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

How Illinois compares

Across 864 establishments, warehousing and storage in Illinois employed 80,071 people in 2025. That is 4.21% of the national total and puts the state 7th of 50, with an average of 92.7 jobs per site.

The state sits in the East North Central states, a Census division. Its sites average 92.7 jobs against 81.5 across the country, and it holds 3.70% of the nation's warehousing establishments.

Where the warehousing jobs sit in Illinois

The counties with the most warehousing jobs, from the same BLS count: Will (25,357), Cook (16,057) and DuPage (8,368).

• Will County25,357 jobs, 31.7% of the Illinois total.
• Cook County16,057 jobs, 20.1% of the Illinois total.
• DuPage County8,368 jobs, 10.5% of the Illinois total.

What fills the yards in Illinois

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

• Food manufacturing98,300 private jobs in 2025, 5.5% of the US total. Sanitation audits remove cracked or stained pallets. A change of packaging line retires a colour-coded set. Pallets that held ingredients with strong odours or oils are culled early. Hygienic 48 x 40 and 40 x 48 pallets in HDPE or PP, often with closed decks and colour-coding by zone. Some are listed as food safe but not approved for direct food contact. In a pile from here, photograph the deck surface and any staining.
• Chemical manufacturing48,745 private jobs in 2025, 5.5% of the US total. 48 x 48 pallets for four 55-gallon drums without overhang, 45 x 45 CP9 pallets for bags and boxes, often heavy-duty with sumps. Chemical resistance is why plastic is chosen. Wear, leaks and spills retire them. CP9 changes retire a whole footprint. In a pile from here, photograph any staining and the drum seats.
• Grocery and related product wholesale48,629 private jobs in 2025, 5.9% of the US total. High volume and many inbound shippers. Strays collect at the back of the yard. Sets retire when a retailer changes its pallet standard. Sort marked from unmarked first. Count the unmarked by style. This industry is where the ownership check matters most. In a pile from here, photograph every mark, logo and RFID bump.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing24,257 private jobs in 2025, 6.9% of the US total. Validation changes, cleanroom upgrades and audits retire pallets in lots. Pallets are often kept sound and retired for compliance, not damage. In a pile from here, photograph the deck surface and any batch plates.
• Refrigerated warehousing4,095 private jobs in 2025, 5.6% of the US total. Freezing can make some pallet materials brittle and reduce performance, per Nelson. A pallet that cycled between a freezer and a dock many times cracks at the corners and along the deck. Hygienic, easy-to-wash pallets in 48 x 40, often PP or HDPE with closed or solid decks, because cold stores need surfaces that drain and wash clean. In a pile from here, photograph the cracks at corners and along the deck.

The rest of Illinois's pallet economy

Private jobs in 2025: food manufacturing 98,300, pharmaceutical manufacturing 24,257, motor vehicle assembly 12,606 and auto parts 21,206. Measured against the national share of employment, pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing is the most concentrated pallet-using industry here, at 1.8 times.

Cold storage in Illinois

USDA counted 190 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Illinois on October 1, 2025, 8th of 36 states. Cold stores wear pallets differently, and the refrigerated warehousing page says how.

What the size of the state means

Illinois is one of the ten biggest warehouse states, so a load here usually comes from a cluster and not an outlier. Expect several footprints and a mix of owned and pooled pallets, and describe each stack as its own line.

Big metros elsewhere in the East North Central states

Against Illinois's 80,071 warehousing jobs, the largest metros in the same division are Indianapolis, Indiana (41,067, 0.51 times), Columbus, Ohio (34,200, 0.43 times), Detroit, Michigan (30,083, 0.38 times), Cincinnati, Ohio (19,940, 0.25 times), Cleveland, Ohio (13,652, 0.17 times) and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (8,262, 0.10 times).

Next to Illinois

The table sets the warehousing counts of Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin against Illinois.

Metros we cover in Illinois

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

• Chicago-Naperville-Elgin59,586 warehousing jobs, 3rd of 60 metros. ZIPs 60446, 60638, 60436.

Marked pallets in Illinois

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

Describing a Illinois load

Begin with the Illinois ZIP and the count, then the footprint. A food manufacturing pile calls for photos of the deck surface and any staining. For chemical manufacturing, take any staining and the drum seats.