Are they worth anything?

Eg you see lorries full of them driving up motorways, but all builders etc just chuck them in skips.

I collect them all from local skips and burn them over winter as its free fuel. You find some really chunky ones made from planks rather than thin strips of wood always wonder what these were for as they could probably just use a euro palette.

We’ve had three pallets-worth of stone pavers recently. Those are pretty chunky pallets, I can tell you that…

When I bought some Indian stone a few years back, the pallets looked rough but the wood was seriously dense and heavy – makes me wonder what ancient forest was cut down for them. They lasted hours on the burner.

Euro pallets usually have a deposit on them or it works in a similar way to camping gas bottles. You buy the first one and then exchange them when the new goods ariive.

Got three pallets from a stone delivery from a friend. It’s pretty decent hard wood. Seems a shame to burn it, so I’ve made a planter from the rails and might make a garden seat from the planks.

“Normal” pallets do have a value but not very much. Not enough to make it worthwhile for a builder to recycle. My local wood recycling charity takes them, and volunteers de-nail them. They sell the wood at about 60p/m.

… or build a wall of death:

http://www.colinfurze.com/wall-of-death.html

, and volunteers de-nail them

Our grate is full of nails all through winter!

When I bought some Indian stone a few years back, the pallets looked rough but the wood was seriously dense and heavy – makes me wonder what ancient forest was cut down for them. They lasted hours on the burner.

BIL just purchased some stone like that. He was told the pallet wood was teak!

they could probably just use a euro palette

Maybe they are not to everyone’s taste.

i use mine for snowboard launch ramps and garden planters ( as long as they are heat treated)

Are they worth anything?

In a word yes.
I visit a few pallet yards with work.
There are some right shady people involved in stealing recycling pallets.

Our grate is full of nails all through winter!

apparently some **** were having a massive beach bonfire with loads of pallets this week; local lady asked them not to but they wouldn’t, she ended picking 650 nails up of the beach the next morning!

They must be worth something though as there’s always a surly looking bloke prowling the industrial estates every evening in a shitty old transit taking away all the pallets that have been left out.

They make great shed shelving. Not built a shed yet though.

The buy / sell price is iro £10 / £3 though it varies as how strong pallet is. For a couple of quid some folk don’t bother but they have a value.

We always have a surplus but happy to give them to a bloke who collects for free just to get shot. I know someone who cuts them up to burn and my pallet man gave him a cage of wooden offcuts in exchange for pallets one time.

Second that comment re crate for indian paving, a neighbour was throwing it out and I thought to cut it up for burning.  Man is it hard and dense – very difficult to cut with jig saw.  It was too scrappy to use for anything else but agree it seemed a shame to cut up.

https://create.obi.de/cms/content/0-produkte/0-bett-frisch-verliebt/_pool/bett-frisch-verliebt-xl.de.jpg
DIY stores here also sell them for 4X their value for hipster furniture!

Man is it hard and dense – very difficult to cut with jig saw.

I use a Bosch Sabre saw for palette chopping…

People turn them into garden furniture, bars and cooking areas then sell them on. That’s why you sometimes see people in vans looking for them.

Look up Brambles, it’s a global industry. Supermarkets have to deal with 00’s in day in and day out. Each has a value and they are often repaired if damaged rather than scraped. ‘Leakage’ i.e. theft and using them for unplanned purposes is a big cost for companies behind them.

They are also often treated with formaldehyde, so worth checking what you can/should use them for 🙂

Little ones are worth a bit.

My neighbour has a pallet business. Runs 4 wagons,has a yard in Newcastle,and an internet site.Seems to be doing well as him and his son have just got brand new Merc coupes and he’s bought a 20 plate Swift motorhome.

Reasonably flat, equal lengths of timber, denailed or cut around them to get timber from tree to flat wood is quite a process and often beyond anyone wanting to utilize it.
A cheap hand plane cutting with the grain will produce a nice finish, and certainly good enough for any task.

As others have said, they do have some value if in good nick. My old workplace got through hundreds a month but as it was a secure site we couldn’t sell them to the local van who went round looking for them. Well, we couldn’t officially but we used to find ways to get them into the car park late at evening and he would give us £1-2 a pallet which went into the Christmas party pot. Usually raised £100 or so a month.

I may have also used some of the rattly ones to make a bike shed…

check the wheatsheaf msrk before burning. no mark, national pallet, not treated. any international pallet is marked, country of origin and treatment. db=debarked, ht= heat treat. ok to burn.

Printers pallets are generally better quality, because they carry a bloody great stack of SRA2, SRA1 or SRA0 paper, which is strapped down with chipboard sheets on the top to keep it perfectly flat, IIRC the SRA2 pallets are 960×720, or thereabouts. I used to run a folding machine which needed a work surface at either end for knocking-up the paper to get it even and get some air into the sheets for folding, and at the other end for bundling and putting into plastic mail tubs, and I built two out of seven pallets stacked on top of each other, strapped together, then a sheet of the chipboard hot-glued on top. Nice and firm and stable, the gaps inside the pallets made very useful storage spaces as well, thinking about it they were solid enough you could bolt a vice onto the top, and probably a belt sander – if I needed to move them I had to use a pallet truck.
We did get really big ones in as well, usually painted blue, and very, very heavy! I think they carried the plastic mail tubs we used for sending the finished mail to the Post Office sorting office along the road.

I think they’re one of those things that individually are pretty much worthless, but if you’ve got a lot, aren’t. Sort of like coke cans, if you’ve got one you might as well chuck it in the recycling.

Very satisfying breaking up a pallet for wood though!

All depends on the type of pallet
Printers pallets small type £1 each
4 way pallets 40-48″ in good condition £2-50 £3 each
Euro pallets good condition £3-£5 depending on region.

Long and sort most truck drivers (that I know ) will strip pallets and if possible weigh them in at the end of the day to pallet yards that will sell them on to companies at a higher cost than they pay drivers.

Most drivers pocket the cash to pay for meals ect .. I know some guys who pull £200 + a week on this underhanded activity 😉