One-way pallet
A pallet meant to make a single trip and be left with the receiver.
A one-way pallet ships goods to a customer and isn't expected back. It's often lighter-built than a pallet meant for many trips: the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's light-duty 48×40 stringer design weighs 31 lb on average and has a predicted service life of 10 trips, against 66 trips for a heavy-duty block pallet.
A one-way pallet doesn't have to make only one trip. Once it reaches a receiver, it can go to a reuse company, back to a supplier, or into the receiver's own outbound freight. That second life is where most pallet reuse happens.
If you ship on one-way pallets, their end of life at your customers can fall under scope 3 category 12; see category 12.
Count them in the reuse share when they go out again, not in your waste.
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.