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Many people may not know that a significant portion of the 550 million pallets manufactured annually end up in landfills rather than being repaired, mulched, or resold. Economics and business major Brian Laverty ’07 (Harleysville, Pa.) is trying to find out why.
He is collaborating with Christopher Ruebeck, assistant professor of economics and business, and Sharon Jones, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and chair of A.B. engineering, studying how environmental, engineering, and economic forces affect the lifetime of a shipping pallet. They are working together through Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, where students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend.
Laverty presented the research at the 21st annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research April 12-14 at Dominican University of California in San Rafael. Approximately 2,200 undergraduates from more than 250 colleges and universities attended the conference.
Laverty is using geographic information systems (GIS) software to draw conclusions about the factors that influence how wooden pallets are disposed of.
“It is interesting because we take into account environmental concerns of government policy makers, as well as the constraints that businesses face when deciding what to do with the shipping pallets on which their goods are transported,” says Ruebeck.
This project builds on pallet life cycle research conducted by A.B. engineering graduate Nate DeLong ’04 and A.B. engineering and international affairs graduate Kristen Tull ’06. Tull concluded that from an environmental and economic standpoint, wooden pallets are to be transported a maximum of 50 miles from their origin to either a recycling facility, where the pallet will be repaired or converted to mulch, or to a landfill.
Laverty used Pennsylvania as a case study to determine if free markets are providing recycling facilities incentive to be located within 50 miles of major pallet users.
He located major pallet users, such as retailers like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Sam’s Club, as well as landfills and pallet-related companies, including those that repair or convert pallets to mulch, manufacture new pallets, or distribute pallets. He then plotted these locations on a Pennsylvania map using GIS software.
Laverty surveyed pallet-related companies to collect data on the volume of pallets that each company works with, in order to arrive at a working estimate of pallet concentration within the state. Using the data and the map, the researchers were able to determine that Pennsylvania facilities that repair and convert pallets are largely within 50 miles of major pallet users. It remains to be determined if these recyclers are accepting the majority of used pallets. If not, many pallets may still end up in landfills.
“What interests me most about this work is that I feel like I’m really doing something that could help save the environment,” says Laverty. “If my research shows that recycling facilities are out of range, we can suggest policy changes to provide relocation incentives for pallet recycling facilities. Ultimately, this will reduce the amount of wood wasted in landfills as well as reduce exhaust emissions by decreasing the average distance pallets need to travel to a recycling facility.”
Ruebeck believes Laverty’s research will show potential employers that Laverty, who plans to pursue a career in advertising, is self-motivated and works well without much supervision.
“Research assistance provides those students that are interested and capable with responsibilities that they wouldn’t have in a classroom setting,” says Ruebeck. “Unlike an internship, research assistance introduces them to the challenges of research: difficulties in acquiring data, the need to ask very specific questions about social and economic structures, and the benefits of doing quantitative analysis. It shows these students the complexity of our world and the benefits gained from searching for simple insights about its structure.”
Laverty is pleased with the opportunities he has had at Lafayette throughout his undergraduate years.
“I think Lafayette’s small community gives students many of the same opportunities as larger universities but it is more accessible,” he says. “It’s much easier to talk to professors here about their research and projects they might have for you.”
Laverty is also working on an honors thesis in which he is investigating how television audience demographics affect advertising rates. He is a member of Investment Club and Recreational Advisory Committee. He also volunteers as a tutor at Easton Area High School through the Landis Community Outreach Center.
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Twenty one students were accepted to present their research at this year’s conference.