Pallet mulch: what it is, and what we will not sell it for

How it is made

It starts as the residue of the sorting process: pallets too far gone to repair and too damaged or contaminated in structure for lumber recovery, plus the offcuts from dismantling.

That material is ground, then screened to size — mulch buyers care about consistency, and an unscreened grind contains everything from dust to fist-sized chunks. Screened material is then coloured with iron-oxide or carbon-based colourants in natural, black, brown and red.

Steel comes out on the way through, under magnets on the outfeed. This matters more than the small scrap revenue suggests: steel in mulch damages mowers, punctures tyres and ends a landscaping contract permanently.

Why it outlasts bark mulch

Pallet mulch is made from structural hardwood — oak, maple, gum — rather than from bark and softwood residue.

Denser wood decomposes more slowly, so a hardwood mulch bed holds its depth and colour longer through a season than a comparable bark product. For a landscape contractor that means fewer top-ups, which is usually the dominant cost.

The trade-off is nutrient contribution. Bark and finer organic mulches break down faster and feed the soil sooner. Hardwood mulch is doing a different job: weed suppression, moisture retention and appearance over a longer period.

The vegetable garden question, answered honestly

We get asked this regularly and the answer is no.

The inbound pallet stream is industrial. It is screened at intake and visibly painted or chemically stained material is rejected — but 'screened' is not 'guaranteed'. Treated wood, painted wood and wood that carried something it should not have can pass a visual inspection.

For ornamental landscaping that residual uncertainty is acceptable. For a bed growing food that people eat, it is not, and no price advantage makes it acceptable.

If you are mulching a vegetable garden, buy certified garden mulch from a supplier who can document the feedstock. That is a genuinely different product and we do not make it.

Buying it

Sold by the cubic yard, loaded at the yard or delivered across Central Ohio. Contractor pricing applies above a threshold volume.

Two practical notes. First, colour fades — all mulch does, and darker colours hold longer than red. Second, order by volume rather than by weight; moisture content varies and weight-based ordering produces surprises in both directions.

Details on the reclaimed lumber and mulch page, and the process it comes out of in inside pallet recycling.