Re-cycling wooden pallets in summer

Willpower?

Hi,

Please does anyone have any ideas for recycling wooden pallets in the warmer months. We generate quite a few of these at work, and in the winter we have several local people who take them away to use as fuel, but we have no takers in the summer and they are at the moment going to landfill.

We have looked at commercially recycling them, but evryone seems to charge for taking them away, which was surprising as they pay us for recycling paper.

Please does anyone have any ideas what to do with them? The only other thing I can think of is the local allotments could use them for raised beds

Coveredinbees!!!!

Can't you sell them, I'm sure pallet companies buy them back? Google pallet seller in your area.

geordie_joe

Willpower? wrote: »

Hi,

We have looked at commercially recycling them, but evryone seems to charge for taking them away, which was surprising as they pay us for recycling paper.

Try advertising, a notice on the gate saying "Free Pallets" might get rid of some.

You may also find that the people who charge to recycle them may come and get them for free.

Sometimes it happens like that, you ring someone up and ask them to take something away and they charge you. You "let them know" you are giving the stuff away and they come and ask for it.

Poppycat

We get pallets, I doubt you can sell them as I have spoken to companies before about them and they tell me that there are companies that will take them off your hands but wont pay for them. I have a few sources I get pallets from and a local recycling centre that recycles them has a advert in local rag for people to take them away for free

I am burning some right now, they burn a lot more than logs and burn obviously much quicker but its free wood.

linzibean

You can turn them into all sorts of things! Compost bins, sheds, fencing, hen houses.... or break them up for the planks and make smaller things. We're going to use pallets to make both our compost bin and fencing this year, as it's a rented house we don't want to spend a fortune when we'll be gone in a couple of years

whitevanwoman

Someone once told me that you can get a refund for pallets returned to the originator if they are not damaged (a bit like getting 5p back for a glass pop bottle... in the olden days).

You could chop them up and sell backs of kindling - in supermarkets you pay up to £2 - it's the kind of job that could be passed on to a teenager for them to make some pocket money (if you trust your teenager with a hand axe!).

I live rurally and people are always looking for wood for making rabbit hutches, fixing fencing, etc.

Hope I'm not stating the obvious here...

Poppycat

Thats a good point some of the pallet wood isnt bad quality you can use some of it for fences, we built a log enclosure with some of the wood

It would be nice to at least have some people make use of it rather than landfill

Have you tried asking in local freecycle group to offer free wood come and collect etc

whitevanwoman

PS - if you live anywhere near the north west of england, I'll have them for my stove!!! I'm always looking for free wood to burn even in the summer as I have to light my stove for hot water. Have van, can travel!

Willpower?

Thank you for all your replies.

Unfortunatly I haven't had any luck in selling them, they vary too much in size and quantity. I would be happy if someone took them away for free if they were being reused recycled, but I cant even find someone to do this - we are about an hours drive from a major town. If you live somewhere like Manchester there seem to be lots of options

We find we can give them away in the winter, even one as mild as this one, but after about March no-one wants them.

Poppycat

Its probably due to lack of space we have a large garage which is for storage so we can still have them in Summer for stocking up I have a few now that need breaking up, I just have trouble fitting them in car as ist a very tight squeeze in a ford focus. I can get 4 large ones in at a push But some are a little to wide

BungleGirl

Do you live in East Anglia? There is a group here that is a bit like freecycle but for businesses.

www.eastex.org.uk

I have used them to find a business trying to get rid of pallets (in fact picked up 14 yesterday from a factory down the road).

Basically businesses post things they don't want anymore and then businesses or individuals can contact them to arrange collection.

There might be other projects elsewhere in the country doing similar things.

We used our first load of pallets to build a shed, the last lot are going to a friend to make a base for a workshop and we also got some other pits of wood (would have cost a fortune to buy!) to build a chicken coop and run...