Carbon calculator helps to boost timber pallet recycling and jobs

Costs of disposal of end-of-life wood pallets and packaging crates are a huge problem for many NSW businesses. It is estimated that there are 140,000 t of waste wood pallets and crates sent to landfills in Sydney alone each year.

On 21 June, Stephen Mitchell, Sustainability Program Manager with the Timber Development Association of NSW, launched the online, end-of-life wood pallets and packaging diversion calculator at Direct Pallets and Recycling, a new recycling centre at Ingleburn in Sydney’s south-west. The calculator estimates the carbon benefits, in the form of greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions (measured in carbon dioxide equivalents) of recovering commercial quantities of end-of-life wood pallets and packaging instead of disposal to landfill.

The recovery options for wood included in the calculator are:

• repair and reuse
• recycling and use as animal bedding
• recycling and spreading of mulch
• recycling into new particleboard
• generating renewable energy in place of black coal.

Once weights, or numbers, of wood packaging recovered are entered, for a given period, a comparison table of the GHG emissions, and avoided emissions, for each option, is generated. The outputs give an estimate of GHG emissions and savings for the chosen options based on a set of assumptions. Companies can use this data and factors in the report in their own specific circumstances to estimate their own specific GHG emissions and savings.

Direct Pallets and Recycling, a Sydney-based pallet supply, repair and reuse company, began producing poultry bedding from waste timber pallets, crates and clean timber off-cuts last month.

Rob James, owner of Direct Pallets and Recycling, said: “At my new facility, businesses pay a recycling fee per tonne or per pallet that is around 75% less than landfilling. This is on top of reduced transport costs. I built this recycling plant in response both to a clear demand for disposal alternatives to landfill for waste wood and the need for poultry bedding by NSW poultry farmers.”

Mitchell said: “The lower cost of recycling saves businesses money as well as being better for the environment. A whole range of recycling options are now available for waste wood including reuse, mulching and, now, animal bedding and even recycling wood waste into new building products. Using our newly developed online carbon benefits calculator it is estimated that diverting one tonne of timber packaging from landfill results in 0.67 t of carbon dioxide equivalent emission reduction.”

Direct Pallets and Recycling has created 10 jobs to produce 1500 t (6000 m³) of poultry bedding each month by recycling end-of life wood pallets and packaging. Bedding is also supplied to horse and cattle markets. All products are made from waste wood that was previously landfilled.

James said, “Not only are we saving waste generators money by this alternative to landfill, but NSW poultry farmers have access to another clean and reliable bedding stream - reducing their production costs.”

Mitchell said: “It’s a great way of creating jobs and helping meet the NSW Government’s and timber industry’s waste wood diversion targets.”

The development of the online calculator and markets for animal bedding for end-of life wood pallets and packaging has been supported by the NSW Government via the NSW Environment Protection Authority.

The calculator can be found at http://www.timberstewardship.org.au/calculator/.