Wood vs plastic pallets: what the evidence can and can't say
No single number settles wood versus plastic. Results swing on how many trips each pallet makes, how far empties travel back, and what happens at end of life. EPA's WARM credits reused wood with forest carbon (−1.66 MTCO2E per short ton), which plastic can't earn, while plastic often lasts more trips.
What drives the result
- Trips per pallet. The USDA study's wood designs range from 10 to 66 predicted trips (FPL-RP-707). A comparison that assumes one wood trip and one hundred plastic trips has decided the answer in advance.
- Return logistics. Pooled and closed-loop systems carry empties back; one-way pallets don't.
- End of life. Plastic pallets can be reground into new ones; wood can be reused, ground or burned. WARM has wood factors but treats plastics as separate materials.
- Who paid for the study, and who supplied its data.
In your own reporting
The Pallet Fate Report takes plastic pallets out of the wood arithmetic and flags them, because WARM's dimensional lumber factors don't apply to them. If plastic pallets are a large share of your flow, model them separately with plastic factors and say where those came from.
Questions to ask of any comparison
- What is the functional unit: one pallet, one trip, or a quantity of product delivered?
- How many trips does each option make, and where does that number come from?
- Is end of life included, and with which factors?
- Was the study peer reviewed, and who funded it?
Sources
- 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.
- 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).