Pallet Recycling ♻️: What can businesses do with their defective or old wood pallets? Can they recycle them? If so, how do they recycle the pallets? Below, we will elaborate on everything you should know about pallet recycling in this blog.

Pallets are an integral part of many businesses, most especially in the transport and shipping industries. That is why, all the time, many new pallets arrive in those sort of businesses. Due to many wood pallets coming in all the time, businesses usually do not know what to do or how to dispose of them. As a result, they pile up and take a lot of space. As a business, you would not want this as danger looms around when piling them up in a corner. Remember – health and safety waste management is a must!

So, what can businesses do about their excess or unused wood pallets? Recycling them is a good idea if you ever do a waste audit on your produced, already-unusable pallet waste. But, is pallet recycling possible? If so, how? Below, we will delve into the topic and provide more information along the way. Read on to learn more.


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Wood pallet definition

A pallet, also known as a skid, is a flat structure used to support goods and keep them stable whilst being transported and lifted by a forklift, jack or loader. They come in different sizes. Additionally, the pallets support the goods with strappings to ensure their safety. Pallets are commonly made from wood, but they can also be made from plastic, metal, paper and, of course, recycled materials.

 

A bit about Waster

Before learning more about pallet recycling, let me share more information about Waster.

We here at Waster provide you with innovative solutions for your and your business’s waste management and recycling needs. Additionally, we provide flexible, 30-day contracts instead of the typical lock-in contracts, which proves to be better.

Click on the blue button to learn more.


READ: Cardboard Core Recycling Australia ♻️


 

Pallet recycling: a better option?

Businesses have a number of options they can do with their wood pallets.

Basically, businesses can indeed recycle their wood pallets instead of storing and leaving them in a corner of their warehouse. Recycling is a strong option

But before that, they can consider a number of options to deal with them.

Reusing, in particular, is a very good option to consider for businesses. After delivering the goods, they can take back the pallets so they can use them again for shipping other goods. Or, if they prefer, they can give them to other businesses in which they can opt to use, repair or resell them.

However, once the wooden pallets are no longer usable, they can be recycled.

 

Pallet recycling process

Once they make their way to a recycling facility, the employees there separate, process and recycle them according to their best course and the demand of the market. Pallets can be broken down and associated with other wood, plastic, paper or metal materials, depending on the pallet’s material type.

Wooden pallets, in particular, are subjected to be broken down and turned into the following:

  • environmentally-friendly yard much
  • scrap wood
  • compost
  • fuel used for boiling

 

Why is wood pallet recycling important?

Pallet recycling comes with a number of benefits, which we will enumerate below:

 

  •  You get to avoid the dangers associated with keeping pallets. There are plenty of risks if businesses keep their pallets stored in a corner. First, they can become a fire hazard and can cause a catastrophic result that can destroy the business site, especially when there are many pallets stored. But most importantly, stored pallets also risk human lives. Pallets toppled together can also cause injury when they fall over, therefore having the potential to greatly injure workers. They may also become homes by vermins (which is also the case for wheelie bins without locks), which brings about many other problems.
  • Pallet recycling saves the trees. Deforestation has become a real problem all over the world, causing global problems such as climate change and an increase in greenhouse gases found in the atmosphere, further amplified by our carbon footprint. Usually, deforestation happens when too many trees are being extracted in a forest. The trees are processed to manufacture wood, and in turn, the wood is processed into many different products such as pallets. So, as you have probably already guessed, recycling pallets reduces the need to harvest more trees.

 

More benefits include…

  1. Pallet recycling means more landfill space. Each and every day, we fill up our landfills in Australia more and more. The same goes true, of course, for other countries. The day will come when we exhaust the last of our landfills if we do not aim to reduce our waste production. Recycling pallets is one good way to not just save more landfill space but to also divert recyclable materials from going into landfill.
  2. Save up on energy and raw materials. And finally, we have our last benefit of recycling pallets: saving up on energy. For example, when pallet recycling happens, it reduces the need to extract and transport raw wood material, which uses up a lot of fuel.

Watch this video to learn more about landfills.

YouTube video

 

Where can you recycle your pallets in Australia?

Businesses have plenty of options when it comes to recycling their pallets.

First, they can contact their pallet suppliers and ask if they have a return service, which some do – even having a credit scheme to encourage pallet returning.

They also have the option of contacting other companies focused on pallet recycling. One good example of an Australia is DIRECT Pallets, a Borg company. They offer the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly waste pallet recycling in which they turn pallets into environmentally friendly mulch.

reDirect Recycling 

Another example of where you can recycle your wood pallets in Australia is reDirect Recycling.

reDirect Recycling, an Australian company based in NSW, specialises in wood waste management and recycling.

reDirect wood Recycling manages the entire cycle of handling waste, from gathering and moving pallets, various types of clean wood, to dealing with leftover pieces of particleboard. Their aim is to create new materials and reintroduce them into the market, establishing a continuous loop.

 

Contact Waster today for your cardboard core recycling or other needs!

Are you a business in need of waste and recycling bin services?

If so, please call 1300 WASTER (1300 927 837).  You can also email us at [email protected] if you have any further questions. Find the best deals in terms of waste and recycling pricing and services!

 

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