Pallets in scope 3 category 5: waste generated in operations
Pallets your sites throw away belong in scope 3 category 5, waste generated in operations. EPA's 2025 GHG Hub (Table 9) gives dimensional lumber 0.17 MTCO2e per short ton landfilled and 0.05 combusted, and no factor for recycling. Avoided emissions from reuse are reported separately, never netted against the inventory (GHG Protocol, Box 5.6).
What goes in category 5
The GHG Protocol's Scope 3 Standard defines category 5 as emissions from third-party disposal and treatment of waste generated in the reporting company's owned or controlled operations in the reporting year (Scope 3 Standard, section 5.5). Inbound pallets you discard are that waste. Pooled pallets you return are not, because you are returning the owner's asset.
The factors
| Fate | EPA Hub 2025, Table 9 (MTCO2e/short ton) |
|---|---|
| Landfilled | 0.17 |
| Combusted | 0.05 |
| Recycled | NA for dimensional lumber |
| Composted | NA for dimensional lumber |
Worked example
A DC discards 400 wood pallets a month at 41 lb each: 400 × 12 × 41 ÷ 2000 = 98.4 short tons a year. If 70% is landfilled and 30% goes to a recycler, the inventory is 98.4 × 0.70 × 0.17 = 11.71 MTCO2e. The recycled 30% has no Hub factor; report the tonnage and note that it is not quantified rather than inventing one.
The 41 lb weight is the average of a heavy-duty 48×40 stringer pallet in the USDA Forest Products Laboratory LCA (FPL-RP-707, Table 2). Weigh a sample of your own if you can.
What not to do
- Don't subtract WARM's reuse credit from category 5. The Standard says avoided emissions from recycling 'should not be included in, or deducted from, the scope 3 inventory' (Box 5.6).
- Don't use WARM factors in the inventory. EPA's Hub notes that its waste factors deliberately leave out the avoided-emissions parts that WARM includes.
- Don't count pooled pallets as your waste.
Sources
- Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard GHG Protocol (WRI/WBCSD). Accessed October 27, 2026. Box 5.6 and section 9.5 on avoided emissions; section 5.5 category descriptions.
- GHG Emission Factors Hub 2025, Table 9 (Scope 3 Category 5 and Category 12) U.S. EPA Center for Corporate Climate Leadership. Accessed October 27, 2026. The 2025 Hub is the latest listed on the Hub page on the access date.
- Guidance on using the Hub's waste factors versus WARM U.S. EPA. Accessed October 27, 2026.
- Cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessment of wooden pallet production in the United States (Res. Pap. FPL-RP-707) USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (Alanya-Rosenbaum and Bergman, 2020). Accessed October 27, 2026. Table 2 (p. 8): average weights of 48×40 in. designs.