Research Update: New grant from The Pallet Foundation and NWPCA for a pallet market research study

There are 2.6 billion pallets in circulation in the United States out of which wood pallets (Image 1) constitute 95% of the market. However, the pallet industry in the U.S changes continually: companies consolidate, new and sometimes quite different players enter the market, and alliances or partnerships are formed. To ensure the continued leading position of the wood pallet manufacturing segment in the U.S., it is essential to have up-to-date information regarding the current status of the industry encompassing new wood pallet manufacturing and the recycling of used wood pallets.

Our director, Dr. Laszlo Horvath, has received a new grant from The Pallet Foundation to investigation of the current status of new wooden pallet manufacturing and pallet recycling in the U.S. A comprehensive survey will be used to gain important insights to the pallet market. The survey will also be used to investigate the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the industry. The Pallet Foundation has historically funded survey projects like this for the wooden pallet market every 5-10 years with the last market survey being conducted for 2016.

Sean Hobbs (Image 2), who is a recent graduate of the Packaging and Systems Design program at Virginia Tech was selected to work on the project. Hobb’s will work through the summer to develop the survey. Data collection will start in September 2022 with the survey being deployed to collect detailed trends for the calendar year 2021. In particular, this study will investigate new pallet production estimates as well as collecting info about recovered pallets and what is done with them. Hobb’s will study repair and resale numbers as well as collecting data about pallet material choices. Hobbs will analyze long-term trends by comparing his 2021 results to the results of previous market studies - especially the research conducted in 1996, 2006, 2011, 2016 (by previous Pallet Foundation / NWPCA grants).

The results of the survey will be disseminated first in Pallet Central for the members of NWPCA to review. The results will also be published in an international, peer-reviewed, research journal one year after the end of Hobb’s study.