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A few years ago I met a friend of a friend who went around and bought used pallets from businesses and then turned around and sold them to another business that either recycled or resold them (he never really explained what they did after he brought the pallets to them). He would buy pallets from businesses for $2/each and sell them to the next business for $5-$6/each. He claimed that he was making over $50k doing this but I fairly certain that was gross and not taking into consideration gas or vehicle maintenance expenses. Also guessing he didn't claim this on his taxes as he worked on a cash basis.
At the moment, I know of people that repurpose them into furniture so I help them source the used pallets. One is for an animal rescue where the furniture is used for fundraising purposes and I am happy to assist in the process.
He could have made more money around here because I see posts from time to time from places wanting to give away spare pallets. He wouldn't have had to pay for them.
I had a friend who made a fence around part of his yard so they could let their little dogs out to get fresh air and "take care of business".
We see 'free' pallets all over the place here and they are useful for any number of purposes. We stack wood on them, are going to make a compost bin from a few this summer (for the new garden) and of course, Pinterest has some very creative and fun projects to do using pallets.
What I really love for repurposing are cable reels. I made a beautiful table for the back yard out of one as my 'going into retirement' project. I'm in the market for a couple smaller reels to make coordinating end tables. Our electric company will give them to us since we are customers - it's getting ones in good shape that's the challenge.
A few years ago I met a friend of a friend who went around and bought used pallets from businesses and then turned around and sold them to another business that either recycled or resold them (he never really explained what they did after he brought the pallets to them). He would buy pallets from businesses for $2/each and sell them to the next business for $5-$6/each. He claimed that he was making over $50k doing this but I fairly certain that was gross and not taking into consideration gas or vehicle maintenance expenses. Also guessing he didn't claim this on his taxes as he worked on a cash basis.
At the moment, I know of people that repurpose them into furniture so I help them source the used pallets. One is for an animal rescue where the furniture is used for fundraising purposes and I am happy to assist in the process.
Some cousins of mine did the same thing years ago.
A few years ago I met a friend of a friend who went around and bought used pallets from businesses and then turned around and sold them to another business that either recycled or resold them (he never really explained what they did after he brought the pallets to them). He would buy pallets from businesses for $2/each and sell them to the next business for $5-$6/each. He claimed that he was making over $50k doing this but I fairly certain that was gross and not taking into consideration gas or vehicle maintenance expenses. Also guessing he didn't claim this on his taxes as he worked on a cash basis.
At the moment, I know of people that repurpose them into furniture so I help them source the used pallets. One is for an animal rescue where the furniture is used for fundraising purposes and I am happy to assist in the process.
My buddy played golf with a guy in the pallet business. He said it was ridiculously lucrative.
A scrap yard in my area will buy a certain size pallet, can't remember the dimensions, but only if it is in mint condition. Therefore, some are reused.
There are several places near my house that let you take their pallets for free, and I have done so for firewood and various projects. Most of them are made of low quality wood, have at least one broken slat, or some other damage so I am assuming that the majority are onetime use only.
Just my two cents on using pallet wood for projects, I welded up a forked pry bar (you can buy one of these but I've been known to pick up scrap metal too) and have a few power saws to speed up disassembly. Any project you plan to use indoors will probably require some sanding, and I have power tools for that as well. However, busting up pallets is still a lot of work. The cheap wood fastened with way more nails then you would think are required, often leading to damage of slats when disassembling, so there is a lot of waste when the job is all done.
It really doesn't matter. They're wood and nails, both go back to their mineral state quite quickly in landfills.
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Our electric company will give them to us since we are customers - it's getting ones in good shape that's the challenge.
