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Home » Blog » How to Tell if a Pallet is Safe to Use in the Garden

How to Tell if a Pallet is Safe to Use in the Garden

By PreparednessMama on July 28, 2020 * 16 Comments

Making Sure It’s Safe to Create Planter Boxes From Pallets

I am creating a new garden on the cheap. I have big plans for raised beds and I’m looking for re-purposed materials to build them. I was able to scoop up a bundle of pallets from the local mini-storage for free. Cheap is good, but not at the expense of my family health.

Pallet Safety: Should you make planter boxes from old pallets? Yes, if you know these tips | PreaprednessMama

I’ve heard that pallets can be treated with methyl bromide, which is listed as an endocrine disrupting chemical on the EU list. According to the California Proposition 65 List, methyl bromide has effects on reproduction and development.

Since soil can pick up chemicals leaching from the reclaimed wood, I need to be sure that my “free” pallets are not going to cause us long term harm.

Pallet Safety Comes First

From the website Toxipedia: “Methyl bromide is a broad spectrum pesticide used in the control of pest insects, nematodes, weeds, pathogens, and rodents. In the U.S., methyl bromide has been used in agriculture, primarily for soil fumigation, as well as for commodity and quarantine treatment, and structural fumigation.”

Methyl bromide can enter the body through inhalation by breathing air contaminated with methyl bromides, through your skin or through the eyes.

The symptoms of inhalation of methyl bromide are abdominal pain, convulsions, dizziness, headache, labored breathing, vomiting, weakness, hallucinations, loss of speech and incoordination. When exposed to skin, it can cause tingling and itching. It can also be absorbed through the skin: symptoms of absorption are redness, burning sensation, pain, and blisters.

Redness, pain, blurred vision and temporary loss of vision are the symptoms which occur when methyl bromide comes in the contact with eyes. The EPA lists methyl bromide as “highly acute toxic”.

YUCK!

Check the pallet labels before you use it for crafts or in the garden | PreparednessMama

Fortunately, methyl bromide has not been used to fumigate pallets since 2005, but there are still old pallets in circulation and you need to be on the lookout for them. If you find an MB pallet, please do not use it for your craft project, in the garden, or as firewood. Instead, find a waste-removal company who can dispose of it properly.

Here’s How to Make Sure That Your Pallet Is Safe to Use

Every pallet has a label stamped on in somewhere. If your pallet does not have this label it means that it was produced in the country and is designed for domestic use. However, it is better to be safe than sorry and not use pallets without a stamp – you are putting yourself at risk.

The label should have several codes on it that list:

*The country where it originated
*The IPPC logo
*How it was treated
*It may have a unique numerical code
*and a logo identifying the inspector

ONLY pallets marked HT – for heat treatment are safe to use. DB means that the wood was debarked. It has no bearing on the safety of the pallet. MB means that the hazardous Methyl Bromide was used to treat the wood – so, steer clear of such pallets if you want to use them for your edible crops in the garden.

Also, don’t use MB-marked pallets for heating indoors, as methyl bromide releases toxic fumes that can be hazardous to human and animal health in the long run. One study found that inhalation of these fumes can scar the human lungs even after short-term use.

What’s more, methyl bromide is known as an ozone-depleting chemical, which is why several nations have decided to ban it altogether, U.S. included. However, despite the international bans, the chemical is still being used even on food in Northern America since it is very effective at killing off nematodes, fungi, and weeds while not being very expensive.

The KD stamp on a wood pallet means that the pallet was Kiln Dried, namely dried in a special oven known as kiln to bring down moisture levels in order to prevent rot and fungal growth among other issued that might appear. KD doesn’t mean the wood is hazardous for the human health.

From 1001Pallets.com – “wooden pallets manufactured in Canada or the US undergo a pest control treatment called heat treating (HT) which involves heating the pallet to minimum core temperature of 56°C (132°F) for softwoods and 60°C (140°F) for hardwoods for a minimum of 30 minutes in a kiln. HT pallets are not harmful to your health.”

There is one final thing to check before using a found pallet. If the wood is visibly stained and you don’t know “where your pallets been” you should probably not use those stained boards. If you look at the stack of pallets at the beginning of this post you can see one that is visibly darker than the rest. That is a warning sign that a pallet may have been exposed to other chemicals. You should use caution when using them.

Now you know how to keep your family safe when you find free pallets. HT = heat treated is the best. Go ahead – your pallets are safe – make those planter boxes and get gardening!

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This post was first on December 26th, 2014, and was last updated in July 2020.

Pallet Safety: Reclaimed wood is good, but not at the expense of your health. Learn how to read pallet labels and know if they are chemically treated. | PreparednessMama
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Comments

  1. Pamela @ FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com says

    December 26, 2014 at 9:38 am

    I like that you added the part about not knowing where a pallet has been. I was treated for chemical poisoning back in 97 and we traced it to working in the shipping dept. They were all heat treated pallets but in CA it is required all pallets be reused. So we had pallets from who knows where that had been used to haul who knows what! So when I see all these pallets being used as garden containers or in homes I cringe knowing you can’t see the dangers from past users.

    Reply
    • Luke Hebert says

      December 21, 2017 at 1:26 pm

      I agree with your warning. Volunteering for a food bank introduced me to the fact that some warehouses use heat treated or kiln dried pallets (which in themselves are safe) but then fumigate them & their contents for the warehouse’s own purposes, which may introduce harmful chemicals into the wood unrelated to pallet-specific treatments.

      Reply
  2. pantsupdontloot says

    December 27, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    Any pallet treated with Bromide in 2005 would have long since lost its cocktail. No lumber in this country has been treated with arsenic since 2003. My advice, plant and forget. thanks and God bless

    Reply
  3. Sally says

    January 26, 2015 at 2:12 pm

    Thanks for this great info! We are also planning to use pallets this coming year for a raised garden bed as well as a chicken tractor, and now we know what to look out for in terms of what’s safe to use.

    Reply
  4. Ranger says

    September 20, 2015 at 9:45 am

    I have about 10 pallets of different sizes, all we’re gathered from a single source, my local garden nursery where I used to work. Some (may) have originated in China, but as I just grabbed the nicest ones I could find from a stack it’s hard to tell. I’ve had them all for over 2 years, they have been sitting in my yard exposed to the elements, and since I live in TX our summers sometimes reach 100+ degrees for 3 months. All of these pallets were originally light colored but have darkened with age, none have stamps on them that I can see, except one that clearly says CAN (I’m assuming Canada?).

    I’m thinking of using them as garden beds. Are they safe? And will ‘clothing’ them with landscape fabric or a moisture preventer/sealer or paint provide safer protection.

    Reply
    • Shelle says

      September 20, 2015 at 7:03 pm

      I think you’re ok Ranger – Canada has stricter laws about their pallets than the USA. I would not use any that have obvious oil stains, otherwise I agree, those Texas summers will kill just about anything! It’s great that you know where they came from most people pick them up without having a clue where the wood has been. I would use landscape cloth to help keep in the soil but I don’t think it’s going to do much as a protection from the wood.

      Reply
  5. Tanya says

    April 1, 2016 at 5:51 pm

    Is there any other steps i should take to pepare the pallet to suit longstanding 4 season weather in michigan. I don’t want any water rot to ruin my raised garden beds.

    Reply
    • Shelle says

      April 1, 2016 at 7:31 pm

      Hi Tanya, You might consider painting or sealing your pallet if it will be exposed to severe weather.

      Reply
  6. Nj grown says

    May 14, 2016 at 2:33 pm

    I’d a pallet does not have any markings or codes on it is it safe to use for a veggie garden? I cleaned it in otic lean and bleach. Please advise. Thank you!
    NJ grown!

    Reply
    • Shelle says

      May 16, 2016 at 5:48 pm

      Hi NJ, I wouldn’t use it around food if I was unable to confirm “where its been”

      Reply
  7. James Bergman says

    July 1, 2016 at 12:15 pm

    I’m glad I read your post before I decided to make my own pallet planter garden. I have seen this type of gardening a couple of times and have some extra pallets I want to try it with. I am pretty sure they are newer than 2005, but I will double check and look for the HT mark. However, I have wondered if it might not be better to try and use a plastic pallet for a garden box. The only downside I can think of is that it might not look as nice.

    Reply
  8. John kinley says

    February 6, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    Great info so glad I saw this.feel a lot safer about using pallets now for my planters. Also was going to make my bed out of them.. Still am thanks for info.. John punk UK

    Reply
  9. Bev Sweetman says

    May 22, 2017 at 12:56 am

    Is there any danger of the pallets getting termites? We live in Florida.

    Reply
    • Shelle says

      August 11, 2017 at 1:14 pm

      That shouldn’t be a problem if they are heat treated.

      Reply
  10. Sandy says

    April 25, 2020 at 2:14 pm

    Hi. It’s Springtime and I’m getting my yard prepared. My pallets have the letters “SP”. What does this stand for?

    Reply
    • bern says

      May 19, 2020 at 1:24 am

      Springtime Pallet!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Starting a Garden from Scratch | PreparednessMama says:
    February 23, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    […] I came into a pallet bonanza a few months ago and this has really helped with the […]

    Reply
  2. Pallets make great garden planters – Here’s how to make sure they aren’t leaching toxic chemicals | Kevin W. Reese says:
    March 17, 2015 at 9:00 am

    […] has a label stamped on it somewhere, providing information regarding its manufacture and uses, according to PreparednessMama.com. If your pallet has no labels whatsoever, avoid using […]

    Reply

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