Signature tool
The ReLoop Ledger
Move one slider and watch four numbers move with it: carbon avoided, trees left standing, landfill diverted and money not spent. Every factor behind it is published, so you can check our working instead of trusting our marketing.
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Every pallet kept in circulation avoids about 4.8 kg of CO₂e and 23 board feet of lumber. At 250 pallets a month, that is roughly 14.4 tonnes of CO₂e and 69,000 board feet a year — the equivalent of about 250 mature hardwood trees not being cut.
That is 3,000 pallets over 12 months — the equivalent of taking 3.1 cars off Colorado roads for a year.
What each number means
CO₂e avoided
The emissions that would have occurred manufacturing a replacement pallet, net of the freight we burn collecting and delivering yours. It is an avoided figure rather than a sequestration figure — we deliberately do not count the carbon stored in the wood, because the accounting conventions for that are contested and counting it would flatter us.
Trees left standing
Board feet not cut, divided by 275 — a working estimate of the usable lumber in a mature hardwood. Real yields vary enormously with species, age and mill efficiency, so treat this as an illustration rather than a forestry calculation.
Diverted from landfill
Dry mass of wood, nails and banding that did not go to a tip, at 16.3 kg per 48" x 40" pallet. This is the most robust number on the page because it is simply a weight we measure on our own scale.
Procurement saved
The gap between a new pallet and a recycled Grade A one, at $6.50 per unit. This moves with the lumber market — in the 2021 spike it briefly exceeded $14 — so it is the figure most likely to be conservative.
Using it honestly
Modelled figures belong in a business case, not in an audited disclosure. If you need numbers that will survive scrutiny, use the batch records from the Pallet Passport, which are counts and weights rather than averages. The ledger is for deciding whether a programme is worth having; the passport is for reporting what one actually did.
About the ledger
Where do the factors come from?
Each one is listed with its source on the carbon methodology page. The headline figure — 4.8 kg CO₂e avoided per pallet reused — is the manufacturing footprint of a new hardwood 48x40 pallet, net of our own collection freight.
Is this a marketing tool?
It is a calculator with published inputs, which is the opposite. If you disagree with a factor, substitute your own and the arithmetic still holds. We would rather you audited it than believed it.
Can I use these numbers in a report?
For modelling, yes. For an audited report you want batch-level actuals rather than modelled averages — that is what the Pallet Passport provides.
Why does the car equivalent use 11,500 miles?
It is the approximate annual mileage of an average US passenger vehicle, paired with the EPA figure of 404 g CO₂ per mile. Both are stated so you can swap them for your own regional assumptions.
Worked examples at five common volumes
| Pallets / year | CO₂e avoided | Board feet | Landfill diverted | Procurement saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 600 | 2.9 t | 13,800 | 9.8 t | $3,900 |
| 3,000 | 14.4 t | 69,000 | 48.9 t | $19,500 |
| 12,000 | 57.6 t | 276,000 | 195.6 t | $78,000 |
| 30,000 | 144 t | 690,000 | 489 t | $195,000 |
| 120,000 | 576 t | 2,760,000 | 1,956 t | $780,000 |
Using the output responsibly
- Modelled, not measured. Use it for a business case; use batch records for an audited disclosure.
- State the factor. 4.8 kg CO₂e per pallet reused, from published LCA literature, net of our own freight.
- Do not report the tree figure. It is an illustration; 275 board feet per tree varies enormously.
- Substitute your own factors if you have better ones. Every count is independent of the factor applied to it.
- Present a range, not a point. Our own sensitivity analysis puts the real answer 34% below to 41% above the headline.
- Do not double count with your recycler's figures if they are reporting the same units.
The full factor list, sources, boundaries and sensitivity analysis are on the methodology page, including the input we are least confident about.
Ready to make the number real?
Tell us the volume you modelled and we will design the collection cadence, the supply and the reporting around it.