Introduction
The results below are an excerpt from Circular Transformation of the American Wood Packaging Industry, a master thesis written for the International Institute for Industrial Economics in Lund, Sweden. This survey was taken in Spring 2023 to assess the extent of circular practices within American wood pallet businesses.
If you are interested to know more about our project to transform the American wood packaging industry, here are some helpful links:
The Survey
A 53-item questionnaire about the current practices of organizations working within each phase of the wood pallet life cycle was created using Google Forms. Organization of the questionnaire into life cycle phases of design, raw material procurement, new manufacturing, delivery and retrieval, repair, EOL management, and closed loop systems; and inclusion of several specific questions about industry practices were inspired by a recent conference paper providing a conceptual design for a tool to measure circular economy practices in pallet supply chains. This survey was the foundation for the world’s first comprehensive assessment of the circularity of American wood pallet operations across all life cycle phases.
The survey was distributed to 350 members of the National Wood Pallet & Container Association (NWPCA) via email on 1 March 2023. Follow-up emails were sent on 20 March and 27 March to remind potential respondents about the survey. The survey was also posted to the “Pallet Enterprise” LinkedIn group on 1 March, receiving 602 impressions during the response period. The survey was closed to responses on 31 March 2023.
Results
Findings
The table below summarizes the most important findings from the survey. Notably, eco-design is indicated as an infrequent practice in the American wood pallet industry, despite its proven ecological and economic benefits.
| Industry practices | Key Findings |
| Design | • There is a low degree of standardization in product dimensions – a barrier to reuse. • Despite the prevalence of software-aided product design in the industry, these tools’ eco-design capabilities are rarely utilized. |
| Raw material procurement | • Wood raw material is purchased in a variety of forms. • Small organisations tend to be located farther from the raw material source. • Most organisations import some fraction of their wood, typically from Canada. • Forest certification schemes are used by a growing fraction of organisations. |
| New manufacturing | • Large organisations report a higher degree of process automation. • Grid electricity and natural gas are the predominant energy sources used. Biomass energy is generated by a minority of organisations. |
| Delivery & retrieval | • All organisations surveyed reported using diesel, heavy duty trucks. The use of gasoline, medium duty trucks for smaller orders is less prevalent. • Order quantities fulfilled range from 11-50 pallets to 500+ pallets. Smaller orders are more commonly fulfilled for deliveries than for retrievals. • Large organisations transport products over much greater distances than do small organisations. |
| Repair | • Remanufacturing, the practice of using salvaged components in repair activities, is widely practised. • More organisations refurbish components than replace components. • Grading schemes for repaired pallets are not consistent across organisations. |
| Closed loop systems | • Few organisations participate in closed loop systems. • Participants report a high degree of consolidation in reverse logistics, but a low prevalence of cross-docking and a lack of chain of custody and service history information. |
| EOL managment | • All organizations surveyed reuse components in some way. • Small organizations have a higher prevalence of undesirable EOL practices (landfilling, donation) than do large organizations. |
| General | • Large organisations tend to participate more in earlier life cycle phases (design, procurement, new manufacturing), while small organisations tend to participate more in later phases (retrieval, repair, EOL). |
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