Pallet cores: pallets you are done with

BOX 01The word and what it covers

Core is a trade word, and it means the pallet is surplus to you, not that it is worthless. A recycler takes it as raw material. A pallet recovered for repair, resale, remanufacturing or recycling is a core per Racklify, and what cannot be saved may be chipped for mulch, composite products or biomass.

BOX 02What is a core and what is not

BOX 03Where cores go from Memphis docks

The metro sheds cores from every dock type: parcel docks near the airport, Frayser apparel buildings, DeSoto County fulfillment centers. A core request names the count, the sizes and the condition. For the seller's side see selling cores, and for clearing them, pallet recycling.

A pile that is only part core can be split in the request: sound ones sell, cores clear.

BOX 04A core is a starting point

A core is a pallet that can be repaired, not one that has been. It often has one broken board or one cracked stringer, and the rest of the frame is sound. Because repair starts from a usable frame, cores are the supply for recycled and combo pallets.

A pile of cores is therefore not waste in the trade sense; it is a stock of frames. What a buyer will do depends on how many boards are broken and whether the stringers are intact. Say so in the request, and see recycled pallets and combo pallets for where cores end up.

BOX 05A core pile, described well

A good core description: "About 300 pallets, 48 x 40 stringers, all with intact stringers, roughly one deck board broken in each, no stains, stacked outdoors under a tarp." It names the build, the fault, the fault's extent and the storage.

A poor one: "Broken pallets, a lot."

BOX 06Cores and the condition of stringers

The stringer is the part to look at. A pallet with a cracked stringer is rarely cheap to repair, because the stringer holds the deck up. A pallet with whole stringers and broken deck boards is cheap to repair. A core buyer counts the first group at a discount and the second at a premium.

BOX 07What to leave in the pile

Leave in the core pile any pallet whose stringers or blocks are sound. Take out pallets that are rotted, burned, oil-soaked or full of nails that cannot be pulled. Mixed, those spoil the lot. A cleaner core pile is a more valuable one.

BOX 08A short glossary of core faults

• Missing board: a deck board is gone; the frame is intact.
• Split board: a deck board cracks along the grain.
• Cracked stringer: a structural fault; the pallet is a weaker core.
• Loose block: a block has shifted; repair needed.