Recycle Wood Pallets For Cash

Here’s a quick, easy start to earn some cash if you already have a pickup.  Warehouses who receive truck shipments will receive their products on wood pallets, commonly  48×40 size.  Some warehouses reuse or send the pallets back to the shipping companies, but others have no use for extra pallets and place them outside for anyone to pick up for free, which you can sell to your local pallet recycling center for cash.

Drive around industrial and warehouse complexes searching for companies that do this on a regular basis and soon you’ll be able to efficiently drive around, gathering quick load of pallets for recycling .  Payment averages $2-5 per pallet depending on wood quality and pallet condition.  Pallets with broken boards are usually not ones you’ll be paid for, these usually are skipped over for the dumpster or to be shredded into mulch.  You can also save broken pallets as scrap to fix others.

How often businesses place pallets out for pickup is sporadic and some days will be better than others.  Develop a route of constant producers to check everyday as to minimize your fuel costs.

I used to work in a warehouse and had a couple regular guys come by and pick up our pallets we didn’t want to store.  They created a stacking system to load roughly 26 pallets into the pickup bed without being a road hazard.  Even better would be to have a nice size trailer to fill for one big trip. Average $3 per pallet and build up to 3-5 pickup loads per day and that could add up to a nice side job.

Helpful resources:

North American Pallet Recycling Network

IFCO Pallet Recycling locations

Recycle.net – pallet recyclers list

Palletpages.com