Plastic pallet recycling in Arkansas: what the yards hold and where it goes

How Arkansas compares

Arkansas ranks 33rd of the 50 states for private warehousing and storage jobs, with 15,624 in 2025 across 218 establishments. A typical site employs 71.7 people.

The state sits in the West South Central states, a Census division. Its sites average 71.7 jobs against 81.5 across the country, and it holds 0.93% of the nation's warehousing establishments.

Where the warehousing jobs sit in Arkansas

The counties with the most warehousing jobs, from the same BLS count: Pulaski (7,477), Benton (2,670) and Crittenden (505).

• Pulaski County7,477 jobs, 47.9% of the Arkansas total.
• Benton County2,670 jobs, 17.1% of the Arkansas total.
• Crittenden County505 jobs, 3.2% of the Arkansas total.

What fills the yards in Arkansas

5 further industries are named in the market data for Arkansas. Each retires pallets for its own reasons.

• Food manufacturing51,799 private jobs in 2025, 2.9% of the US total. Say what the pallets carried. A load that touched edible oil is a different bin from a load that sat under sealed cartons. FDA does not approve pallet models, and recycled regrind is not made for food contact. In a pile from here, photograph the deck surface and any staining.
• Meat and poultry processing34,773 private jobs in 2025, 6.2% of the US total. Washdown, grease and thermal cycling. Pallets are retired when the surface cannot be sanitised. Plant remodels retire whole colour-coded sets. Grease and organic residue are contamination. Say how the pallets were cleaned. A degreased, dry load is a normal stream. A greasy one needs a conversation. In a pile from here, photograph the surface condition, close up.
• Plastics product manufacturing6,804 private jobs in 2025, 1.2% of the US total. Pallets for resin bags and finished goods, 48 x 40 and 43 x 43 for bulk bags. Moulders may also make pallets. Retired stock after a product line ends. Some processors regrind their own scrap, and a pallet pile is one more feedstock. In a pile from here, photograph moulded codes and maker marks.
• Fruit and vegetable preserving4,153 private jobs in 2025, 2.4% of the US total. Beverage-style 56 x 44 and 48 x 40 pallets for cans and jars, plus 43 x 43 bulk bag pallets for additives and ingredients. Sticky residue grinds badly. Rinse where you can and say where you cannot. Count by footprint, because 56 x 44 and 48 x 40 are separate jobs. In a pile from here, photograph a stack from the side, and a stained deck.
• Refrigerated warehousing1,941 private jobs in 2025, 2.7% of the US total. Say it came from cold storage. Brittle pallets grind fine. Wet pallets should be dry before they are stacked for a trailer. In a pile from here, photograph the cracks at corners and along the deck.

The rest of Arkansas's pallet economy

Private jobs in 2025: food manufacturing 51,799, pharmaceutical manufacturing 464 and auto parts 3,586. Measured against the national share of employment, meat and poultry processing is the most concentrated pallet-using industry here, at 7.5 times.

Cold storage in Arkansas

USDA counted 93 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Arkansas on October 1, 2025, 14th of 36 states. Cold stores wear pallets differently, and the refrigerated warehousing page says how.

What the size of the state means

Arkansas is a mid-table warehouse state. The jobs sit in a few places, and a pile outside them is the exception. Give the ZIP early, because distance to the nearest cluster decides how a load is placed.

Big metros elsewhere in the West South Central states

Against Arkansas's 15,624 warehousing jobs, the largest metros in the same division are Dallas, Texas (82,593, 5.29 times), Houston, Texas (33,785, 2.16 times), San Antonio, Texas (16,751, 1.07 times), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (8,336, 0.53 times), Austin, Texas (5,657, 0.36 times) and New Orleans, Louisiana (2,090, 0.13 times).

Next to Arkansas

The table sets the warehousing counts of Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas against Arkansas.

Metros we cover in Arkansas

Northwest Arkansas each have a page with ZIPs, counties and a corridor note.

• Northwest Arkansas3,065 warehousing jobs, 51st of 60 metros. ZIPs 72764, 72756, 72712.

Marked pallets in Arkansas

We found no Arkansas law on abandoned pooled pallets in the sources behind this page. A mark still means a likely owner, so Arkansas loads get the same ownership check as any other.

Describing a Arkansas load

Begin with the Arkansas ZIP and the count, then the footprint. A food manufacturing pile calls for photos of the deck surface and any staining. For meat and poultry processing, take the surface condition, close up.