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On-site sorting & pallet management

For sites with real volume, we bring the sorting line to your yard: our crew, our bins, our grading standard. Your team stops touching pallets entirely.

Warehouse aisle lined with stacked recycled pallets beside a painted floor lineIn stock
Grading line, bay 2

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The fields below reach the same yard team that wrote this page. Tell us the size, the count and the grade you think you need — we will confirm it or correct it, in writing, within one business day.

Portland, OR · email only, no phone

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Type freely or pick from the list.
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High-volume distribution centres generate a pallet problem that no amount of goodwill solves from the inside. A dedicated crew on site — weekly, daily or resident — sorts, grades, stacks and stages the flow so your dock never gets blocked.

We install labelled bins for A, B, core and non-wood, train your receiving team in ninety minutes, and take over the reporting. Most sites see their pallet handling labour drop by two thirds.

How it runs

Step by step

Nothing here is a black box. If a step does not fit your site, say so and we will redesign it rather than pretend.

  1. 01

    Site survey

    We map flow, volume and space, then propose bin positions and a visit cadence.

  2. 02

    Install and train

    Bins, signage and a 90-minute toolbox talk for your receiving crew.

  3. 03

    Scheduled crews

    Two to six people depending on volume, sorting against our published grade standard.

  4. 04

    Monthly reporting

    Units by grade, revenue returned to you, weight diverted, CO₂e avoided.

The fine print

Terms, limits and honest caveats

Best fit
Sites handling 2,000+ pallets a month
Crew size
2–6 sorters, supervised, fully insured
Equipment provided
Bins, banding, signage, PPE, grading jigs
Commercial model
Service fee offset against the value of recovered pallets — often net positive for you
Insurance
$2M general liability, workers' comp, certificates on file before day one

The hidden labour nobody measures

Below roughly two thousand pallets a month, scheduled collection works fine. Above it, a site starts spending real labour on pallet handling that has never appeared in a budget: receiving crews stacking, sorting, restacking and shifting piles to make room.

We measure it during a site survey and the number usually surprises people. Two to three full-time-equivalent hours a day is common at a mid-sized distribution centre, which is a salary line hiding inside a dock.

Week one: bins, signage and ninety minutes

We install labelled bins for A, B, core and non-wood, positioned so they do not block dock traffic, then run a ninety-minute session with your receiving team covering what goes where and — more importantly — why.

The 'why' part matters. A crew that understands that a core pallet becomes mulch sorts better than a crew handed a laminated card. After that, your team stops making grading decisions entirely; ours make them against the same written standard we use in our own yard.

The commercial model that surprises people

The service fee is offset against the value of recovered pallets. At sites with a good grade mix the arrangement is net positive — we pay you, while also removing the labour. At sites with a poor grade mix it is a modest net cost that still beats internal handling plus disposal.

We model both honestly before proposing anything, including the version where you should not do this at all because your volume does not justify it.

Receiving

What to check on delivery

Eleven minutes on the first three deliveries sets the tone for the whole relationship. Do this with any supplier, including us.

CheckHowPassIf it fails
Overall sizeTape measure, both dimensions, one pallet in tenWithin 1/4" (Grade A) or 1/2" (Grade B)Note it on the delivery ticket
SquarenessSteel square in two opposite cornersWithin 1/4" on the diagonalReject the unit; we replace next route
Protruding nailsPalm flat across the top deckNothing catchesReject — this is what tears packaging
Bottom boardsFlip one pallet in tenNo split through a nail lineReject; it will fail in a rack
MoistureLift one. Wet pallets are 8–10 lb heavierFeels dry, sounds sharpFloor stack to dry, do not rack at rating
Mould or stainingVisual, both decksWeathering only, no fuzzReject for any food-contact use
Grade mixCount against the delivery noteMatches what you orderedAsk for the count sheet to be corrected

Write failures on the delivery ticket rather than calling — a written record is the only thing that reliably changes supplier behaviour, and we replace rejected units on the next route with no restocking charge.

Money

How a pallet price is actually built

Four inputs, in descending order of importance. None of them is a list price, which is why we quote rather than publish.

Today's pool depth
How many units of that footprint and grade are physically in the yard this week. Used stock is not manufactured on demand.
Grade and screening
Grade A costs more than B because the yield is lower, not because the wood is different. Screened automation pools cost more again.
Freight
Always itemised separately. Paired loads — where your delivery rides with a collection — are priced lower because they genuinely cost us less.
Volume and commitment
A quarterly supply program fixes a price and reserves stock. Spot buying at peak is the most expensive way to buy pallets.
  • New 48×40 palletindex 100
  • Grade A recycled45–55
  • Grade B recycled30–40
  • Remanufactured25–35
  • Repairing your own40–55% of replacement

Indicative cost index against a new pallet of the same footprint. Purchase price is typically only 5–15% of a pallet's total cost per trip — freight weight, damage and receiving-dock rework are usually larger. The full arithmetic

  • 01

    Published specifications

    Grade definitions, dimensional tolerances and racked load ratings in writing. Most yards will not publish a racked figure at all.

  • 02

    Hand graded, four-hour triage

    Two graders per line, flipped and sounded. Every inbound load is triaged within four working hours so nothing rots in a mystery pile.

  • 03

    Zero landfill, measured

    Weighed in, weighed out, reconciled monthly. Zero pounds landfilled in 2025, with a certificate you can hand to an auditor.

  • 04

    Everything in writing

    No phone line by choice. Every price, date and commitment lives in an email you can search, forward and hold us to.

  • 05

    Repair before replacement

    A repair bay, a kiln, a de-nailer and a grinder on site. Repairing a pallet avoids roughly 11 kg CO₂e and costs you half of new.

  • 06

    Traceable by stamp

    Every unit carries a Pallet Passport ID burned into a stringer. Type it in and read its species, cycles, repairs and carbon ledger.

Avoid these

Six expensive mistakes

Every one of these has cost a customer real money in front of us.

  • 01

    Buying on unit price alone

    Purchase price is 5–15% of total cost per trip. Tare weight, damage rate and receiving-dock rework are usually larger line items, and none of them appear on a quote comparison.

  • 02

    Accepting overhang

    A load extending even an inch past the deck transfers weight into the packaging instead of the pallet. Case compression strength drops sharply and the damage appears three handling events later, in somebody else's warehouse.

  • 03

    Racking on a dynamic rating

    Dynamic is what a pallet carries while being moved. Racked — supported only at its edges — is smaller and is the only number that matters in beam racking. Ask for it in writing.

  • 04

    Specifying Grade A out of habit

    For one-way shipping, floor stacking and closed loops, Grade B does the same job for roughly 20% less. Over-specifying is paying for appearance.

  • 05

    Storing pallets on bare ground

    Two spare pallets as a base and a tarp that reaches the sides will keep a stack usable through a Portland winter. A soaked pallet gains nine pounds of paid freight weight and loses stiffness.

  • 06

    Forgetting that dunnage needs a stamp

    On export loads the bracing, blocking and chocks are solid wood packaging too. One untreated board can hold an entire container at a foreign port.

The yard

What stands behind this page

  • 14kpallets graded monthlytwo hand-grading lines
  • 1,100heat treated per dayISPM-15, chart recorded
  • 4.1M lbwood diverted last year68% reused whole
  • 0 lblandfilled in 2025weighed and reconciled

What this means for your reporting

Reuse is the cheapest emissions reduction available in logistics, and it is also the easiest to document. We model a new 48×40 softwood pallet at 14.2 kg CO₂e — lumber production, fasteners, assembly and delivery — and a reuse cycle at 3.1 kg, covering collection, repair materials, yard overhead and redelivery. The difference, 11 kg CO₂e per reuse, is the figure we publish.

We also publish the caveat: that figure assumes a reused pallet genuinely displaces the manufacture of a new one. Economists call the gap leakage, and nobody in this industry can honestly claim it is zero. We think displacement is high because the pallet market is regional and price-responsive, but we will not pretend it is perfect.

Which is why we lead with the number that needs no assumptions: measured landfill diversion. Landfilled wood decomposes anaerobically and releases methane, roughly 28 times worse than CO₂ over a century. Keeping four million pounds of wood out of a hole in the ground is a benefit you can weigh.

Per-unit figures

New pallet
14.2 kg CO₂e (range 12.8–16.1)
Reused graded pallet
3.1 kg CO₂e
Repaired customer-owned
2.2 kg CO₂e
Avoided per reuse
11 kg CO₂e, published
Wood kept in service
33–37 lb per unit
Biogenic carbon stored
~26 kg CO₂-equivalent
The full derivation

Questions

Asked often

Who employs and insures the crew?

We do. $2M general liability and workers' compensation, with certificates on file before day one. Your site gets a supervised crew, not a labour-hire arrangement.

How much space do the bins need?

Four bin positions is the usual starting point — A, B, core and non-wood — placed so they never block dock traffic. We work that out during the site survey.

Will our own team need training?

Ninety minutes, once, for the receiving crew. After that your team stops making grading decisions entirely.

Can this be net positive financially?

At sites with a good grade mix, yes — the value of recovered pallets exceeds the service fee, so we pay you while also removing the labour. We model it honestly either way before proposing anything.

Questions

What people ask about on-site sorting & pallet management

What is the minimum order or pickup?

No hard minimum for collection at the yard — come and take four pallets on a Saturday morning if you like. For delivery it is 50 units inside Portland metro and 150 outside it, because the truck has to earn its diesel. Outside our 180-mile fleet radius we quote through partner yards and freight, with the lane itemised.

How fast can this happen?

Standard 48×40 Grade A and B stock: same day for pickup, next day for metro delivery. Block pallets one to three days. Custom builds five to nine business days; engineered runs two to three weeks. Heat treatment is same day for booked batches and 48 hours standard. Written quotes always come back within one business day.

Why is there no phone number anywhere?

Because verbal quotes get remembered differently by different people. Since 2018 every price, date and commitment we make exists in an email you can search and forward. Most customers dislike it for about a month and then prefer it. Everything else happens in person at 3821 NW St Helens Rd, Portland, OR 97210.

Can I inspect before committing?

Please do. Visit the yard by email arrangement — closed-toe boots required, hi-vis provided — or ask for photographs of the actual pool your order would come from. We would rather lose an order than have a customer discover a surprise on their dock.

What documentation comes with it?

A written quote, a signed count sheet by grade, a weight ticket where material is weighed, heat-treatment certificates for treated batches (archived seven years), and a monthly diversion certificate for anything we collect for recycling — measured pounds kept out of landfill, which is the figure your ESG report actually needs.

What will you refuse to do?

Take methyl-bromide fumigated, chemically contaminated or fire-damaged wood. Buy marked rental-pool pallets, which belong to their operator. Promise same-day delivery outside the metro. Or quote a grade we do not think will survive your handling — we will specify downward and explain why.

Vocabulary

Terms used on this page

Defined the way a yard uses them, not the way a standards document does.

Block pallet
A pallet supported by nine solid blocks rather than stringers, giving true four-way entry and better racked performance.
Bolster
A squared timber used to block and brace loads inside trailers and containers. We re-saw ours from retired stringers.
Chamfer
The bevelled edge on a bottom deck board that lets a pallet jack roll on without catching.
Companion stringer
A second timber nailed alongside a cracked stringer to span the damage and restore the load path.
Core
Low-grade pallet material bought for board and fibre recovery rather than resale.
Closed loop
A pallet population circulating between known points and returning. Cycle time, not consumption, governs pool size.
Deck board
The boards nailed across stringers or blocks forming the top and bottom surfaces of a pallet.
De-nailer
The machine that separates deck boards from stringers and removes fasteners before fibre recovery.

The full glossary, 36 terms

Long reads

From the journal · written in the yard

Decision table

Five ways to get a pallet, compared honestly

Including the two we do not sell. Cost index is against a new wooden pallet of the same footprint.

Indicative figures for a 48×40 footprint in the Pacific Northwest, 2026. Rental pool economics vary by contract and are deliberately shown as a range.
OptionCost indexTripsRepairableCarbon per useBest forWatch out for
Grade A recycled45–559–14 then repairYes3.1 kgAlmost everythingColour varies; tare varies by a few pounds
Grade B recycled30–407–11 then repairYes3.1 kgOne-way, floor stacking, closed loopsLower racked rating (1,500 lb)
Remanufactured25–355–8Yes4.8 kgOne-way on a budgetVisibly mixed boards; 1,200 lb racked
New wooden10015–20 then repairYes14.2 kgTight tolerances, audits, odd sizesPays for appearance you may not need
Plastic500–1,00030–100NoHigh embodied, low per-useWash-down, deep freeze, pharmaCracks end its life; not repairable
Rental poolPer-trip feeManagedBy operatorOperator's figureExchange networks, retail mandatesPallets are not yours; losses are chargeable

We sell the first four and supply plastic where a wash-down line genuinely needs it. We do not operate a rental pool, and we will not buy marked pool pallets from you — they belong to their operator. Full comparisons

Worked example

Cost per trip, calculated properly

A real comparison for a plant shipping 600 pallets a month on a weight-sensitive lane. Copy the method, not the numbers.

Illustrative. Your lane rate, damage rate and disposal cost will differ — the point is that unit price is the smallest line in the table.
LineNew palletGrade A recycledGrade B recycledNote
Unit purchase price (index)1005035The only number most procurement systems compare
Trips before repair15–209–147–11New lasts longer; it also costs twice as much
Purchase cost per trip (index)5.64.33.8Price divided by trips
Tare weight36 lb35 lb33 lbRecycled fir is often lighter than new hardwood
Freight weight penaltyBaselineNeutral−3 lb/unitOnly matters on weight-limited lanes
Expected damage rate0.3%0.3%0.4%Graded stock behaves; ungraded stock does not
Receiving rejectionsRareRareOccasionalGraded + written tolerance removes most of this
End-of-life cost000We collect and pay or collect free — never a disposal fee
Documentation valueNoneDiversion certificateDiversion certificateReportable ESG outcome at no extra cost
  • Purchase price share of total cost5–15%
  • Freight weight share~30%
  • Damage & rework share~38%
  • Handling labour share~20%

Build this yourself

One row per option, six columns: unit price, tare weight, expected trips, damage rate, rejection risk, disposal cost. Multiply out across annual volume. It takes an afternoon, the cheapest unit price almost never wins, and we will happily help build it — including with numbers that do not favour us.

The full article

Diagnostics

Read the damage, fix the cause

Damage patterns are not random. Each one points at a specific handling behaviour, and fixing the behaviour is worth more than fixing the pallets.

What you seeWhat it almost always meansWhat to changeCost to fix
Split lead boards at one endForks driven in too fast and too highOperator training; dock lighting. Usually one shift is responsibleFree
Torn stringer notchesPallet jacks entering notched stringers at an angleSpecify block pallets with true four-way entrySpec change
Bottom boards ripped off cleanlyPallets dragged rather than lifted, or frozen to a cold-store floorFloor condition, forklift capacity at peakLow
Crushed corner blocksStacks higher than the rating, or uneven loads on one cornerStack-height policy; centre the loadFree
Out of square, nothing brokenRacking loading pallets diagonally — beams at different heightsRack survey. This one is worth chasingMedium
Mould in the middle of a stackWet pallets stacked tight with no airflowStore off the ground, cover the top, leave side gapsLow
Protruding nails tearing casesUngraded stock, or units repaired without re-checkingBuy graded; reject on the ticketFree
Deck boards cuppingMoisture cycling between a freezer and a humid dockKiln-dried pool; helical fastenersSpec change

Keep thirty of your own broken pallets aside for a month and photograph the damage. Patterns appear quickly. We do this analysis free with any repair quote, because a customer whose damage rate halves buys from us for a decade.

Storage

Keeping pallets usable through a wet winter

Portland takes about 36 inches of rain a year and most of it lands between November and March. You do not need a building to survive that — you need three habits.

Off the ground
Two spare pallets as a base. Anything touching soil wicks water and rots from the bottom layer up.
Covered on top
A tarp that actually reaches the sides. Rain enters a stack from above, not from the side.
Air gaps, not a seal
A sealed tarp traps condensation and produces the mould problem you were avoiding. Leave the sides open.
Away from drip lines
Anything under a roofline drip edge stays wet all winter, regardless of what you cover it with.
Aligned with the wind
Stacks oriented with prevailing wind dry noticeably faster. Free, and it works.
Rotate the pile
First in, first out. The bottom of an untouched stack is where pallets go to die.
What moisture does, measured on our own scale and grading line.
ConditionWeightStiffnessRack it?
Kiln dried (≤19% MC)33 lbFull ratingYes
Air dried, covered35 lbFull ratingYes
Damp, uncovered 2 weeks39 lbReducedFloor stack
Rain-soaked45 lbMaterially reducedNo — let it dry
Frozen wet45 lb+UnpredictableNo

Nine pounds of water per pallet is nine pounds of freight you pay to move. Across 600 units that is more than two and a half tonnes of water on a truck. Field notes on moisture

If you are selling

Six things that raise what your pile is worth

None of these require you to sort anything. They just make the pile faster for a driver and a grader to deal with, and that difference lands in the price.

  1. 01

    Get it off the dirt

    The bottom layer of a stack sitting on soil is the layer we have to write off. Two spare pallets underneath prevents it.

  2. 02

    Stack square and to one height

    Even stacks load faster, count accurately and travel without shifting. Leaning piles get counted conservatively.

  3. 03

    Keep sizes together

    You do not need to grade, but separating 48×40 from everything else takes minutes and raises the per-unit price.

  4. 04

    Pull out the obvious non-wood

    Carpet, foam-backed board, metal frames and the occasional bicycle. Composites cost us money to separate.

  5. 05

    Leave truck and forklift access

    A pile behind a locked gate at the end of a narrow alley is worth less than the same pile on a loading apron.

  6. 06

    Photograph it once

    One picture from fifteen feet tells a grader footprint, grade mix, moisture exposure and count within about 15%.

What we can and cannot take. We will always name somebody who can handle the rest.
MaterialWe take itBasis
48×40 GMA, any gradeYesPaid per unit by grade
Euro / EPAL brandedYesPaid per unit, market dependent
Block pallets, odd sizesYesPaid per unit
Broken cores, mixed pilesYesUsually collected free
Crates, bins, dunnageYesBy weight
Wet or unsortable stockYesFree, or a small haul fee
Marked rental-pool palletsNoThey belong to their operator
MB-stamped (fumigated)NoCannot enter our streams
Painted or contaminatedNoWould degrade mulch and bedding
Fire-damagedNoUnsafe to process
How selling works

Safety

Pallet safety, the short version

OSHA 1910.176 covers storage and housekeeping in your building. These are the specifics that actually cause incidents.

  • 01

    Never rack on an unknown rating

    If nobody can produce a racked (edge-support) figure in writing, treat the pallet as unrated and floor stack it. This is the single most common serious incident in warehousing.

  • 02

    Empty stack height

    Keep empty pallet stacks to a sensible, stable height — commonly capped around 15 units or 6 feet by site policy — on level ground, away from exits and sprinkler heads.

  • 03

    Empty pallets are a fire load

    Idle wooden pallets burn fast and hot. Most fire codes limit indoor idle storage and require separation from other combustibles. Outdoor storage needs clearance from buildings.

  • 04

    Never climb a stack

    Obvious, routinely ignored, and the cause of most pallet-related injuries. Use equipment, not a foothold.

  • 05

    Mind protruding fasteners

    Gloves, and reject units with nails standing proud. A nail that tears a case will also tear a hand.

  • 06

    Do not burn treated wood

    Never burn MB-fumigated, painted or chemically treated wood. Untreated offcuts are fine as fuel; everything else goes to a proper stream.

This is general guidance rather than a compliance document. Your local fire code and your own risk assessment govern; we are happy to supply load ratings and treatment records to support yours.

Go deeper

Everything else on this site

Read the journal

Next step

Shall we put a number on it?

Email reaches the same yard team that graded the stock. Written quotes, one business day, no phone tag.

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