The city of Grand Rapids strongly agrees and works hand in hand with Michigan regulations in considering wood pallets as ‘clean wood’, which can be reused, landfilled or used as bark mulch and fire wood unlike the scrap wood and treated wood. Being the country’s center for furniture production, Grand Rapids is committed to bringing world-class wood products such as wood pallets while striving to be environmentally responsible.

Wood pallets are very much preferred and used by small and large companies, farms and even homes in Grand Rapids. This is because they are cheaper than plastic and metal pallets. Another reason why the people in Grand Rapids are overwhelmingly supporting wood pallets is because they are made from renewable resources and are recyclable, and most importantly, wood pallets have high friction to make the loads more secured.

Wood pallets, sometimes called skids, are made from hardwood or softwood planks. ¾ of newly manufactured hardwood construction are oak, and it recieves about 50% of the hardwood timber harvested in the country. Wood pallets in Grand Rapids are easy to manage and leave almost zero waste disposal. A recent study by the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products at Virginia Tech and the USDA report that a very small quantity of 0.2 percent of broken pallets goes to a landfill. Wood pallets in Grand Rapids are not made from fresh materials but from the unusable cut from preparing and processing timber so wood pallets are not only recyclable but efficiently transform waste material into a viable product. Grand Rapids’s furniture industry helps in the recycling of wood pallets by giving out unexpended wood timber.

Grand Rapids’s wood pallets production industry works favorably for business and home owners in the city. The local government is making every effort to support the industry. Wood pallets re-manufacturing is a big boost for sound environmental and economic revitalization in Grand Rapids, Michigan. By repairing and recycling wood pallets, we are reducing the cutting of trees and usable materials out of landfills as well as providing employment and materials to thousands of employees and companies in the entire Grand Rapids.

The wood-pallets-recycling business owners in Grand Rapids usually collect pallets from around the entire city, sort them for rehash and reparability, fix them, and then sell the repaired pallets back to the previous user or another buyer. Workers disassemble those pallets that cannot be salvaged and cut to size reusable parts. Larger operations in Grand Rapids need varied degrees of automation for disassembling, assembling and stacking wood pallets. Depending on the condition, a single pallet may require a slight or full repair process where a dismantling machine is needed to remove boards off the stringboards. The reclaimed and reusable parts are then rebuilt to become fully reusable wood pallets to be distributed within Grand Rapids.

A slight increase reported in the city of Grand Rapids, recycling wood pallets saw a huge potential in providing great job opportunities for the people. More than 5,000 people in Grand Rapids are getting livelihood in through the industry of wood pallet manufacturing with a total payroll of over $137 million each year. The recycling industry produces an annual net income of about $2 billion from recycled goods including wood pallets. Formerly known as the "Furniture City" of the United States of America, Grand Rapids receives the largest curbside recycling program and could be the country’s "Green City," too.