Whether you’re in haulage, warehousing, or any other high-volume industry, high-quality wooden pallets are an essential part of your business. Used extensively for storing, shipping, and handling goods, heat-treated wooden pallets—almost 50 million of them—are manufactured each year in the UK alone, not to mention the millions more that are repaired, refurbished, and put back into the supply chain.
As your business needs fluctuate, you may find yourself with an excess of wooden pallets taking up valuable space in your warehouse or facility. While the occasional spare pallet or two isn’t a major inconvenience, few companies can afford the luxury of having a few dozen (or even a few hundred) knocking around and serving no purpose.
In this article, we’re going to look at some quick and easy ways to deal with those excess wooden pallets and free up more room on site.
Recycle
Being made predominately from wood, timber pallets are easy to recycle. Any local recycling centre will be happy to take them off your hands and grind them down into wood shavings and sawdust. They may even be prepared to pay you, particularly if you’re disposing of pallets in bulk.
Repair and Reuse
If your pallets are being stockpiled because they’re damaged, you can have them repaired by a professional pallet manufacturer and returned to you for use again. Most wooden pallet repairs are a simple matter of replacing cracked or broken slats, and it is cheaper to repair and reuse damaged pallets than it is to buy new ones—not to mention, it is better for the environment.
Donate
Wooden pallets have a lot of uses outside of the haulage and storage industries. They are a versatile source of wood and can be used in a variety of craft projects. Check with your local schools, Scout groups, and community centres to see if they need any pallets. Public parks often use them for various maintenance jobs, so this might be another avenue to check out. Failing that, an advertisement in your local free paper or your Facebook page offering free pallets will soon see them disappear.
Store
If your pallets are in good condition and you know that they’re going to be needed at some point in the future, the most cost-effective solution might be to store them away. Pallets are easy to stack, so long as you have the room and aren’t contravening any on-site health and safety guidance.
Sell
The other thing you can do with your excess pallets is sell them on to a local builders merchant or pallet manufacturer. Of the 100 million pallets circulating in the UK at any given time, about half of them have been resold. Here at Chris Reynolds Pallets alone, we buy and sell around a million used and reconditioned pallets to our customers across the country.