01
Single-pass magnetic separation
A nail buried inside a block of wood is invisible to a magnet until the second grind exposes it.
FixTwo passes, one after each grind. Suppliers who do one pass produce fibre with metal in it.
01The four fibre products
| Product | Screen size | Goes to | Carbon outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landscape mulch, natural | 0.5–2 in | Landscapers, municipalities | Sequestered, slow release |
| Colour-enhanced mulch | 0.5–2 in | Retail garden, commercial landscaping | Sequestered |
| Animal bedding fibre | 0.25–0.75 in, dried | Equine, poultry, dairy | Sequestered, then composted |
| Panel feedstock | Variable, to spec | Particleboard and MDF mills | Locked into a product for decades |
| Biomass fuel | Hog fuel, 2–4 in | Industrial boilers, CHP | Released — last resort |
We route to the highest tier a given batch qualifies for. Painted or stained wood cannot go to bedding; wood with residual metal cannot go to panel mills; anything with chemical contamination goes to controlled disposal rather than into a horse stall.
02Why metal removal is the whole game
A single 48x40 pallet contains roughly 78 fasteners. Ground into fibre, those become 78 short steel fragments distributed through the batch. In landscape mulch that is a lawnmower hazard. In animal bedding it is a veterinary emergency. In panel feedstock it destroys knives worth thousands of dollars.
- Primary grind reduces pallets to coarse fibre.
- Overband magnets lift ferrous metal from the conveyor.
- Secondary grind sizes the fibre to product specification.
- A second magnetic pass catches fragments exposed by the second grind.
- Screening removes fines and oversize.
- Batch inspection before load-out.
03The carbon logic behind the ordering
Wood is roughly half carbon by dry weight, drawn out of the atmosphere while the tree grew. What happens next determines whether that carbon stays out of the air.
- Reused as a pallet — carbon stays locked, and no new pallet is built. Best outcome by far.
- Panel feedstock — carbon locked into furniture or construction board for decades.
- Mulch and bedding — carbon released slowly over years, with soil benefits along the way.
- Biomass fuel — carbon released immediately, though it does displace fossil fuel.
- Landfill — carbon released as methane, which is far worse than releasing it as CO₂.
That hierarchy is why we treat grinding as a failure state rather than a business line. Every pallet that becomes mulch is a pallet that could not be repaired, and our operational target is to shrink that number, not grow it.
By the numbers
The figures worth remembering
Four numbers that decide most of what follows on this page.
- Magnetic separation passes, not one
- 2Magnetic separation passes, not one
- Fasteners ground out of every 48x40
- ~78Fasteners ground out of every 48x40
- Fibre product tiers above landfill
- 4Fibre product tiers above landfill
- Share that goes to energy recovery
- <1%Share that goes to energy recovery
Rules of thumb
Carry these in your head
- 01Wood is roughly half carbon by dry weight. What happens next decides whether it stays out of the air.
- 02Grinding is a failure state, not a business line.
- 03Heat-treated wood is simply wood that has been heated — safe for landscape use.
- 04Chemically contaminated wood never enters the fibre stream.
Before you order
The decisions we will ask you to make
A quote turnaround is limited by how many follow-up questions we have to ask. Working through this list removes nearly all of them.
- 01
Product grade needed
Landscape mulch, bedding, panel feedstock and hog fuel are screened and dried differently.
- 02
Metal tolerance
Panel mills have zero tolerance — metal destroys knives worth thousands.
- 03
Colour
Iron-oxide and carbon-black pigments, the same minerals used in concrete colouring. Not paint, not dye.
- 04
Moisture
Bedding-grade fibre is dried to a tighter specification than landscape mulch.
- 05
Delivery format
Bulk walking-floor loads. We are not set up for bagged retail quantities.
What goes wrong
Expensive mistakes, and the fix for each
Every one of these turns up in ordinary purchase orders. All of them cost multiples of whatever they appeared to save.
02
Sending painted wood to bedding
Coatings that are fine in landscape mulch are not fine in a horse stall.
FixSort before grinding, and route painted stock to a lower tier.
03
Treating grinding as the goal
Every pallet that becomes mulch is a pallet that could not be repaired.
FixJudge a recycler on how little they grind, not how much.
Side by side
Where the fibre goes, and what happens to the carbon
| Product | Screen size | Goes to | Carbon outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landscape mulch, natural | 0.5–2 in | Landscapers, municipalities | Sequestered, slow release |
| Colour-enhanced mulch | 0.5–2 in | Retail garden, commercial | Sequestered |
| Animal bedding fibre | 0.25–0.75 in, dried | Equine, poultry, dairy | Sequestered, then composted |
| Panel feedstock | To spec | Particleboard and MDF mills | Locked into a product for decades |
| Biomass fuel | 2–4 in hog fuel | Industrial boilers, CHP | Released — last resort |
Against our interest
When this is the wrong answer
We would rather lose the order than sell you the wrong thing. These are the situations where this page is not what you need.
- 01
Anything that could still be a pallet
Grinding is a failure state. A pallet that becomes mulch is one nobody could repair, and we judge ourselves on how little of that we do.
- 02
Painted or chemically treated wood into animal bedding
Coatings that are acceptable in landscape mulch are not acceptable in a horse stall. Sorting happens before grinding for exactly this reason.
- 03
Bagged retail quantities
We sell bulk by the walking-floor load. There is almost always a local distributor better set up for bagged product.
What moves the price
Cost drivers, and roughly how much each one is worth
A quote is not a list price with a discount applied. It is these variables added up, which is why two quotes for nominally the same thing can differ so widely.
| Driver | What it is | Rough effect |
|---|---|---|
| Screen specification | Bedding-grade fibre is screened finer and dried to a tighter specification than landscape mulch. | Processing time and yield |
| Metal separation passes | Two magnetic passes rather than one, because a nail inside a block is invisible until the second grind exposes it. | Non-negotiable, and it costs |
| Colouring | Iron-oxide and carbon-black mineral pigments applied at processing. | Premium over natural |
| Haul distance | Bulk fibre is low value per ton, so freight dominates quickly. | Limits economic radius |
Due diligence
Questions to ask any supplier
Us included. The answers tell you a great deal, and so does how quickly they arrive — a yard that has these documents ready is a yard that has thought about them.
- 01
“How many magnetic separation passes, and where in the process?”
- 02
“What screen size, and is the fibre dried?”
- 03
“What is the colouring — pigment or dye?”
- 04
“How is painted or treated wood sorted out before grinding?”
- 05
“Is any of this going to energy recovery, and what share?”
The rulebook
Standards and authorities that actually apply
Plenty of pallet marketing invokes standards loosely. These are the real documents behind this subject, and what each one does and does not cover.
- Mulch and Soil Council certification
The industry certification programme for mulch products, covering labelling accuracy and contaminant limits.
- State compost and mulch regulations
Vary considerably. Some states regulate feedstock and contaminant thresholds for landscape and agricultural use.
- Panel mill feedstock specifications
Particleboard and MDF mills set their own contaminant limits, and metal tolerance is effectively zero.
- RCRA / state hazardous waste rules
Determine the route for chemically contaminated wood, which never enters the fibre stream.
Vocabulary
The terms used on this page
Defined the way the trade uses them, not the way a dictionary would.
- Core
- An as-collected used pallet — unsorted, unrepaired and ungraded. Raw material rather than a product, and priced accordingly.
- Grade C
- Structurally sound but cosmetically rough. Suitable for floor-stacked storage and one-way freight; never for racking.
- Remanufactured pallet
- A pallet rebuilt from recovered components, often to a different size than the original. Distinct from a repaired pallet.
From the journal
Longer reading on this subject
Written by the people who grade, repair and haul the wood — including the articles that argue against buying from us.
Sustainability8 min readLena Brandt
What actually happens to a pallet after it leaves your dock
Most people who sell us pallets have never seen what happens next. It is a five-tier hierarchy, and about 41% of everything we collect never needs a repair at all.
Read
- recycling
- circular economy
- diversion
Sustainability8 min readLena Brandt
Carbon accounting for pallets without lying to yourself
Most pallet carbon claims are directionally right and quantitatively invented. Here are the factors we use, where they come from, and the uncertainty attached to each.
Read
- carbon
- ESG
- reporting
Sustainability7 min readLena Brandt
What a 92% diversion rate actually measures
Any number you cannot interrogate is a marketing claim. Here is exactly how ours is built, including the part that does not flatter us.
Read
- diversion
- reporting
- ESG
Questions
Answers to what buyers actually ask
Straight answers, including the ones that cost us the sale.
Is pallet mulch safe for gardens?
Natural, uncoloured mulch from untreated pallet wood is safe for landscape use. Avoid mulch made from painted or chemically treated wood. Ours is sorted before grinding, and heat-treated wood — which is simply wood that has been heated — poses no issue at all.
Do you sell mulch to the public?
We sell in bulk by the walking-floor load to landscapers, municipalities and distributors. We are not set up for bagged retail quantities, and there is usually a local distributor who is.
What makes coloured mulch coloured?
Iron-oxide pigments for reds and browns, carbon black for black. These are the same mineral pigments used in concrete colouring — not paint, not dye, and not a coating that flakes off into soil.
Can contaminated pallets be recovered?
Chemically contaminated wood cannot enter the fibre stream and goes to controlled disposal. Surface mould, water staining and dirt are not contamination in this sense and process normally. If a pallet has held a chemical spill, tell us — it changes the route entirely.
What does grinding recover that repair cannot?
Everything below repairable condition. Boards too short to reuse, split stringers and rotted decks become fibre instead of landfill. It is the lowest-value route in the cascade and the reason overall diversion reaches 92% rather than stalling at the point where repair runs out.