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Portland, OR · email only, no phone
A target is a number in a report with a future date attached. A rule is something a person has to refuse to break while a truck idles and a driver waits. Ours is a rule, because targets fail in exactly the moment they matter.
There are no exceptions written into it, which means every awkward case has to be solved rather than excused. Some of those cases cost us money. That is the price of being able to say zero and mean it.
Detail
Separated by hand and sent to a specialist at our cost rather than ground into mulch.
Hand-separated slowly instead of destroying grinder knives or the mulch stream.
Diverted to a lower-value biomass fuel stream. Never into mulch or bedding.
MB-fumigated, chemically contaminated and fire-damaged wood. We name who can take it.
Every inbound load is weighed. Every outbound product stream is weighed. The difference, once moisture is accounted for, should be close to zero — and the reconciliation is what our reporting is built on.
Customers receive a monthly certificate with their own measured diversion weight, dated and signed. Measured beats modelled in every audit we have ever been part of.
Procurement teams have sustainability criteria now, and most pallet suppliers answer those questions with vague language. 'Zero, measured, certificate attached' is specific enough to be rare, and rare enough to be worth money.
So the rule is not altruism. It is the most durable commercial asset we have, and it happens to be the right thing to do as well.
Composite-backed material, where wood is nailed to foam or carpet: separated by hand, with the composite going to a specialist at our cost. Gravel-contaminated stock from stacks that sat on bare dirt: hand-separated slowly, because gravel destroys grinder knives and would otherwise contaminate the mulch stream.
And painted wood arriving inside a clean load: diverted to a lower-value biomass fuel stream rather than mulch. Each case costs us money on that load. A rule with a cost exemption written into it is a target, so there is no exemption.
Procurement teams now carry sustainability criteria, and most pallet suppliers answer those questions with adjectives. 'Zero, measured, certificate attached, here is the methodology' is specific enough to be rare and rare enough to be worth money.
It is also the reason our customers' auditors stop asking questions quickly. A measured weight with a signature behind it ends a conversation that a modelled estimate only begins.
Receiving
Eleven minutes on the first three deliveries sets the tone for the whole relationship. Do this with any supplier, including us.
| Check | How | Pass | If it fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall size | Tape measure, both dimensions, one pallet in ten | Within 1/4" (Grade A) or 1/2" (Grade B) | Note it on the delivery ticket |
| Squareness | Steel square in two opposite corners | Within 1/4" on the diagonal | Reject the unit; we replace next route |
| Protruding nails | Palm flat across the top deck | Nothing catches | Reject — this is what tears packaging |
| Bottom boards | Flip one pallet in ten | No split through a nail line | Reject; it will fail in a rack |
| Moisture | Lift one. Wet pallets are 8–10 lb heavier | Feels dry, sounds sharp | Floor stack to dry, do not rack at rating |
| Mould or staining | Visual, both decks | Weathering only, no fuzz | Reject for any food-contact use |
| Grade mix | Count against the delivery note | Matches what you ordered | Ask 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
Four inputs, in descending order of importance. None of them is a list price, which is why we quote rather than publish.
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
Grade definitions, dimensional tolerances and racked load ratings in writing. Most yards will not publish a racked figure at all.
Two graders per line, flipped and sounded. Every inbound load is triaged within four working hours so nothing rots in a mystery pile.
Weighed in, weighed out, reconciled monthly. Zero pounds landfilled in 2025, with a certificate you can hand to an auditor.
No phone line by choice. Every price, date and commitment lives in an email you can search, forward and hold us to.
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.
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
Every one of these has cost a customer real money in front of us.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
Questions
Not since 2021, when we started weighing every outbound stream. Before that we could not have proven it, so we did not claim it.
We name a specialist who can handle it properly. Blending contaminated wood into a clean mulch stream would be worse than refusing it.
It states measured weight, date, destination stream and a signature. That is what diversion documentation requires; our customers' auditors have not asked for more.
Questions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Defined the way a yard uses them, not the way a standards document does.
Long reads
Four products come out of a pallet that failed its last inspection, and one of them ends up as a café counter in St John…
Most businesses pay twice for pallets: once to buy them, once to have them hauled away. Breaking that loop takes one pho…
Targets slip quietly. Rules get enforced by whoever is standing at the scale at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday.…
Lumber prices, warehouse vacancy, extended producer responsibility, automation and the slow professionalisation of recyc…
Decision table
Including the two we do not sell. Cost index is against a new wooden pallet of the same footprint.
| Option | Cost index | Trips | Repairable | Carbon per use | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade A recycled | 45–55 | 9–14 then repair | Yes | 3.1 kg | Almost everything | Colour varies; tare varies by a few pounds |
| Grade B recycled | 30–40 | 7–11 then repair | Yes | 3.1 kg | One-way, floor stacking, closed loops | Lower racked rating (1,500 lb) |
| Remanufactured | 25–35 | 5–8 | Yes | 4.8 kg | One-way on a budget | Visibly mixed boards; 1,200 lb racked |
| New wooden | 100 | 15–20 then repair | Yes | 14.2 kg | Tight tolerances, audits, odd sizes | Pays for appearance you may not need |
| Plastic | 500–1,000 | 30–100 | No | High embodied, low per-use | Wash-down, deep freeze, pharma | Cracks end its life; not repairable |
| Rental pool | Per-trip fee | Managed | By operator | Operator's figure | Exchange networks, retail mandates | Pallets 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
A real comparison for a plant shipping 600 pallets a month on a weight-sensitive lane. Copy the method, not the numbers.
| Line | New pallet | Grade A recycled | Grade B recycled | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit purchase price (index) | 100 | 50 | 35 | The only number most procurement systems compare |
| Trips before repair | 15–20 | 9–14 | 7–11 | New lasts longer; it also costs twice as much |
| Purchase cost per trip (index) | 5.6 | 4.3 | 3.8 | Price divided by trips |
| Tare weight | 36 lb | 35 lb | 33 lb | Recycled fir is often lighter than new hardwood |
| Freight weight penalty | Baseline | Neutral | −3 lb/unit | Only matters on weight-limited lanes |
| Expected damage rate | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.4% | Graded stock behaves; ungraded stock does not |
| Receiving rejections | Rare | Rare | Occasional | Graded + written tolerance removes most of this |
| End-of-life cost | 0 | 0 | 0 | We collect and pay or collect free — never a disposal fee |
| Documentation value | None | Diversion certificate | Diversion certificate | Reportable ESG outcome at no extra cost |
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 articleDiagnostics
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 see | What it almost always means | What to change | Cost to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split lead boards at one end | Forks driven in too fast and too high | Operator training; dock lighting. Usually one shift is responsible | Free |
| Torn stringer notches | Pallet jacks entering notched stringers at an angle | Specify block pallets with true four-way entry | Spec change |
| Bottom boards ripped off cleanly | Pallets dragged rather than lifted, or frozen to a cold-store floor | Floor condition, forklift capacity at peak | Low |
| Crushed corner blocks | Stacks higher than the rating, or uneven loads on one corner | Stack-height policy; centre the load | Free |
| Out of square, nothing broken | Racking loading pallets diagonally — beams at different heights | Rack survey. This one is worth chasing | Medium |
| Mould in the middle of a stack | Wet pallets stacked tight with no airflow | Store off the ground, cover the top, leave side gaps | Low |
| Protruding nails tearing cases | Ungraded stock, or units repaired without re-checking | Buy graded; reject on the ticket | Free |
| Deck boards cupping | Moisture cycling between a freezer and a humid dock | Kiln-dried pool; helical fasteners | Spec 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
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.
| Condition | Weight | Stiffness | Rack it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kiln dried (≤19% MC) | 33 lb | Full rating | Yes |
| Air dried, covered | 35 lb | Full rating | Yes |
| Damp, uncovered 2 weeks | 39 lb | Reduced | Floor stack |
| Rain-soaked | 45 lb | Materially reduced | No — let it dry |
| Frozen wet | 45 lb+ | Unpredictable | No |
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
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.
The bottom layer of a stack sitting on soil is the layer we have to write off. Two spare pallets underneath prevents it.
Even stacks load faster, count accurately and travel without shifting. Leaning piles get counted conservatively.
You do not need to grade, but separating 48×40 from everything else takes minutes and raises the per-unit price.
Carpet, foam-backed board, metal frames and the occasional bicycle. Composites cost us money to separate.
A pile behind a locked gate at the end of a narrow alley is worth less than the same pile on a loading apron.
One picture from fifteen feet tells a grader footprint, grade mix, moisture exposure and count within about 15%.
| Material | We take it | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 48×40 GMA, any grade | Yes | Paid per unit by grade |
| Euro / EPAL branded | Yes | Paid per unit, market dependent |
| Block pallets, odd sizes | Yes | Paid per unit |
| Broken cores, mixed piles | Yes | Usually collected free |
| Crates, bins, dunnage | Yes | By weight |
| Wet or unsortable stock | Yes | Free, or a small haul fee |
| Marked rental-pool pallets | No | They belong to their operator |
| MB-stamped (fumigated) | No | Cannot enter our streams |
| Painted or contaminated | No | Would degrade mulch and bedding |
| Fire-damaged | No | Unsafe to process |
Safety
OSHA 1910.176 covers storage and housekeeping in your building. These are the specifics that actually cause incidents.
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.
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.
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.
Obvious, routinely ignored, and the cause of most pallet-related injuries. Use equipment, not a foothold.
Gloves, and reject units with nails standing proud. A nail that tears a case will also tear a hand.
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.
Next step
Email reaches the same yard team that graded the stock. Written quotes, one business day, no phone tag.
