Lowe's reuses, repairs and recycles pallets, reducing the need to purchase new wood
Lowe’s Reverse Logistics team has made notable strides in its sustainability efforts. In the past six months, the team has been able to centralize the return of core pallets and recyclable wood. The wood travels from more than 1,000 store locations to regional distribution centers utilizing existing truck capacity. As a result, Lowe's is able to re-use, repair, or recycle core pallets significantly reducing its need to purchase new wood.
Lowe’s completed the rollout in early January and is now focused on generating more precise data and metrics. Estimates suggest this could generate an excess of 2.9 million core pallets annually that could be reused or repurposed. While not all pallet sizes and formats are as marketable as the core pallets, Lowe’s partners with wood recyclers to mulch an estimated 13,000+ truckloads of recyclable wood products. This way, wood can be returned to the environment rather than filling landfills
During 2019, the Lowe’s Reverse Logistics team also returned a total of 4,000 truckloads of product that was able to be reused or recycled through secondary market sales channels. In previous years, this product would have been disposed of at stores and ultimately sent to landfills.
Lowe’s will continue to grow its reverse logistics footprint and capability during 2020 by opening new centralized reverse logistics centers. This will allow greater opportunity to recycle or repurpose returned products in support of the company’s global recycling initiatives.
