What happens to old pallets?

In the 90's me and my friends were saving the landfills. Pallets went hand in hand on the mountain in a big o'l firepit with a few kegs!! THose were some good days!
 
Too many still end up in the landfill. If you have a manned recycling center they often try to salvage them.

I have seen a few manufacturing facilities that repair their own. Not sure if its a plan or someone took it upon themselves. They have a corner or somewhere outdoors with broken pallets and once in a while someone goes over and tries to rebuild a few to keep using, however usually its a cycle use type place - where there shipping parts to their customer, then they retrieve their own pallets from the last shipment to return and use them again. I doubt it ever happens with pallets shipped to retail.
 
I remember seeing "old pallets wanted" signs with some frequency.

A custom window place would ship "kitchen window greenhouse" inserts (I love those) to far away customers.
Those guys accepted and rebuilt usable pallets from the old ones. They didn't need many in any given time period.

They gave me scraps with which, by added new, long lumber, I built a crate to ship back a truck axle when I was a Parts Dept. puppy.

Also, I think they're hardwood for strength thus making desirable firewood.

Wanna see old pallets in use? Go to any European train station.
 
For close to 25 years I was starting fires with them and burning them for heat on fall days and mild winter days.
 
Some guy collects them 12' high in an old F150 and drives into the sunset. I guess there is a market for these guys, kind of like scrappers, but with wood.
 
There is a company here that recycles/rebuilds pallets and also builds new pallets.
 
Many years ago my BIL worked as a tool and die maker at a company that made boxes. They had tons of pallets, during lunch and after hours he took them apart, sanded them and brought the planking home. It took about a year or more, but he finished his basement with them. The look was and still is amazing, 45 years later.
 
Pallets are one of those things where there are a lot of people that are stuck with them and don’t want them and a lot of people who need them, yet no good bridge between them. We get them every now and again and we’ll leave them outside our building if decent in hopes someone will take it. If it is still there after a few days or a crap one, then we break it down and toss it. There are some people that make a small business around collecting unwanted pallets and then selling them on, but it is an extremely low margin job and takes high volumes to make work. Thank recycling aluminum cans.
 
A ton of places lease their pallets from CHEP. If it's a warehouser like a grocer or food service that goes through a ton of pallets they'll just ship an entire semi trailer to a producer somewhere. CHEP might send a semi trailer of pallets from King Soopers in Denver to Ardent Mills, etc.
 
Pallets are one of those things where there are a lot of people that are stuck with them and don’t want them and a lot of people who need them, yet no good bridge between them. We get them every now and again and we’ll leave them outside our building if decent in hopes someone will take it. If it is still there after a few days or a crap one, then we break it down and toss it. There are some people that make a small business around collecting unwanted pallets and then selling them on, but it is an extremely low margin job and takes high volumes to make work. Thank recycling aluminum cans.
There was a hardware/Feed store in Marietta that used to collect pallets for the local farmers. It seems that they can make a pretty decent fenced area in a pig farm! I'm sure there were plenty of other uses too. Farmers can be very creative.
I always thought the feed store owner deserved some credit for his efforts.

The problems I've had with burning them, are the leftover nails.
 
Back in my youth I worked in a grocery store. Most pallets were wood, and some were plastic. When we were done with pallets they were stacked near the truck dock and then carted back onto the truck when the truck was empty. Then the tractor came to pickup the trailer with the empty pallets on it. We also put the bales of cardboard boxes in the empty truck too. Pallets were routinely worn out and sometimes split or broke. I imagine the warehouse separated them. Even the pallet wrap was rolled into balls and put on the empty truck. I assume it was all recycled or re-used?

The grocery warehouse seemed to use CHEP pallets (blue).

I wouldn’t be surprised if cheap furniture manufacturers bought them to chip them and make particle board out of them. But I imagine a lot are burned or disposed in landfills. Imagine how many pallets are in circulation from Walmart alone. Probably a lot.
 
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I've seen guys driving around picking these things up like the metal scrapers, so they must have some value.
 
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