How Pallet Recycling Reduces Your Carbon Footprint

The pallet industry is one of the largest consumers of lumber in the United States. An estimated 2 billion pallets are in circulation at any given time, and roughly 500 million new pallets are produced each year. That's a staggering amount of wood — and a significant environmental opportunity.

Every pallet that gets recycled instead of landfilled represents a direct environmental benefit. A single standard GMA pallet uses approximately 10-12 board feet of lumber. Recycling that pallet saves roughly one-third of a tree from being harvested. Scale that up across millions of pallets, and the numbers become enormous.

But the benefits go beyond saving trees. When wood pallets end up in landfills, they decompose and release methane — a greenhouse gas roughly 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. By diverting pallets from landfills, recycling programs directly reduce methane emissions.

The energy savings are significant too. Manufacturing a new pallet from raw lumber requires logging, transport, sawmill processing, and assembly — all energy-intensive activities. Repairing and recycling an existing pallet uses roughly 60% less energy than manufacturing a new one from scratch.

At Bakersfield Pallet Co., we track our environmental impact metrics carefully. In 2024 alone, our recycling operations diverted over 50,000 pallets from landfills, saved an estimated 25,000 board feet of new lumber, and prevented approximately 100 metric tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.

For businesses looking to improve their sustainability metrics, switching to recycled pallets is one of the simplest and most impactful changes you can make. It requires no operational changes — the pallets work exactly the same way. And the environmental benefit is measurable and reportable for ESG purposes.

We provide sustainability reports to our partner businesses that document the exact environmental impact of their recycled pallet usage. These reports include pallets diverted from landfill, estimated trees saved, CO2 emissions avoided, and water usage reduction compared to new pallet manufacturing.