During the past two to three decades recycled pallets have become an increasingly popular choice for transporting and distributing products/consumer goods. From the transportation business to warehousing to packaging and manufacturing, today the recycled pallet has become the pallet of choice. Customer perception about the use of pallets has definitely changed.
This change is due in part to the fact that pallet recyclers are able to take a pallet that would otherwise be considered as unwanted, make the necessary repairs, thus making it ready to go back in the pallet pool. Pallet users have become comfortable moving their products using refurbished pallets as opposed to using new. In most cases, based on the pallet size, the recycled pallet is offered at a much lower price than new pallets. In the US and Canada the most common pallet sizes are 40×40, 48×40, 42×42 and 48×48.
Pallet recycling can be credited for the elimination of massive amount of pallets that would otherwise be accumulating at your back door. It’s necessary to mention that as a result of today’s recycling, pallets that would otherwise be destined for waste disposal sites are going back into service and recycled. As for the wood waste that is generated by the pallet recyclers, this is ground into chips and used to produce a number of useful products.
New softwood and hardwood pallets
This may come as a surprise to most people, but in actual fact, trees are rarely cut down for the purpose of manufacturing new wooden pallets. Today the majority of trees are cut down for high value products such as for the construction industry, furniture, and flooring products. Through a grading process, the lumber that cannot be used in the construction industry, furniture or flooring manufacturing is designated as pallet stock and eventually sold to the pallet industry.
As you can see the majority of new softwood and hardwood pallets are manufactured from discarded or low grade lumber. Unlike recycled pallets, new pallets are manufactured to accommodate a specific product with a required load-carrying capacity. In today’s highly automated manufacturing facilities, new pallets are definitely the pallet of choice. If you are looking for a reliable clean product designed to your specifications, new pallets is the optimal way to go.