Green the Packaging Industry

Consumption of wood by type

2008-11-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

In 2002 the National Hardwood Lumber Association (American) released a report under the Annual Symposium titled, Trends in the use of Materials for Pallets and other Factors Affecting the Demand for Hardwood Products.

The report goes over the consumption of hardwood over softwood and the a break down by species. As you may be able to see above, I know the picture is very sm

all, wood consumption jumped significantly between 1992-1999. However, the amount of softwood lumber used holds the largest increase of 77 million board feet in 1999 from 20 million board feet from 1992. Between 1995 and 1999 consumption of hardwood dropped by 10 million board feet.

In figure 4 (below) it gives the break up of solid hardwoods used in 1999: mixed hardwoods (51%), Oak (31%), other (5%), Yellow Poplar (11%), Alder (2%).

Consumption of Hardwood Species (millions of board feet)

Figure 5 (below) gives the break up of softwood consumption by species: Spruce-pine-fir (25%), Southern Pine (48%), Hem-fir (11%), Douglas-Fir (10%), Other (6%).

Consumption of Softwood by Species (millions of board feet)

Source:

University of Vermont

http://www.srs4702.forprod.vt.edu/pubsubj/pdf/02t14.pdf

2008-10-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well everyone, I suppose this is the first little bit of information I will put up here. It is basic but I hope it is a good start.

In 1995, the USDA reported that 6.32 billion board feet or about 38% of the annual US lumber production was consumed by wood pallets. Unfortunately, the pallet industry recovered 171 million pallets or 2.6 billion board feet and only roughly 139 million pallets were reused. This means that in 1995 alone 3.72 billion board feet of wood was dumped in landfills.

We cannot demonise the pallet industry as pallet recycling has multiplied four fold just within the 1990s: In 1992 only 13% of the wood used by the industry was recycled. However, by 1999, approximately 36% of the pallet consumption was fed by recovered pallets. Nonetheless, more than 60% of all pallets consumed are used once and then discarded.

Better recycling programmes and the petition for the use of 100% recyclable alternatives such as plastic, corrugated cardboard and metal are desperately needed to prevent such atrocious waste of natural resources and environmental commons.

http://www.srs4702.forpod.vt.edu/pubsubj/pdf/02t10.pdf

Council on Foreign Relations' Climate Change Crisis Guide

2008-10-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Council on Foreign Relations is a famous conservative think tank. They have released a "Crisis Guide" of sorts. I do not agree with a lot of what they say in it but they do have considerable influence in Washington and elsewhere.

Here is the link guys:

http://www.cfr.org/publication/17088/crisis_guide.html

Hope you guys find it interesting.

Hey everyone!

2008-10-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

My name is Adrian. I am in the process of developing this blog to consolidate as much information as I can about packaging alternatives. I would like to begin by focusing solely on wood pallets (skids) which represent a huge amount of the wood consumed globally and are often over looked as a real environmental problem. I would like to provide information about alternatives to wood such as corrugated paper, plastic and metal pallets which are 100% recyclable.

I am a university student so time is stretched and this blog may take some time to come together. I am hoping within the next month this place will be up and running.

For now, for anyone who is listening to me out there, tootles and check back when you can!

Thanks anyone,

Adrian