Identifying Wood Pallets That are OK to Burn???

[BurnIt13]

I work in a company that goes through pallets like crazy. We have a 40 yard dumpster for pallets only that gets filled up and hauled off about once a week. Some of them are complete junk, and others way too big....but there is a huge supply to pick from. 95% is softwood, but softwood still burns

Being my first season, I'm a bit behind on my wood stock. Is there a way to tell if a pallet is not chemically processed? Some of the skids here have some stampings on them, some don't. Thanks!

 

[BurnIt13]

Okay....I just did some looking and apparently before 2005, pallets were treated with Methyl Bromide, a nasty chemical. Nowadays they are heat treated but may also be treated with pesticides or mildewcides. I just took a peak around and a number of the pallets have a HT stamp on them, indicating they were heat treated. I'm curious to know if there are any chemicals on them.

Some of our pallets are imported, not sure what percentage....and I'd like to be able to identify the nasty ones. Apparently imported pallets can still be treated with Methyl Bromide.

 

[kettensäge]

Thousands of pallets go through the factory I work at.
In additon to how they are treated is what were they used to carry, how clean are the trucks they were hauled in and factory floors / warehouses they were stored in, what type of chemicals were they exposed to during their lifetime.
We used to get formaldehyde here in 55 gallon drums. I'm sure some got on pallets that went to the next factory that reused them for who knows what.

Locally our newspaper gives away 1 time use pallets used for newsprint or ink delivery, they are about the only ones I would trust.

 

[BurnIt13]

All of the pallets in our factory have the IPPC certificatioon stamp on them indicating what type of treatment they have recieved. All of ours say HT for heat treated. I found none that said MB for methyl bromide. We don't use any dangerous chemicals in bulk, but like you said...its what everyone else has done to them.

I do know that every time a pallet has to be modified, like if a single board needs to be replaced...then the whole pallet needs to be retreated.

I'd like to think that they are burnable...I could probably heat my house exclusivly with used pallets. Of course I wont....the intention is just to help out during the shoulder season.

 

[John the Painter]

I'd say take as many as you can.If it means getting a year ahead on your wood supply then it's a no brainer ...well for me anyway but I've been accused of not having a brain sometimes anyway ;-)

 

[Wood Duck]

If the stamps don't indicate unwanted chemical treatment, I'd just avoid any pallets that are stained a lot with unknown stains that could be chemicals, and otherwise burn them. Why not use free wood when it is so easy to get?

 

[Ken S]

Back about 1989 I got through a couple winters burning almost nothing but pallets.Got them from a hardware store and plumbing supply house I did business with.Never noticed any problems and didn't seem to have chemicals on them but I was young and single and needed the heat and couldn't afford oil

 

[ruserious2008]

Not painted? Check! Not made of plastic- definitely wood of some flavor? Check! No weird stains and does not glow in the dark? Check! Burn baby burn! I stand them on end in a holder I made (From pallets of course , chain saw slats the off, then cut up the stringers using my table saw. Can make fast work of a bunch of pallets that way. Last year when I was short on dry wood I figured out a method where I would stack 4 or 5 slats, drill a small hole in them and then whack a slightly larger wood dowel into the hole and made my own little red oak logs from my now dried up supply of red oak pallets I had access to last year. Also used a nail gun on them and was not a big deal as I had nails in my ash anyway from the stringers and just used a magnet to recover them. So far this year I'm just using a small axe to make kindling out of the slats and use the stinger pieces for my shoulder season fires I'm lighting the last few days and as kindling also.
I've made some nice scores this summer and have enough wood stacked for the next 3 years or so and bought some 2 year seasoned stuff also so my sense of urgency on my pallets is lower than last year but still its free heat so I like them Hoping I can score some more red oak pallets but if not I'll still be burning pine pallets this year
Good luck and enjoy.

 

[cptoneleg]

bURN bURN Don't look back