The Operating Record
In short
Twelve months of measured data from a working pallet reclamation yard, published in full. Everything here was counted on our intake belt, weighed on our scale house, or logged by our route desk. We publish it because a diversion rate on its own is a claim, and claims in this industry are not audited — and because almost none of it exists anywhere else. Across the period we took in 1,416,400 pallets across 5,965 trailer movements, reused 55.5% without a tool being used, and sent under 1% to licensed disposal.
Want this for your own sites?
Everything below is network-level. On a managed programme you get the same thing per site, monthly, built from your own weighbridge tickets — and we will supply the underlying tickets rather than only the summary.
Volume, moisture and outcome, month by month
Monthly intake
Intake is counter-cyclical to demand. January is the strongest month for cores because holiday inventory unwinds, and it is the weakest month for demand — which is precisely why it is the cheapest month to buy and the worst month to sell.
Read this chart as a table
| Period | Value (thousands of pallets) |
|---|---|
| Sep | 121 |
| Oct | 119 |
| Nov | 110 |
| Dec | 104 |
| Jan | 139 |
| Feb | 131 |
| Mar | 127 |
| Apr | 123 |
| May | 117 |
| Jun | 113 |
| Jul | 105 |
| Aug | 108 |
Mean inbound moisture content
The single most useful chart on this page. Cores collected in March and April have spent weeks in Ohio rain, and wet wood grades worse on appearance, carries more mould risk and is structurally weaker while wet. This is why covered storage is the first thing we raise with anybody selling cores regularly.
Read this chart as a table
| Period | Value (percent) |
|---|---|
| Sep | 13.8 |
| Oct | 14.9 |
| Nov | 16.2 |
| Dec | 17.1 |
| Jan | 17.8 |
| Feb | 18.4 |
| Mar | 20.6 |
| Apr | 22.1 |
| May | 18.0 |
| Jun | 14.2 |
| Jul | 12.4 |
| Aug | 12.9 |
Direct reuse rate against moisture
Direct reuse ranges from 51.4% in April to 59.1% in July. It would be easy to read that as grader drift, and we checked for exactly that. It is not — it tracks moisture almost exactly.
Read this chart as a table
| Period | Value (percent of intake) |
|---|---|
| Sep | 57.4 |
| Oct | 56.2 |
| Nov | 54.8 |
| Dec | 53.9 |
| Jan | 55.1 |
| Feb | 54.3 |
| Mar | 52.6 |
| Apr | 51.4 |
| May | 54.7 |
| Jun | 57.9 |
| Jul | 59.1 |
| Aug | 58.3 |
Core supply against demand, indexed
A recycled pallet cannot be manufactured on demand — it has to arrive as a core, and cores arrive when somebody finishes with them. That makes supply a by-product of somebody else's activity, and it is at its thinnest exactly when demand peaks.
Read this chart as a table
| Month | Core supply | Demand |
|---|---|---|
| Sep | 92 | 114 |
| Oct | 86 | 121 |
| Nov | 81 | 118 |
| Dec | 89 | 96 |
| Jan | 127 | 78 |
| Feb | 121 | 82 |
| Mar | 112 | 91 |
| Apr | 106 | 97 |
| May | 103 | 101 |
| Jun | 98 | 106 |
| Jul | 94 | 109 |
| Aug | 91 | 112 |
Where everything went
Where the wood went, by weight
By weight, not piece count. Piece counts flatter, because the material most likely to reach the disposal stream is also the wettest and heaviest.
| Stream | Share | Tons | Destination |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct reuse | 55.3% | 27,240 | Back out as a graded pallet, no tool used |
| Repair and return | 27% | 13,300 | Bench repair, regraded, banded |
| Board harvest | 9.1% | 4,483 | De-nailed lumber into our own repair stock |
| Remanufacture | 5.2% | 2,562 | Jig-built into 42×42, 36×36, 48×45 and custom |
| Fibre recovery | 2.9% | 1,429 | Mulch, playground fibre, animal bedding, hog fuel |
| Ferrous recovery | — | 1,186 | Baled nails and banding to regional scrap processors |
| Licensed disposal | 0.5% | 246 | Chemically treated, MB-stamped and non-wood debris |
Why units left the reuse stream
Cracked stringers lead and it is unsurprising: the stringer is the structural member, it is where fork trucks hit, and its failure cannot be hidden. It is also why the first check in our grading sequence is the stringer, both faces.
- Cracked or split stringer34.2%
Almost always at a notch. The single most common structural failure we see.
- Missing or broken deck board26.8%
Lead boards over interior boards by roughly two to one — they take the fork impact.
- Shiner / protruding fastener11.4%
Refastened and returned to the line in most cases. A rejection regardless of grade.
- Moisture above 19% or mould bloom10.1%
Heavily seasonal. 18.9% of March rejections; 4.2% of July rejections.
- Contamination, staining or odour7.3%
Pulled by a person at the intake belt, before any downstream process.
- Companion stringer or plate from a prior repair5.2%
We accept companions as #2. Metal plates we reject outright, inbound and outbound.
- Dimensional variance outside tolerance3.1%
Diverted to non-automation stock rather than scrapped.
- Pest damage or exit holes1.9%
Segregated immediately. Never enters the export or studio stream.
What the repair benches actually did
Nearly half of all repairs are one or two deck boards — which is the entire argument against scrapping a pallet because it looks broken.
| Repair | Share | Bench minutes | Grade after | Racking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deck board replacement (1–2 boards) | 48.6% | 2.1 | A / #1 | Approved |
| Deck board replacement (3+ boards) | 17.2% | 4.4 | B / #1 | Approved |
| Stringer plug | 14.9% | 3.8 | B / #2 | Case by case |
| Companion stringer | 9.3% | 3.2 | B / #2 | Not recommended |
| Bottom deck / chamfer repair | 5.7% | 2.6 | B / #1 | Approved |
| Full teardown and jig rebuild | 4.3% | 9.7 | Per build spec | Per spec |
What actually arrives
Footprint composition of intake
Buyers plan against an imagined pool. This is the real one, and it explains lead times on non-standard footprints better than any availability statement we could write.
- 48 × 40 GMA71.3%
The backbone. Everything else is a deviation from it for a reason.
- 48 × 48 square6.1%
Drums and bulk bags. Rising year on year with battery and energy freight.
- 42 × 42 drum3.8%
Chemical and paint. Recovered supply thin; mostly remanufactured.
- 48 × 45 automotive3.4%
Concentrated almost entirely in our Detroit and Bowling Green lanes.
- 36 × 36 beverage2.9%
Seasonal — peaks June to September with our St. Louis and brewery accounts.
- 1200 × 800 Euro / EPAL2.6%
Arrives as import packaging and accumulates at importers, mainly Chicago.
- 1200 × 1000 ISO 21.9%
Asia-sourced freight. Prime remanufacture feedstock for 42 × 42.
- 40 × 48 reversed GMA1.4%
Stringers on the 40-inch axis. Frequently mis-ordered as a 48 × 40.
- Other / non-standard6.6%
Roughly forty further footprints across the year, none above 0.9%.
Species composition of intake
The pool leans hardwood because hardwood survives long enough to be collected. This is survivorship, not preference — and it is why nobody can sell you single-species recycled stock in volume.
- Red and white oak · 45 lb/ft³38.4%
The recycled pool leans oak because oak survives long enough to be collected.
- Yellow poplar · 29 lb/ft³19.1%
Light for a hardwood. Our preferred deck-board harvest stock.
- Southern yellow pine · 36 lb/ft³14.7%
Mostly from export and one-way inbound freight.
- Hard and soft maple · 44 lb/ft³11.2%
Excellent stringer material; highest repair yield of anything we take in.
- Ash · 41 lb/ft³6.8%
Rising share as post-borer salvage lumber works through the system.
- Mixed softwood (spruce, fir) · 27 lb/ft³5.3%
Short service life. Rarely reaches us in repairable condition.
- Gum, beech, other hardwood · 40 lb/ft³4.5%
Regional mill offcuts; behaves like oak for our purposes.
Freight, and the full table
Freight as a share of delivered cost
Wood is heavy, bulky and low in value per cubic foot, which makes freight the deciding cost in almost every pallet transaction. This table tells you which lever to pull at your distance.
| Distance band | Freight share | Cadence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 – 30 miles | ~6% | Same day / next day | Freight is a rounding error. Grade choice dominates the invoice. |
| 31 – 75 miles | ~11% | Twice weekly | Still unit-price led. Split drops start to hurt here. |
| 76 – 130 miles | ~19% | Weekly | The crossover band. Full loads materially cheaper per unit. |
| 131 – 200 miles | ~27% | Weekly / biweekly | Round-trip pairing becomes the single largest lever available. |
| 201 – 250 miles | ~34% | Biweekly consolidated | Edge of company equipment. Split drops rarely make sense. |
| 251 – 400 miles | ~41% | Consolidated / partner | Brokered at cost plus a disclosed fee. We label it as such. |
| Over 400 miles | ~48% | Partner lane | Freight exceeds the wood. We will usually say so and suggest somebody closer. |
The full monthly table
Every figure above, in one place, for anybody who would rather read numbers than charts.
| Month | Intake | Avg lb | MC % | Reuse % | Repair % | Teardown % | Fibre % | Trailers | Backhaul % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | 121,400 | 39.1 | 13.8 | 57.4 | 26.1 | 13.6 | 2.9 | 512 | 79.1 |
| October 2025 | 118,900 | 39.8 | 14.9 | 56.2 | 26.9 | 13.9 | 3 | 504 | 80.4 |
| November 2025 | 109,700 | 40.6 | 16.2 | 54.8 | 27.6 | 14.5 | 3.1 | 471 | 81.8 |
| December 2025 | 104,300 | 41.2 | 17.1 | 53.9 | 27.9 | 15 | 3.2 | 438 | 77.6 |
| January 2026 | 138,600 | 41.9 | 17.8 | 55.1 | 27.2 | 14.5 | 3.2 | 566 | 72.4 |
| February 2026 | 131,200 | 42.4 | 18.4 | 54.3 | 27.8 | 14.6 | 3.3 | 541 | 73.9 |
| March 2026 | 126,500 | 43.8 | 20.6 | 52.6 | 28.4 | 15.4 | 3.6 | 528 | 75.2 |
| April 2026 | 122,800 | 44.6 | 22.1 | 51.4 | 28.9 | 15.8 | 3.9 | 519 | 76.8 |
| May 2026 | 117,300 | 42.1 | 18 | 54.7 | 27.4 | 14.7 | 3.2 | 498 | 78.3 |
| June 2026 | 112,600 | 39.4 | 14.2 | 57.9 | 25.8 | 13.5 | 2.8 | 479 | 80.1 |
| July 2026 | 104,900 | 38.2 | 12.4 | 59.1 | 25.1 | 13.2 | 2.6 | 447 | 81.6 |
| August 2026 | 108,200 | 38.6 | 12.9 | 58.3 | 25.6 | 13.4 | 2.7 | 462 | 82.2 |
Constants used in any carbon figure here
| Constant | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon fraction of oven-dry wood | 0.47 | Temperate hardwood and softwood; conservative in the 0.45–0.50 range. |
| Carbon → CO₂ conversion | 44 / 12 = 3.667 | Molecular mass ratio. Not an estimate. |
| Board feet per sawlog tree | 200 bf | Revised down from 250 in 2023 after a customer forestry consultant made the case. |
| Steel per pallet | 2.0 lb | Revised up from 1.6 lb in 2025 after we weighed our own bales instead of using an average. |
| Landfill volume per pallet | 0.247 yd³ | Geometric volume of a 48×40×6 in unit, uncompacted. |
| Avoided manufacture per new pallet | 11.4 kg CO₂e | Felling, extraction, kiln, mill transport, assembly. Applied only where reuse replaces a purchase. |
Two of those have been revised since first publication, both after a customer’s consultant made a persuasive case, and one of the revisions made our headline numbers smaller. A methodology that only ever moves in the flattering direction is not being checked by anybody. If something here looks wrong to you, the same offer stands — write to us.
How to use this
- As a benchmark. If your own recycler reports a diversion rate, ask how it decomposes and compare the shape against this.
- As a seasonal planner. Buy when core supply is high and release cores when it is low — the index chart above is the whole argument.
- As a specification input. The footprint and species composition tells you what is genuinely available before you write a spec around something that is not.
- As a moisture argument. If you are being told covered storage does not matter, the reuse-against-moisture relationship here is the counter-evidence.
- Cite it if it is useful. Attribution and a link is all we ask.