Avoided impact quantification from recycling of wood waste in Singapore: an assessment of pallet made from technical wood versus virgin softwood

Recycling of wood waste is beneficial in delaying and avoiding carbon emissions stored in trees. To justify the benefits of avoiding the carbon emissions, this paper has assessed, quantified and compared the carbon emissions of recycled wood waste (technical wood) with virgin softwood in the application of wooden pallet. Through the use of avoided impact in a comparative carbon footprint study, results show that technical wood pallet has lower carbon emission of 3.547 kg-CO2eq than virgin softwood pallet (4.009 kg-CO2eq), after taking into consideration of avoided impact. This assessment also identifies the “hotspots” for future carbon emission improvement. Transportation accounts for 67.64% of the carbon emission for virgin softwood timber while resin usage is the dominant factor (52.86%) for technical wood timber. In addition, scenario and sensitivity analyses are conducted which show that technical wood pallet has a larger reduction in carbon emissions than virgin softwood pallet, if the pallet lifetime is increased.