Each year a large number of wooden pallets are manufactured, recycled, and disposed of during the transportation of goods throughout the United States. The production of these pallets consumes a significant amount of wood and a large number of pallets also end up in landfills at the end of their useful life cycle. However, these pallets can be recovered through repair, broken apart into components, ground into mulch, fuel, animal bedding, or used by landfills for day to day operations. The purpose of this research was to investigate the total number of pallets and crates reaching landfills in the United States as well as to gain a better understanding of the overall waste stream. This was done by surveying all licensed Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and Construction and Demolition (CandD) landfills in the continental United States. A questionnaire was sent to these landfills, and this entire study was intended to build upon previous Virginia Tech landfill surveys conducted in 1995 and 1998 with some changes made after careful review.
Overall, it was found the average MSW facility in the United States received 185,077 tons of waste and the average CandD facility received 74,911 tons. This results in a total national estimate of 253 million tons of MSW and 76.9 million tons of CandD waste. Approximately 18.3 million pallets were landfilled and an additional 13.8 million were recovered, repurposed, or reused at MSW facilities. At CandD facilities, approximately 19.2 million pallets were landfilled while 38.3 million were recovered. / Master of Science / Millions of wooden pallets are involved in the transportation of goods each year and have a major role in the global distribution system. The production of these pallets consumes large volumes of wood that may end up in landfills when their life cycles have been completed. Generally, wood is a desirable natural resource and landfilling is the least desirable method of waste management. However, pallets can be recovered through repair, broken apart into components, or ground into mulch, fuel, animal bedding, or used by landfills for day to day operations. The purpose of this research was to investigate the total number of pallets and crates reaching pallets in the United States as well as to gain a better understanding of the overall waste stream. This was done by surveying over 2500 licensed Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and Construction & Demolition (C&D) landfills in the continental United States through mail questionnaire with an option to be completed online.
Overall, it was found the average MSW facility in the United States received 185,077 tons of waste per year and the average C&D facility received 74,911 tons. This results in a total national estimate of 253 million tons of MSW and 76.9 million tons of C&D waste. Approximately 18.3 million pallets were landfilled and an additional 13.8 million were recovered, repurposed, or reused at MSW facilities. At C&D facilities, approximately 19.2 million pallets were landfilled while 38.3 million were recovered. This represents a decrease in the number of pallets landfilled and an increase in the number recovered when compared to the surveys conducted in 1995 and 1998 by Corr et al.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/84346 |
| Date | 19 July 2018 |
| Creators | Shiner, Zachary Philip |
| Contributors | Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Horvath, Laszlo, Araman, Philip A., Smith, Robert L., Bush, Robert J. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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