Western Pallet Magazine July 2019 | Page 15

WPA Goes South, Cont'd from Page 13 Many of the NAPA members attending are also WPA members and have attended WPA annual meetings. The attendees were encouraged to join the WPA and attend the annual meeting – translation will be provided. Two Rialto City Council members spoke to the group about letting their concerns be known at the local level. The City Council seemed very supportive of the pallet industry and expressed willingness to work with the local companies to change laws, rules, and ordinances to be more pallet company friendly. NWPCA Sponsors the PCR to Benchmark Environmental Performance of Wooden Pallets UL has announced the publication of the first-ever Product Category Rules (PCR) for wooden pallets. The PCR may be used to benchmark the environmental impacts of wooden pallets, and sets a new precedent for life cycle assessments for pallets made from other materials. (EPDs). “Our members in the wooden packaging industry are dedicated to environmental issues. Using this PCR for wooden pallets, we can better understand and communicate the environmental impacts of wooden pallets over their lifecycle,” Product Category Rules (PCRs) are a set said Jordan Piland, NWPCA board chair of requirements and guidelines used for and president of Atlas Pallets. conducting and reporting environmental life cycle assessments of a particular “At any given time, 1.8 billion wooden category of products. The PCR evaluates pallets are carrying goods across the U.S. environmental performance including alone. In light of their great volume and aspects like carbon emissions, resource prevalence, this new PCR has tremendous depletion and energy use, to name a few. opportunity to impact the environment PCRs ensure that products of the same by encouraging manufacturers of wooden function are evaluated consistently for a pallets to understand the life cycle meaningful comparison of results via impacts of their products and ultimately environmental product declarations implement changes to improve JULY 2019