Since 2009
Our History
From a small yard to a regional leader in sustainable pallet solutions — here's our journey.
Founders' Vision
It Started With a Question: Why Are We Throwing These Away?
When Sacramento Pallet Co.'s founders first walked through a local landfill in 2008, they saw row after row of wooden pallets — stacked, crushed, and buried alongside household trash. Most of them were structurally sound. Many needed nothing more than a few replacement boards or a handful of new nails. The waste was staggering: millions of board feet of usable lumber, discarded simply because no one had built the infrastructure to recover it.
That observation became an obsession, and that obsession became a business plan. The founders envisioned a company that would sit at the center of the pallet lifecycle — not just buying and selling, but repairing, recycling, treating, and transporting. A company where every pallet that entered the yard would be assessed, processed, and given its longest possible working life before any material was ever ground down or discarded.
From day one, the goal was never just profitability. It was proving a point: that waste is a design flaw, not an inevitability. That recycled products can meet the same quality standards as new ones. And that doing the right thing for the environment is also the right thing for business. Every milestone in our history reflects that original vision — the belief that sustainability and success are not competing priorities, but two sides of the same coin.
Our Timeline
The Beginning
Sacramento Pallet Co. was founded with a simple mission: rescue usable pallets from landfills and give them a second life. Starting from a modest yard with a handful of employees, we began collecting and reselling used pallets to local businesses.
Expanded Recycling Program
Just one year in, we realized the volume of end-of-life pallets coming through our doors far exceeded what could be resold. We launched a dedicated recycling program, investing in our first wood grinding equipment to convert irreparable pallets into mulch, landscaping material, and biomass fuel. This marked the beginning of our zero-waste philosophy — the idea that every piece of wood should find a productive second use, no matter its condition.
First Heat Treatment Kiln
We installed our first ISPM 15 heat treatment kiln, a major capital investment that signaled our commitment to serving a broader market. Heat treatment eliminates pests and pathogens without chemicals, making pallets safe for international shipping. This capability attracted our first export-oriented customers and set us apart from competitors who were still relying on third-party treatment facilities with longer turnaround times and less quality control.
Expanding Operations
As demand grew, we expanded our yard capacity and invested in our first pallet repair equipment. We introduced a three-tier grading system (A, B, C) to give our customers transparent quality options and fair pricing.
Transport Fleet Launched
We launched our own delivery fleet to provide end-to-end service. No more relying on third-party carriers — we could now pick up, process, and deliver pallets on our own schedule with guaranteed reliability.
Fleet Expansion
With our customer base growing rapidly across the Sacramento region, we doubled our delivery fleet from three trucks to six and added a dedicated flatbed for oversized and custom pallet orders. The expansion allowed us to offer same-day delivery across a wider service area, reaching businesses in Elk Grove, Folsom, Roseville, and Woodland. We also introduced scheduled route pickups for high-volume customers, reducing their logistics overhead and strengthening long-term partnerships.
Heat Treatment Certification
We earned ISPM 15 heat treatment certification, allowing us to serve export customers. This opened up an entirely new market and positioned us as a one-stop shop for domestic and international pallet needs.
Plastic Pallets & Accessories
Recognizing shifting market demands, we added plastic pallets and a full range of accessories — collars, covers, and dividers — to our product lineup. Our goal: be a complete pallet solutions provider.
Sustainability Milestone
We hit a major milestone: over 200,000 pallets recycled since founding. We also launched our Pallet Management Program, helping large organizations optimize their pallet lifecycle and reduce costs by up to 40%.
Sustainability Milestone — 1M Pallets Recycled
In 2021, we reached a landmark achievement: one million pallets recycled since our founding. This milestone represented more than a number — it was proof that a small Sacramento operation could make a measurable difference in reducing industrial waste. We celebrated by publishing our first annual sustainability report, detailing the environmental impact of every pallet we processed, including estimated tons of CO2 avoided, trees saved, and landfill space preserved. The report became an annual tradition and a tool our customers use to demonstrate their own environmental responsibility.
Zero-Waste Commitment
We achieved a 98% landfill diversion rate. Pallets beyond repair are broken down into components: wood is chipped for mulch, landscaping, or biomass fuel. Metal fasteners are recycled. Nothing is wasted.
Looking Forward
Today, Sacramento Pallet Co. processes over 50,000 pallets annually and serves hundreds of businesses across the region. We continue to innovate, invest in sustainable practices, and prove that recycled pallets can match — and exceed — the quality of new ones.
15+ Years by the Numbers
A look at what we've accomplished since opening our doors in 2009.
500,000+
Total Pallets Recycled
Half a million pallets saved from landfills since founding
15,000+
Tons of CO2 Avoided
Equivalent to taking 3,200 cars off the road for a year
500+
Active Business Clients
From small shops to Fortune 500 distribution centers
45,000+
Trees Saved
By reusing and recycling pallets instead of manufacturing new ones
Turning Points
Defining Moments
Every company has moments that shape its identity. These are some of ours.
The First Big Customer
In our early years, a large Sacramento-area food distributor gave us a chance with a 200-pallet trial order. When we delivered on time, at quality, and 40% below what they were paying their national supplier, they signed a recurring contract the same week. That relationship still exists today, and it taught us a foundational lesson: reliability earns loyalty faster than anything else.
Surviving the Supply Crunch
During the 2020-2021 lumber shortage, new pallet prices skyrocketed by 60-80%. Many businesses scrambled. Because our model is built on recycling and repair rather than virgin lumber, we were able to keep prices stable for our customers while competitors doubled their rates. That period brought us more new clients than any marketing campaign ever could — and proved the resilience of the circular economy.
The Heat Treatment Investment
Building our own ISPM 15 heat treatment kiln was the biggest capital investment in company history. It was also the best one. Before that, we had to outsource treatment — adding cost, turnaround time, and logistical complexity for customers who needed export-ready pallets. Bringing it in-house cut treatment turnaround from 5 days to 24 hours and opened an entirely new customer segment.
Reaching 98% Diversion
The day our annual metrics showed a 98% landfill diversion rate was a milestone we celebrated yard-wide. It meant that out of every 100 pallets entering our facility, only 2 produced waste that could not be reused, recycled, or converted to useful material. The remaining 2% is primarily metal fasteners from pallets too degraded to repair — and we are actively working to push that number even lower.
What We Have Learned
15+ Years of Hard-Won Wisdom
Running a pallet recycling operation for over a decade teaches you things that no business textbook covers.
Relationships Beat Transactions
The businesses that have been with us the longest are the ones we treated as partners from day one. Understanding a customer's operation — their pain points, seasonal patterns, quality standards — lets us serve them proactively instead of reactively.
Consistency Outperforms Flash
Our customers do not need surprises. They need pallets that show up on time, meet grade, and cost what we said they would. Being boringly reliable has been our most effective competitive advantage.
Invest in People First
Equipment and technology matter, but the difference between a good pallet company and a great one is the people. Our technicians, drivers, and coordinators know things that no machine can replicate — how wood sounds when it is stressed, which dock managers prefer morning deliveries, which routes avoid traffic at 3 PM.
Sustainability Is Good Business
We started recycling pallets because it was the right thing to do. We kept doing it because it is also the most profitable model in the industry. Lower input costs, higher customer retention, and growing demand for sustainable supply chains have proven that environmental responsibility and financial success reinforce each other.
What's Next
As we look to the future, our goals are ambitious but clear: expand our service area to cover all of Northern California, invest in advanced automated sorting and repair technology, and push our landfill diversion rate from 98% toward our ultimate goal of 100%.
We're also exploring partnerships with biomass energy facilities to convert wood waste into clean energy, and developing a digital pallet tracking platform that will give customers real-time visibility into their pallet inventory, repair status, and environmental impact metrics.
The pallet industry is evolving, and Sacramento Pallet Co. intends to lead that evolution — proving that sustainability, quality, and profitability aren't just compatible, they're inseparable.