Carbon footprint of wood and plastic as packaging materials – An Australian case of pallets

Pallets play a critical role in supply chains across a variety of industries in the world, since they are used for holding items during transportation and in transit. Pallets can be constructed using different materials and assembled in various designs to satisfy their functional requirements. Currently, material selection is predominantly based on material performance and cost analysis. Nonetheless, it is important to evaluate the suitability of the material in terms of an environmental footprint to reduce emissions generation. This study performed an environmental footprint assessment for the two most common packaging materials - wood and plastic, complying with GHG Protocol standards, in the Australian context. A quantitative analysis was carried out based on empirical data obtained from an Australian wooden pallet manufacturer (WPM) and published data for plastic pallets. Results demonstrated the carbon footprint of the plastic pallets (216 kgCO2-e) to complete 100 trips is 1.5 times higher than the wooden pallets (144 kgCO2-e), from a cradle-to-grave perspective. Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis was also conducted to identify sensitive variables and assess the accuracy of the results. Findings of this study can assist industry practitioners, academia, and policy enablers in selecting suitable materials to achieve emissions reduction.