作者：Tingting Zhang; Yuan Tao; Fan Fei; Paul Ekins
题名：Environmental impact mechanisms and circularity pathways of global pallet systems: A structured evidence synthesis
期刊：Environmental Impact Assessment Review，2026
摘要：Pallets are among the most widely used logistics assets worldwide, supporting over 80% of global trade flows and contributing approximately 5% of global shipping-related carbon emissions. Despite their ubiquity, environmental assessments of pallet systems remain fragmented, typically centered on individual materials, isolated life-cycle stages or single indicators, which limits comparability and policy relevance. As global freight activity expands and decarbonization pressures intensify, a system-level understanding of how pallet-related environmental burdens arise and how mitigation strategies perform across diverse contexts is urgently needed. This review develops a multi-layer interaction framework (MLIF) to synthesize cross-material and cross-regional evidence through four interacting structural determinants: material and manufacturing intensity, logistics topology and circulation geometry, repair-remanufacturing-recovery capacity, and regional energy-system and waste-infrastructure conditions. Rather than aggregating heterogeneous results, the framework reveals the mechanisms shaping environmental performance across the pallet life cycle. The synthesis shows that upstream production processes and logistics geometries often exert greater influence on life-cycle outcomes than material category alone. Widely promoted interventions, such as lifetime extension, recycled-content substitution and low-carbon energy use, deliver benefits only when aligned with enabling system conditions; misalignment can lead to burden shifting or diminished mitigation. By clarifying these interaction mechanisms and identifying persistent methodological limitations, this review provides a governance foundation for low-carbon and circular globally coherent logistics infrastructures.
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