Pallet recycling for Orlando docks

What happens to a recycled pallet

A recycled pallet is a previously used pallet that has been repaired, refurbished or remanufactured for reuse. The same word covers three different paths, depending on what is wrong with the pallet.

Repair

A cracked board or a split stringer is fixed and the pallet goes back into use, usually as Grade B. See the Grade B page.

Dismantling

A pallet past repair is taken apart. Good boards go to new builds and the rest is set aside.

Grinding

Irreparable wood may be chipped for mulch, composite products or biomass.

Why sort before recycling

A recycler wants to know the size, the build and the mix. A stack of one size, mostly sound, is closer to repair stock. A heap of broken wood is closer to grinding. Sorting does not take long and tends to move a stack up the chain. The grade sheet can show what a typical pallet is.

Recycling and the rainy season

Moisture sets what a recycler can do. Wood with a moisture content below 20 percent will not support decay fungi; above it, a stack is harder to repair and worth less. Orlando averaged 51.45 inches of rain a year over 1991-2020, so a stack left uncovered over the summer rarely stays dry on its own.

If a stack is going to wait for pickup, put it on dunnage, keep it off the ground, and let air move through it. The moisture guide explains why.

Which pallets are not recycled

• Plastic pallets, which the desk does not deal in.
• Pallets so rotten that a board will not hold a nail.
• Pallets that carried a spill: say so in the request, because contamination changes what can be done with the wood.

Recycle, sell or dispose

If most of the stack is sound, selling is better than recycling. If most of it is junk, the disposal page is where it ends. Recycling sits between: the stack has life in it, just not as it stands.

Six ways to mend a pallet

The Virginia Tech survey lists the stringer repairs a recycler uses: replacing a stringer outright, a full companion stringer, a half-companion stringer, a plug, a metal connector plate, and corrugated fasteners across a crack. Half-companion stringers were by far the commonest. Each method suits a different crack, and which one a recycler picks depends on where the stringer has failed.

Deck boards are replaced at every grade. Plates tend to sit in the upper grades and companion timber in the lower ones, which is why a Grade B stack and a Grade C stack look different even before anyone counts repairs.

What the end of the line looks like

Wood that cannot be mended is chipped. The chip goes to mulch, to composite products or to biomass, so grinding keeps the wood out of the landfill. A recycler will ask whether strapping, plastic or contaminated boards are in the pile, because those stop wood going to grinders that feed products.

What ground wood becomes

Wood that has been ground is screened into sizes. Fine, clean material goes into mulch, sometimes dyed, and animal bedding. Coarser chips burn as boiler fuel or go to composite panel makers. Metal from nails and strapping is pulled out with magnets and sold as scrap. The yield depends on how clean the incoming wood is, which is one more reason the treated lumber and painted boards of a clear-out are set aside.