Why a reuse company publishes this
Because the alternative is losing trust. A supplier who recommends their preferred product in every situation is a supplier whose advice is worthless, and advice is most of what we actually sell.
About a third of the time, when somebody asks us for new pallets, the honest answer is that a Grade A recycled unit would pass the same requirement for half the money. The other two thirds are real, and here they are.
Case one: tight dimensional tolerance
Automated storage and retrieval, robotic palletisers and high-speed conveyors sometimes need tolerances tighter than a used pool can reliably deliver at volume. If your integrator specifies ±1/8 inch, you need new.
Note the qualifier: at volume. We can screen recycled stock to tight tolerances, but the yield drops and at some point new becomes cheaper than screening.
Case two: a genuinely unusual footprint
If your product needs 62 by 38 inches, no used pool on earth has that in quantity. Custom builds are new builds, although often with substantial reclaimed content in the non-structural parts.
Case three: audited white-wood policies
Some pharmaceutical and food plants have a documented policy requiring fresh, unstained, single-use wood. You can argue the science. You cannot argue with an auditor holding the policy.
When a customer shows us the policy document, we build new and stop debating.
Case four: predictable tare weight
Net-weight-sensitive operations that weigh the loaded pallet need a consistent tare. Used pallets vary by several pounds. New ones from a single run vary by ounces.
Case five: an export customer who specified it
Sometimes the receiver dictates new, heat-treated, single-use packaging as a contract term. That is a commercial fact, not a technical one, and we will build to it.
The three cases where we will push back
'New looks more professional.' Your customer's receiving dock has never once commented on pallet appearance, and a graded recycled pallet with no protruding nails looks entirely fine.
'We've always bought new.' This is the most expensive sentence in procurement.
'Recycled can't be export compliant.' It can. Heat treatment and the stamp are what matter, not the age of the wood. We will treat and stamp recycled stock all day.