the “make, take, discard” product lifecycle, but circular design provides an opening for a sustainable economy.

Circular Design – A Definition

Circular design entails a fundamental shift from wastefulness toward sustainability from the product’s conception to its fabrication. Everything is designed for reuse multiple times instead of designing for failure or obsolescence. It’s a change that maximizes economic efficiency since products and their components are recycled instead of thrown away. Circular design enables innovation in ways that the linear economy can’t provide and entails the following principles.

Circular Design Principles

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the four principles of circular design are:

  • Understand
  • Define
  • Make
  • Release

The result is a new product lifecycle designed for sustainability with each iteration. It incorporates the three “R’s” principles – reduce, reuse, and recycle – and supports the creation and manufacturing of products that can be reused time and again.

Understand

The first principle is to understand where the most significant opportunities are ready and available. Not every product or service lends itself to circular design because the business doesn’t operate on a sustainable model.

Understanding the current product design, its shortcomings, and its lifecycle gives business leaders a direction when adopting circular design. The idea is to construct products and processes that are regenerative and restorative instead of destructive and wasteful. Changes in the model can include a more robust connection from fabrication to services where downstream recycling is regenerative and/or restorative and maintains a viable product (read: pallets) that is reusable throughout its lifecycle.

Define

The defining principle articulates the specific business processes that can benefit from circular design. The supply chain is a perfect example. The challenges in supply chain operations may differ from company to company, yet they aren’t insurmountable.

It takes a multi-disciplinary, collaborative effort between provider and customer to identify processes and transition to a more sustainable design that includes the materials used to make the products. The definition of success must be clear and attainable because the following principle relies upon clarity. If the purpose seems elusive, the proper course is to return to narrowing down and understanding the opportunity.

Make

Here is where businesses can take action and prioritize which products and/or processes are likely to succeed according to clearly defined sustainability objectives and which ones need further development. One strategy is to test concepts with rapid prototyping and to embed feedback mechanisms to optimize the design.

An easy low-hanging fruit to pluck is re-examining the raw materials that go into a product. Is it feasible to make the item with biodegradable materials, or is it a better candidate for recycling? Can it incorporate both into production? The answers boil down to what the user needs. Many times, different versions of the same product may be necessary to test and achieve circularity since the design requires innovation and creativity. This is where research and development take place, literally and figuratively. Think of the purpose of facilities like the Virginia Tech – Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design.

Release

The last principle is launching the new design, but it doesn’t stop there. Circular design demands continuous improvement and a constant focus on efficiency. That’s why it’s best to launch and learn, releasing products to redesign and refine processes, with the ultimate goal of creating a circular product lifecycle. Creating a circular economic system demands no less than a concerted, multi-pronged approach.

Circular Design and the Wood Pallet Industry

The question is: do real-world examples of circular design exist? And the answer is yes. The wood pallet industry is a prime example of how design can enable circular economics to the company’s benefit. Wood pallets don’t require new raw materials each time. Manufacturers can produce them from sustainably sourced wood, recycled wood components, or a combination of both. Another example is a pooled pallet rental system which many large enterprises rely upon in transporting their finished goods.

Either way, the pallets, and components are designed to be used multiple times, bolstering the product lifecycle with increased sustainability. The pallet industry leverages its natural advantage in sustainable processes, and companies can legitimately validate forward-thinking sustainability goals and demonstrate genuine positive action for environmental concerns. The old wasteful business model is transformed into a circular system, and companies establish trust with their customer.

Conclusion

Efficient design processes focusing on reuse can lower material costs end to end. A circular-designed product doesn’t have a single lifecycle but rather several. The overarching concept is to battle climate change by reimagining how products reach consumers, starting at the design level. The four principles of circular design provide guidance, but it’s incumbent upon business leaders to commit to the new paradigm.

What is Cap and Trade?

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The wooden pallet and container industry has been promoting the use of wood as an economical and sustainable solution for businesses and their supply chains for years. Our business model is built on recyclable and reusable packaging solutions so that customers can have faith and hard data in the implementation of their sustainability initiatives.

As climate change and greenhouse gas emissions have taken a more prominent place in consumer concerns, governments are implementing new programs and models to incentivize industries to cut emissions that have a detrimental impact on climate and populations around the world. One of the most successful models to accomplish these goals has been “Cap and Trade”.

In this Nature’s Packaging post, we’ll take a quick dive into cap and trade to learn more about it.

What is Cap and Trade?

In order to combat climate change, governments have employed a variety of methods. One such method is cap and trade. Cap and trade is a system in which the government places a limit, or cap, on the amount of pollution that companies can emit. This system would place a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow companies to buy and sell allowances for these emissions.

The goal of this system is to reduce emissions gradually over time while giving companies flexibility in how they meet the caps. Companies that exceed their allotted amount must purchase allowances from other companies that have not used up their allotment.

This market-based approach provides an incentive for companies to pollute less, as they can then sell their allowances to other companies. The overall goal of cap and trade is to reduce pollution by setting a limit on emissions and creating a market for buying and selling emissions allowances.

Critics of cap and trade argue that it will lead to higher energy prices and place a burden on businesses. They also argue that it is unfair because it allows some companies to emit more greenhouse gases than others. Supporters of cap and trade argue that it is necessary in order to combat climate change and that it will create incentives for businesses to develop cleaner technologies and implement sustainability processes.

A Short History of Cap And Trade

In the United States, the first mandatory cap-and-trade program was established by the Acid Rain Program of 1990. The program was designed to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that were causing acid rain. The program was successful in reducing emissions and provided a model for future cap-and-trade programs. According to the EPA, the program was a “pioneering effort” that helped the United States meet its Kyoto Protocol commitment.

In 2012, the Obama administration implemented a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions. The program placed a limit on the amount of carbon dioxide that could be emitted by power plants and other large emitters.

The goal of the program was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2020. However, the program was never fully implemented, and was eventually replaced by other climate change policies.

Despite its challenges, cap and trade remains one of the most popular mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. California’s current cap and trade system has been in place for a number of years and is see as a model for future use at a broader level.

How Does Cap and Trade Work?

In order to understand how cap and trade works, it is important to first understand what it is. Cap and trade is a system that was created in order to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The way it works is by setting a limit, or cap, on the amount of emissions that a company or country can produce. If they exceed this limit, they must purchase credits from others who have not reached their limit. This provides an incentive for companies to reduce their emissions, as they can then sell their credits to others.

The cap and trade system has been used in the United States since 2009, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the program in an effort to combat climate change. The program has been successful in reducing emissions, but there are still some critics who argue that it does not do enough to address the problem.

The Pros and Cons of Cap and Trade

The cap-and-trade system is a market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.

The pros of this system are that it provides a financial incentive for companies to reduce their emissions, and it allows companies to trade emissions allowances with each other. This flexibility means that companies can choose the most cost-effective way to meet their emission reduction targets.

The cons of cap-and-trade are that some argue it may not lead to the level of emission reductions needed to combat climate change, and it could create windfall profits for companies that have already made investments in clean technology.

The Future of Cap and Trade

As the world continues to face the reality of climate change, many countries, industries, and companies are searching for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and implement sustainability into their processes.

The pallet industry continues to explore new areas of their business models to determine where recycling and reuse can fit into a system that rewards lowering greenhouse gas emissions and the ability to sequester carbon.

While we have witnessed the voluntary carbon market slowly rise and gather momentum. It remains relatively misunderstood and somewhat of a black box in terms of value and efficacy.

In the near future, if the pallet industry is able to link custody of certain parts of the sequestration process to recycling that generates a monetary return. Industries and companies will beat a path to the doors faster than you can say, “Wood Is Good”.

Some Great Resources to Explore

Calmatters – The Basics of Cap and Trade

Environmental Defense Fund – How Cap and Trade Works

Cap and Trade – Pros and Cons

 

U.S. Forest Products-Annual Market Review 2015-2021

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The market for forest products in the U.S. is healthy, but for how long? Global macroeconomic pressures are inflicting inflationary pains on everything from wood pallets to essential household items, and the forest products business is no different. Since early 2020, the COVID pandemic’s lock down and public health and safety measures nearly ground the world’s economy to a standstill. Today, we’re still coming out of hibernation, so to speak, but there’s plenty of room for optimism too.

Forest products have weathered the pandemic and subsequent lock downs relatively well. That does not mean serious challenges remain, yet the overall outlook has a positive trajectory. With those considerations in mind, here’s a breakdown of the most critical takeaways from the latest report U.S. Forest Products Annual Market Review and Prospects, 2015-2021.

Purpose of the Annual Market Review

The annual market review aims to build a holistic analysis of the forest products industry, including a breakdown of each market segment, such as sawn softwood and sawn hardwood. The report also outlines the developments that are shaping forest product consumption. The booming housing market is a prime example, as demand for raw lumber and building supplies remains historically high.

There’s even a brief mention of how biomass energy dovetails with the federal government’s emphasis on sustainability and climate change. Altogether, each of these factors forms a comprehensive picture of the U.S. forest products industry. The author of the review, Delton Alderman, has included everything that may affect the business moving forward over the next five years or so.

Current State of the Forest Products Market

Interestingly, the report’s bottom line is this: The table end of the covid-19 pandemic is still influencing the U.S. economy at large, and the forest products market business is no different. Specifically, the review identifies the most significant contributors to the disruption as the waning global demand for wood products, geopolitical events, and the trade disputes that have been ongoing for several years.

But according to the report’s author, a healthy U.S. housing market should be a boon to the forest products industry as home prices continue to rise along with a lack of available homes for sale, including new home construction that simply can’t keep pace with consumer demand. That’s a high-level look at the report, so let’s drill down into little bits of information and data that go into the review.

Information and Data in Annual Market Review

The report’s author builds out the review by looking into information and stats that focus on forest products. The study delves into consumption, trade, prices, credit, production, and the aforementioned macroeconomic effects. The review categorizes each market segment. The downside is that the nomenclature used by the author may be different from the terminology you use internally within your company or industry. Additionally, there is also data on product prices, international trade, domestic markets, and policy initiatives.

When is the Annual Market Review released?

Published in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Products Annual Market Review and Prospects, 2021-2025 comes out every year. The overriding difference this year is the depth and significance of the disruptions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the report looks at the market in its entirety instead of focusing on a single sub-sector.

The time frame in question may differ from report to report as economic conditions dictate how far into the future industry leaders should look for near-term trends. This time, the report outlines what the industry may soon face from 2021 to 2025. It’s the minimum amount of time necessary for a proper statistical analysis that seeks to forecast trends in juxtaposition with past data. From that point onward, the review breaks down the statistics and greatest influences for each category of forest products.

Forest product categories in the report

According to the report’s definition of forest products, the U.S. market can be broken down into several categories:

  • Timber products production, trade, and consumption
  • Sawn softwood
  • Softwood log trade
  • Sawn hardwood
  • Hardwood log trade
  • Pulpwood
  • Furniture
  • Structural panels
  • Engineered wood products
  • Hardwood plywood
  • Particle board and medium density fiberboard
  • Hardboard
  • Insulation board
  • Fuelwood

Additionally, the author explains the impact of economic conditions on each market segment. By taking this approach, the report can give a 360-degree view of the forest products industry and where it may turn in the future. Business leaders need an accurate portrayal of the industry to make investments and plan for successes – or further economic disruption due to factors beyond their control (i.e., rising inflation).

Currently, we are still in the nascent stages of a recovery from COVID-19, which most likely will affect the industry’s trajectory over the near term. And countries are facing headwinds from the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent recessionary environment.

Some segments will feel the impact more than others. The purpose of the review is to provide a starting range on how these forces will affect those markets. Without these insights, industry-leading companies would have a much harder time getting a snapshot of the market and whether or not the exacerbating factors are beyond their control.

Take some time to review the report, which can be found at the link above, and see how the economic conditions may factor into your strategic decision making.

 

Carbon Sequestration

What is Carbon Sequestration?

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Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing carbon and storing it in a way that won’t contribute to climate change.

If you’re familiar with the concept of a carbon footprint, then you are off to a great start. A carbon footprint measures how much greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are due to activities like driving a vehicle or using electricity to run facilities and machinery.

Greenhouse gases trap heat in our atmosphere and contribute to global warming. They’re “greenhouse gases” because they work like the glass of a greenhouse: they let sunlight in but don’t allow the heat that is generated to escape back outside the atmosphere of the Earth into space. The result is that global temperatures rise, and weather patterns become more severe and less predictable.

Carbon dioxide and methane are two common greenhouse gases  that are produced by activities like burning fossil fuels or managing livestock.

But nature has developed an excellent resource to help pull carbon out of the environment.

The wonderful tree.

As trees mature, they absorb sunlight through photosynthesis and store carbon in the form of carbohydrates, which are used by the tree for growth. This carbon capture process occurs within all plants to convert sunlight into chemical energy. Trees are especially good at it because they typically have an extensive root and leaf structure.

If the tree is harvested to become a forest product like lumber, it retains that carbon—meaning that wood products act as “sinks” for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In other words, using wood helps remove carbon from the atmosphere—which can help mitigate climate change.

Wood:  A Carbon Storage Powerhouse

A tree’s roots, trunk, branches, leaves, and sap all contain carbon, and while they’re growing, they take up even more carbon dioxide.

The amount of carbon stored in any particular tree varies with its size and age, the type of wood it produces (hardwood or softwood), and how dense the wood is. You can determine the density by measuring how much space an oven-dry wood sample occupies.

The ability to store carbon in plant biomass, such as trees, makes possible the creation of a sustainable energy source.

The process of carbon sequestration involves three main steps:

  1. Capturing CO2 from the atmosphere
  2. Transporting it to underground storage.
  3. Storing the captured CO2

The quantity of carbon sequestered will depend on various factors, including climate, geography, and land management practices.

For centuries, humanity has relied on forests and wood for a multitude of products. Today, industries harvest and utilize trees for everything from construction materials to cosmetics.

However, it turns out that forest products are capable of continuing their carbon sequestration process. Instead of releasing carbon back into the atmosphere through decomposition, wood products can store carbon within their cellular structure, keeping it out of the atmosphere. It means wood products are a great source of renewable energy!

As a renewable resource, wood is a vital component of the circular economy. Wood products store carbon throughout their life cycle and can help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Wood is very often one of the few materials that is produced and utilized within the same geographic region. It results in a low carbon footprint compared to many other materials (e.g., concrete, steel, plastic).

Reduce > Re-use > Recycle > Renew

Encouraging the use of wood products that sequester carbon is a small part of the larger positive impact on the environment and climate change. Another step to this equation is to Reduce-Reuse-Recycle whenever possible.

Wood is a renewable resource. Responsibly managed forests help in the fight against climate change by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere on a global scale. And they do it at an astonishing rate. A single hardwood tree can absorb up to 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, and one acre of forest can absorb twice as much CO2 as an acre of farmland.

When you purchase products like wood pallets to use in your supply chain, you support an industry that uses a renewable resource and recycles that resource millions of times a day, every day.

 

Today I Learned-Wood Stringer Pallets-Part 1

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For those in the wood pallet industry, pallet types, pallet parts, and vocabulary are second nature. The terms and topics are a part of doing business everyday.

For those outside of the pallet industry that may be tasked with buying pallets, these terms and topics can be difficult to understand or there may be some gaps in understanding.

So today, we at Nature’s Packaging want to help you (the pallet buyer) with a short and simple guide about the most common wood stringer pallet in the supply chain and some of the terminology around it, the 48×40 wooden stringer pallet (shown above as the featured image).

The 48×40 Wooden Stringer Pallet

While there a certainly a whole range of wood pallets sizes in the the supply chain, the standard 48″x40″ wood pallet is by far the most common and utilized for transporting goods. The 48″x40″ is also sometimes called a “GMA” pallet. GMA stands for, “Grocery Manufacturers Association” and the GMA pallet is a guideline developed by that association to help streamline transportation of products within the food industry.

As seen in the image above, the standard 48″x40″ pallet is usually composed of a few different components:

  • stringers
  • deck-boards
  • fasteners (nails)

Stringers – also known as “runners”, are a continuous length-wise beam component that acts as support for deckboards and allows the deckboards to be spaced apart according to the needs of the pallet user. On a typical 48×40 pallet you will find 3 stringers spaced evenly apart with a center stringer and two at the edges.

Notice the notches in the stringers in the image above. A standard 48×40 stringer pallet is also known as partial 4-way pallet. This means that a forklift or pallet jack can enter from the front or back of the pallet to move the load, but only a forklift can lift a 48×40 pallet by coming in from the side using the notches. Most pallet jacks will not fit in the space.

Deck-boards – wooden components typically nailed perpendicular across the top and bottom of the pallet to the stringers. Deck-boards are spaced according to the needs of the pallet user and their unit load. The top and bottom deck-boards that sit on the front and back edge are commonly known as the lead boards and the others are the interior deck-boards. Typical configurations for the number of top and bottom deckboards on a 48″x40″ pallet are 7 top deck-boards and 5 bottom deck-boards. Many times you will find the lead boards are wider than the interior deck-boards, this aids in stability and can help lower the repair rate due to forklifts running into the edge frequently.

Sometimes the bottom deck-boards will be “chamfered”, this a beveled cut along part or the full width of the deck-board to help with the passage of the pallet jack forks into the pallet.

Fasteners – or “nails” are almost always threaded, rather than a common nail used in carpentry, as the threading will help with the pallet durability and strength. Usually 2-3 nails are used per deckboard to secure it to the stringer. Here is a sample below for better understanding.

Fasteners or nails

Pallet Size

When discussing a wood stringer pallet with your supplier, the pallet length and width are based on the stringer length and deck-board width respectively. So a 48″x40″ stringer pallet has 48″ length stringers at full length and 40″ deck-boards across. Pallet size for a stringer pallet ALWAYS starts with the stringer length. Remember that.

Pallet Build Types

A 48×40 wood pallet can be built several different ways. What this refers to is the components used for building the pallet. The following are different build types:

  • New
  • Combo
  • Remand
  • Recycled

New – A wood pallet built with all new components

Combo – A wood pallet built with a combination of new and recycled components. Typically the stringers would be new and the deck-boards would be recycled. Often a more cost effective alternative to completely new pallets.

Remand – A wood pallet “re-manufactured” from recycled components entirely (except for the nails used). Often, these will be a smaller size than a 48×40 pallet as the components are recycled from the larger pallet size. 36×36 pallets are a common size for remand pallet.

Recycled – A wood pallet that has components repaired so that it can be re-used. Typically, this will be some number of damaged deck-board components that are removed and a “new” recycled deck-board is nailed back into place. There can also be a companion stringer, otherwise known as a “plug” or “crutch” that is nailed alongside the interior of a stringer to act as support when the original stringer is cracked or partially broken.

Wood pallets have a 95% recycle rate which makes the industry one of the most environmentally friendly in the supply chain services. We at Nature’s Packaging hope that this quick guide will help you when making decisions to purchase pallets. Always work with your pallet services provider to help you find the solution to your pallet needs.

 

*The National Wooden Pallet and Container Association has an excellent resource library that contains documents like the Uniform Standard for Wooden Pallets that provide an in-depth review of  the subject matter. Please use the links to visit the library and learn more.

 

Wood Pallets 101

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The Pallet Industry

“Pallets Move the World” is the motto of the National Wood & Pallet Container Association and it is most definitely true. Wood pallets are widely used in the supply chain and can be found in nearly every type of logistics operation , whether it be packaging, transportation, warehousing, crossdocking, pick/pack, etc. The use of wood pallets has revolutionized the supply chain and has increased efficiency in logistics by orders of magnitude. In the United States today, wood pallets are a $12 billion dollar industry that is a critical part of the infrastructure that keeps the US economy functioning even in the midst of a global pandemic.

Wood Pallet Companies

In North America, wooden pallets are produced and recycled by an army of companies (3000+) spread across the continent. Most often, these are family owned businesses that are now reaching the 3rd-4th generation. The companies can range in size from 2 people in a garage, to companies with hundreds of employees based across multiple geographic regions, to global corporations with thousands of employees.

Pallet brokers are companies that typically don’t own any assets (like pallet yards), but are able to tap into this industry ecosystem to service clients with diverse manufacturing or production operations across the country or globe.

The Wood Pallet

New Pallets

Pallets are generally inexpensive to manufacture. The raw material used is the byproduct of wood that is left over after the high grade material goes to veneer, furniture, and paper among others.

Typically, they are constructed using softwood or hardwood depending on availability of pallet lumber in the specific regional market. New pallets are generally built by machine as it allows for much more efficiency in production vs being built by hand. Here is an example of a pallet building machine at work:

Recycled Pallets

Wood pallets are very often rebuilt and recycled multiple times before the end of their life cycle. This makes them the most sustainable and reusable link in the supply chain. The video below is a great view of what takes place when a recycled pallet is repaired.

 

Pallet Supply and Flow

Wood pallets tend to move through the supply chain and stay within a particular region. For example, a beverage manufacturer palletizes their product on a standard 48×40 pallet. Those pallets (unit loads) are loaded into a truck and that truck then hauls the load to a beverage distributor 125 miles away. The beverage distributor may break down the unit load to put them on another smaller vehicle for delivery or move the full pallet to a nearby grocery store chain.

Eventually, the pallet is emptied and then it is resold, repaired if needed, and re-used in the local supply chain. This process happens repeatedly, with some slight variation on the type of load transported, thousands of times a day.

Over time, this regional pallet pool will decline in quality because the pallets have been repaired many times. At the end of their utility, pallets have a number of options for recycling. They can be ground into mulch, made into animal bedding, or repurposed into creative projects. The important point is that they are recycled throughout their entire life cycle all the way to the end. in fact, wooden pallets and containers are recycled 95% of the time and are an important part of any company’s sustainability effort.

A Quick Take on the Growth Cycle of Trees

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A Quick Take on the Growth Cycle of Trees

Trees within forests are like wind and solar power in that they are a renewable resource. Whereas wind and solar energy can be regenerated relatively continuously, trees require more time to convert solar energy to wood so it can be utilized. In this article we’ll take a quick look at a tree’s growth cycle.

Tree seedlings will often wait for ideal environmental conditions to arise before sprouting.  Some species of tree seeds will remain intact for many years, waiting for the perfect environment, while others will only sprout under extreme conditions such as a forest fire. Only when the seeds are exposed to the right conditions will they sprout.

A seedling will appear above the ground and the first two leaves will start to absorb sunlight to provide energy for further growth. Seedlings will then start developing woody characteristics and will continue to grow and seek out the sun. Saplings are usually 1 – 4 inches in diameter and about 4.5 feet in height.  Many nurseries will sell saplings at this point in the tree’s growth cycle because they are capable of being transplanted with a high survival rate.

It is during the early growth phases of a tree’s life that it absorbs the most amount of carbon. During the process of photosynthesis, young trees convert carbon dioxide to breathable oxygen and use the carbon internally for growth. When hundreds of thousands of trees within a forest complete this process simultaneously, they fight global warming by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

About half of any given piece of lumber’s net weight is carbon that was sequestered from the atmosphere and lumber will continue to store that carbon until it naturally disintegrates or is burned for energy. No part of a tree goes to waste! The bark and branches are used for supplies like garden mulch and animal bedding whereas the lower quality of lumber from a tree is used to make wood pallets. According to the research article “Pallet Re-Use and Recycling Saves High Value Material from Landfills,” there are about 4 billion wood pallets in circulation just in the United States. Wood pallets have been used for decades and have established themselves as the safest and most reliable way to transport goods and services while storing carbon sequestered from the atmosphere.

References

Wood Pallets Help Kids at Refugee Camps

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Wood Pallets Help Kids at Refugee Camps

According to the UNHCR, developing countries host 86% of the world’s refugees and about 51% of all refugees are children. To be clear, a refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. With so many children at refugee camps, their childhoods are impacted by the experience of fleeing their home country for fear of their safety. Humanitarian aid ships to them on wood pallets yet many children are left without toys.

Jon Robbins, a 33 year old advertising and design professional, wants to change that. Instead of shipping food, medicine, and water to refugee camps on one-way wood pallets, he wants to ship them on wood pallets that can be converted to sports equipment. That way, the kids at refugee camps can play and have some fun!

Jon said, “I was inspired by a friend telling me about his visit to a refugee camp and how eerily quiet it was. And it turns out that although more than half of the refugees in the camp are children, they aren’t playing, which is why it seemed so quiet. I love sports and I really believe in the importance and healing power of play, so I was inspired to try to see how to help get some sports equipment out to those children.

It’s a tough sell to get play equipment on a pallet that’s transporting food, water, and medicine to refugees, so we began designing and developing a pallet that is also a completely self-contained sports equipment system.”

His first patent-pending design is an all-inclusive basketball set. The 48×40 pallet includes instructions, spare parts, a hoop, net, and ball. Each pallet is designed to be reconstructed into two stand-alone basketball nets and includes everything needed to construct it. Other designs he has planned are soccer goals and skateboards. The wood pallets are manufactured in upstate New York.

According to the UNHCR, there are 21.3 million refugees in the world and less than 1% of the world’s refugees are ever resettled. Although refugee camps are intended to be a temporary stay, for many, they are long-term. Giving kids at refugee camps toys to play with gives them hope and joy.

For more information or to help the cause, visit the Play Pallets website.

Resources

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