10 Best Places to Find Free Pallets Near Your Neighbourhood

Best Places to Find Free Pallets A pallet is a flat transport structure, which supports goods stably while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a jacking device, or an erect crane.

Best Places to Find Free Pallets

But how do you get free pallets? Is there a store you can visit or just hand them over? There probably aren’t outlets set up just for giving away wooden pallets.

There are plenty of businesses and maybe some individuals that dispose of them because they have no use for them.

Below are some tips and things to remember when looking for the best place to Find Free Pallets and free wooden pallets.

1. Go to a Distribution Center

Distribution centers often receive very good quality, but non-conforming pallets that are not compatible with their systems.

When that happens, they may set them aside and make them available to you for pickup. However, never show up at the distribution center unannounced; get a referral first.

Realistically, having a distribution center let you in to take oddball pallets can be a long shot, but it might be worth the effort.

2. Be Your Own Pickup Service

If you know of some local places that are constantly getting rid of pallets, simply ask them if you can take the load from them.

If they’re already paying someone to do it, you could always offer to take the pallets at no cost because you like to use them for DIY projects.

Any excess you don’t use could then be given to someone else that needs them or taken to a dump area.

This type of relationship may transform into something even bigger. They may eventually contact you if they end up having other kinds of waste that you could use for your at-home projects.

3. The Internet Always Wins

In addition to finding old pallets, they may also be purchased online. The Home Depot offers recycled pallets and disassembled recycled pallet kits.

While pallet wood is also available on sites such as Etsy and Craigslist. This business offers old pallet wood to customers in South Carolina.

You can advertise anything you want to get rid of, so long as someone else can provide you with free or cheap pallets.

Facebook and other social media sites can be just as helpful as well as the freebie-finding website Freecycle.

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4. Local Shops and Small Businesses

Large businesses usually have pallet programs in place to reuse pallets internally, return them, or recycle them, and many will not let unannounced outsiders on site.

Therefore, it is usually hard to secure pallets from large pallet generators like supermarkets, big-box retailers, or manufacturing plants.

With this in mind, you are better dealing with small shops, schools, seniors residences, or other operations.

5. Hardware Stores Near You

Since hardware stores handle dry goods, mostly, this is a good way to find clean pallets. Hardware stores use wooden pallets for most deliveries.

Making this a good way to get your hands on some for an affordable price, or even at no cost.

6. Visit Local Pallet Recyclers, and Manufacturers

Pallet recyclers often receive excellent quality but non-standard pallets that have little or no value to them, except possibly for dismantling or grinding.

If you visit a recycler and explain the type of pallets you need, they may have non-conforming pallets available for free or for a reasonable charge.

7. Construction Sites

Construction sites have their materials delivered by pallet. If large sites aren’t convenient to get to, smaller sites such as houses under construction are often more accessible.

You will certainly find a few pallets waiting for you (although it sometimes takes some daring to ask a stranger for their pallets!).

8. New Businesses

Have a new business coming to town or going into a strip mall or store? It is a great place to find free pallets and scrap lumber!

How do you think they get all that product in to start the store? That’s right–on pallets and in shipping crates!

When you see a new store coming in, stop and ask. Get permission before taking any pallets. This may lead to a healthy business relationship in the future.

9. Furniture Stores

Furniture stores often get their shipments on pallets. Since furniture falls into the dry goods category, furniture stores are an outstanding place to source clean, dry pallets.

Again, all you have to do is ask the store owner if they have any unwanted ones you could take.

10. Pet Stores

Pet supply stores are often good places to find pallets that are in great condition. Since pet supply stores often get their products on wood pallets, they’ll likely have some to offer you.

Plus, many pet stores handle dry goods, meaning their pallets are in good condition. Offer to pick them up for the store, and they may allow you to take them for free or sell them to you for pennies.

A further consideration is the current global shortage of wood pallets, which I discuss in this article.

Conclusion

Due to a global shortage of pallets, to Find Free Pallets for hobbyists may become more difficult to locate. Therefore, it can be more difficult to get a free pallet in the near future.

The good news is that free pallets will still be offered in locations where retrieval is more difficult or expensive, or in locations where pallets are only meant to be used once.

Frequently Asked Questions

Unfortunately, Home Depot does not give out free pallets. This is because the retailer has an agreement with its suppliers to return them for recycling. If you need free pallets, you can get them at construction sites, junkyards, recycling sites, and so on.

Home Decor Pallets: Home Sweet Pallet – Crafts | Hobby Lobby. FREE SHIPPING* on orders of $50 or more.

Are Pallets Free At Lowes? Lowes gives free pallets to its customers. However, not all Lowes stores provide free pallets as some recycle them as part of their sustainability program. So, you have to ask the store in advance if they can provide you with some.

One of the major benefits of making your own pallet is that they are much easier to take apart than their commercial counterparts. Simply pry off the slats and remove the nails. Occasionally a board may split in the process. But that’s all part of the challenge when working with pallets, and is to be expected.

Do pallets rot? In the short-term, most wooden pallets can withstand weather conditions like rain and sun exposure. However, if pallets are stored outdoors for long periods of time, the wood will rot.

But it turns out that pallet wood can often be contaminated with toxic chemicals, harmful bacteria, and other icky bad stuff you certainly don’t want in your home or around your family.

Pallets: In addition to providing more pest hideouts, pallets can offer a tasty snack to wood-eating pests. Dumpsters: While the scent might be off-putting to humans, it signals dinner to pests like cockroaches, ants, rats, mice and more.

Further, old pallets in particular stand a decent chance of having been fumigated in the past with the chemical Methyl Bromide. This is not a chemical you want to breathe- it is a known carcinogen- especially when you are trying to enjoy the fresh air of the great outdoors.

Over the years, people have asked why CHEP pallets are blue? The answer is that CHEP paints its pallets blue. CHEP uses blue as a pallet color coding aid as well as a marketing advantage. The blue color makes its pallets easier to identify.

Rain and wet weather can have a visual effect on your pallet quicker than snow or ice. It can cause wooden pallets to stain, increase the rate of mold growth or even damage the product on the pallet. This could obviously be very serious depending on the product.

What is a Heat Treated Pallet? Heat treated pallets are often referred to as HT pallets, yet the concept remains the same: Heat treatment is a method of sterilizing the wood to remove all hazardous materials, thereby making the pallets safer and better suited for shipment.

If your pallet has been painted or stained in a bright colour this usually means it belongs to a pallet rental company. The colour and code on each of these pallets will tell you which rental company they belong to, here are the four most common ones: Red pallets: pool LPR (La Palette Rouge from Europe)

10 Best Places to Find Free Pallets Near Your Neighborhood