Frequently asked questions

One banded bundle — 12 to 25 pallets depending on grade — for will-call pickup at 10400 Evendale Dr. For delivery the practical minimum is around 100 pallets, because below that freight dominates the unit cost.

Standing recycled inventory ships in 24 to 72 hours. Will-call pickup is same day during business hours. Heat-treated stock adds 5 to 7 days for kiln scheduling. New and custom builds run 10 to 15 business days.

Yes. Every quote includes photographs of the actual reserved lot, and you are welcome at the yard during business hours to inspect in person.

Yes, for will-call pickup. Small quantities of recycled pallets, reclaimed boards and bulk mulch are all available to walk-in customers.

Net 30 on approved commercial accounts. New accounts start on prepayment or credit card until terms are established.

Yes. Recycled pallet pricing tracks core supply, which is seasonal — cores are scarce in Q4 when retail volume peaks and plentiful in Q1. Annual agreements smooth this out.

For custom builds, yes — prototypes are built in quantities of one to five and billed at cost. For standard recycled grades, photographs of the actual lot serve the same purpose faster.

Yes, for loads with recoverable value inside our service radius. If a pile is almost entirely scrap and a long way out, we say so before dispatching rather than surprising you with a charge afterwards.

Around 100 makes a dedicated trip worthwhile. Below that we can often add you to an existing route in your area — ask and we will check the schedule.

Yes, per piece on sorted cores or per load on mixed piles. The third option is a credit applied against pallets you buy from us, which is usually the best economics for anyone doing both.

Net 15 from the signed tally sheet by cheque or ACH. Credits against an open order are applied immediately.

Yes. Broken pallets are raw material — sound boards get harvested for repairs, the rest is ground. Taking the scrap is how your yard actually ends up clear.

Pallets that have carried hazardous chemicals, raw meat with an active spill, or wood that is chemically treated or painted with unknown coatings. Send a photo if you are unsure.

Yes. One-time cleanouts are routine. Send photos and a rough count and we will bring the right number of trailers to clear it in a single visit.

Monthly, at no charge: tonnage by destination, diversion rate, estimated CO₂e and the methodology behind it. A year-end letter suitable for a corporate responsibility report is available on request.

A grade has no plugged or companion stringers, all seven top deck boards, and uniform appearance. B grade is structurally sound but shows repair — plugs are permitted, board widths and colours may be mixed.

A and B #1 grades are, within their racked rating. Companion-repaired #2 units should stay out of racking. If in doubt, tell us the rack configuration and we will specify to it.

Wood pallets are not food-contact surfaces under FDA guidance — product should be in sealed packaging or on a slip sheet. We run a dedicated clean-core line with no chemical or agricultural returns for food and beverage customers.

Heat treated to ISPM-15: the wood core reached 56°C for at least 30 continuous minutes. It is a heat process with no chemicals involved.

MB indicates methyl bromide fumigation. It is phased out in North America. We do not grind MB wood into landscape or animal products and we do not use it in the studio line.

Typically 4,000–6,000 lb static, 2,000–2,800 lb dynamic, 1,500–2,500 lb racked for a sound recycled hardwood unit. Design to the racked number if it goes in a rack.

Predominantly mixed hardwood — oak, maple, poplar, ash — with softwood present in many lots. Single-species recycled stock does not exist in volume, and any supplier promising it is describing something else.

Send us one physical unit. We measure it, document the fastener schedule and quote a match. This is faster and far more reliable than working from a drawing.

Below 19% for stock intended for indoor storage or export. Outdoor-staged recycled stock will be higher, and we tell you which you are getting.

Roughly 250 miles from Cincinnati on our own equipment: all of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, plus parts of Michigan, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Beyond that we broker through vetted carriers at cost plus a disclosed fee.

Roughly 550 to 600 empty 48x40s stacked and banded in a 53-ft dry van. Loaded, 26 to 28 floor positions.

For dock-height dry van loading, yes, or your team can hand-stack. Our box trucks carry liftgates and our flatbed drivers carry their own equipment on most runs.

Yes. Drop trailers are available to accounts running roughly two or more loads per week, with no rental charge on active accounts.

Saturday morning will-call is available at the yard. Weekend delivery is arranged case by case for scheduled projects.

Monday through Friday 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern, Saturday 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, closed Sunday.

We run entirely on email. Write to info@palletsrecycle.com or use any form on this site; both reach the same inbox and both are answered within one business day. We deliberately do not operate a phone line, which is why our written quotes and confirmations are unusually detailed.

Within one business day, and usually the same day for requests received before mid-afternoon.

It goes down the cascade: repair, then board harvest, then remanufacture, then fibre recovery into mulch, bedding or biomass. Under 1% of collected wood reaches landfill.

A hardwood 48x40 holds roughly 62–80 lb of CO₂ equivalent out of the atmosphere while it exists. The genuine benefit of reuse is retaining that plus avoiding the emissions of a new build — felling, kiln, mill transport and manufacture.

Our engineered playground fibre is produced from untreated and heat-treated wood only, passes two magnetic separation stages and a screen, and contains no chemically treated material.

Yes. Magnetic separation runs on both the dismantling discharge and the grinder outfeed. Recovered steel is baled and sold to regional scrap processors.

On open loops, decisively yes — wood is biogenic, repairable and recyclable through multiple stages. On genuinely closed loops with very high trip counts, plastic can compete. The deciding question is whether the pallet reliably returns.

Yes, monthly and at no charge, with the methodology published openly so your auditor can verify our arithmetic rather than trust it.

The overwhelming majority of what we sell was never newly sourced at all — it is recovered. New lumber for builds is bought from regional mills inside a 300-mile radius.

Yes, for sites generating roughly 1,200 or more damaged pallets a month. We place a crew, benches and board stock inside your building so broken wood never ships anywhere.

A single closed loop replacing separate supply, removal, repair and recycling vendors, with core value netted against supply invoices and consolidated reporting across every site you operate.

Yes, and many accounts do. Pooled pallets handle lanes that suit pooling; we handle whitewood, odd sizes, one-way export and recovery of everything else.

Yes, from 25 units up. Most odd sizes are remanufactured from recovered lumber, which keeps them close to standard pricing rather than new-build pricing.

Yes — natural, coloured, playground fibre, animal bedding and boiler-grade biomass. Bulk by the cubic yard for pickup, or delivered by walking-floor trailer in larger quantities.

Yes, for equipment that cannot be moved. We build around the machine at your location. Mention it when you enquire so a crew can be scheduled.

Yes. We take end-of-life HDPE and PP pallets regardless of where they were purchased and move them to regional reprocessors for regrind.