Pallet wood in pellets and panels
Clean ground pallet wood can feed pellet mills and particleboard or panel plants, which need dry wood. Nails, paint and grit limit how much they take. WARM has no factor for this route for dimensional lumber, so report it as tons diverted without a CO2e figure; do not borrow the reuse credit.
Who uses it
Pellet producers and panel mills buy wood residues by the ton. Pallet wood's appeal is that it is usually kiln-dried or air-dry. Its drawbacks are metal fasteners, mixed species and occasional paint or contamination, so expect a buyer to ask for clean, de-nailed grindings.
How to count it
Count it as grinding (G) in the Pallet Fate Report. WARM's wood chapter only models reuse, combustion and landfilling for dimensional lumber (Exhibit 12-3), so a panel-feedstock route has no published factor. Pellets that are later burned for heat end up as combustion, but that happens in someone else's inventory.
Questions before claiming it
- Do you have a receipt or statement from the processor naming the end use?
- Is the pathway stable, or one load sold once?
- Are you reporting tons, not 'trees saved'? This site doesn't publish tree equivalents.
Sources
- Documentation for Greenhouse Gas Emission and Energy Factors Used in WARM, Version 16: Construction Materials Chapters, ch. 12 Wood Products (EPA-530-R-23-020) U.S. EPA. Accessed October 27, 2026. Exhibits 12-3 (p. 12-3), 12-9, 12-13, 12-15 and 12-16 (p. 12-10).