10 Surprising Pallet Facts You Need to Know

Pallets may be small, but they’re not insignificant. Knowing these surprising facts can help you meet corporate environmental and social responsibility initiatives.

10 Surprising Facts

• Did you know?  Over 95% of all wooden pallets are now recycled – a much higher recycling rate than for aluminum, paper, or plastic.
• On March 11, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency signed into regulation language that opens the path for wood pallet residuals to be sold as wood pellet fuel.
• Also in 2020, wood pallets received Environmental Product Declaration certification, which helps businesses fulfill corporate environmental and social responsibility initiatives. (source)
• There are more than 2 billion pallets in service in the United States each day. Over ninety percent of these pallets are made from wood. (source)
• Trees are generally not cut down to make pallets. The wood used for pallets is a by-product of the timber used in the construction of houses and furniture.
• There are more trees in the United States today than there were 35 years ago and the number of new trees still increases annually (source).
• The wood packaging industry supports more than 173,000 jobs in the U.S. (source)
• The first patent for a pallet is from 1925 by a man named Howard T. Hallowell; rather than referring to it as a pallet, however, he called it a “Life Truck Platform.” (source)
• The first evidence of pallets being shipped by rail can be seen in trade magazine advertisements from the 1920s. (source)
• A Navy Supply Corps officer named Norman Cahners invented the “four-way pallet” during World War II. (source)

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