How to get rid of wood pallets in Kansas City

Pallets are the rare piece of junk with an entire industry built around taking them off your hands. Kansas City moves enough freight that used pallets have real value here — which means the disposal question usually isn't "what will this cost me" but "which free route fits, and might someone actually pay?"

First, read the stamp

Look for the IPPC stamp on the block. HT means heat-treated — safe wood, fine to reuse, the kind crafters want. MB means methyl bromide fumigation — don't reuse it indoors, don't build furniture with it, and never burn it. No stamp usually means a domestic-only pallet, fine for recycling routes but skip the fire pit either way: pallet wood picks up spills from every load it ever carried.

A stack of standard pallets: the recyclers come to you

If you've got quantity — a business with pallets accumulating behind the building — KC's pallet recyclers handle it: KC Pallets runs removal and recycling across the metro, and Used Pallet Recycling offers free pickup for larger loads of standard 48×40 GMA pallets and pays for pallets in resellable condition. Kamps Pallets buys in bulk as well, depending on size and condition. The standard 48×40 is the valuable one; odd sizes and broken pallets are usually a free-removal item, not a paid one.

A few pallets at the house: the internet wants them

For the homeowner with three pallets from a mattress delivery, skip the industrial route: a free listing on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or Nextdoor moves HT pallets in days — garden projects, pallet furniture, firewood racks. Set them by the garage, post a photo, and they walk away on their own.

Broken, moldy, or painted: the trash stream

Splintered and rotten pallets aren't worth anyone's pickup. Broken down with a saw, the pieces can go out with regular trash in most metro cities, or ride a load to the transfer station. Don't chip or compost them — treated and contaminated wood doesn't belong in mulch.

Where we fit

We haul pallets by the stack — quoted by volume — usually as part of a bigger cleanout: the garage that's half pallets, the commercial back lot, the estate with a barn full of them. If you've got fifty clean 48×40s, call a pallet recycler first and keep the money; if you've got a mixed mess you want gone this week, that's us.