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

How Indiana compares

Across 539 establishments, warehousing and storage in Indiana employed 67,506 people in 2025. That is 3.55% of the national total and puts the state 9th of 50, with an average of 125.2 jobs per site.

The state sits in the East North Central states, a Census division. Its sites average 125.2 jobs against 81.5 across the country, and it holds 2.31% of the nation's warehousing establishments.

Where the warehousing jobs sit in Indiana

The counties with the most warehousing jobs, from the same BLS count: Boone (12,552), Hendricks (11,774) and Marion (7,943).

• Boone County12,552 jobs, 18.6% of the Indiana total.
• Hendricks County11,774 jobs, 17.4% of the Indiana total.
• Marion County7,943 jobs, 11.8% of the Indiana total.

What fills the yards in Indiana

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

• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing52,146 private jobs in 2025, 10.0% of the US total. End of a vehicle programme, change of a customer container, wear on heavy loads. A supplier that served one assembler can hold thousands of one footprint. In a pile from here, photograph the stack and a runner close up.
• Chemical manufacturing38,178 private jobs in 2025, 4.3% of the US total. Say what the pallets carried. A residue of an unknown chemical is a stop. A drum pallet that held a benign material is a normal stream. In a pile from here, photograph any staining and the drum seats.
• Plastics product manufacturing33,122 private jobs in 2025, 5.8% 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. Plastics plants know resin. Say what you know. They are also the likeliest to want sorted regrind, so mention if you can take flake back. In a pile from here, photograph moulded codes and maker marks.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing23,709 private jobs in 2025, 6.8% 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. A sound, clean, documented pallet is worth more as a pallet. Say if paperwork exists. Say if any pallet touched product or chemicals. In a pile from here, photograph the deck surface and any batch plates.
• Motor vehicle manufacturing21,069 private jobs in 2025, 7.3% of the US total. Closed-loop pallets often carry plant or supplier marks. Check the marks. These are usually company-owned, so ownership is known, but it must be confirmed. A model change or a supplier change retires a footprint. Heavy dynamic loads wear runners. Plants run returnable programmes, so pallets that leave the loop are noticed. In a pile from here, photograph the plant or supplier markings.

The rest of Indiana's pallet economy

Private jobs in 2025: food manufacturing 46,474, pharmaceutical manufacturing 23,709, motor vehicle assembly 21,069 and auto parts 52,146. Measured against the national share of employment, motor vehicle parts manufacturing is the most concentrated pallet-using industry here, at 4.8 times.

Cold storage in Indiana

USDA counted 98 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Indiana on October 1, 2025, 13th of 36 states. Cold stores wear pallets differently, and the refrigerated warehousing page says how.

What the size of the state means

Indiana 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 Indiana's 67,506 warehousing jobs, the largest metros in the same division are Chicago, Illinois (59,586, 0.88 times), Columbus, Ohio (34,200, 0.51 times), Detroit, Michigan (30,083, 0.45 times), Cincinnati, Ohio (19,940, 0.30 times), Cleveland, Ohio (13,652, 0.20 times) and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (8,262, 0.12 times).

Next to Indiana

The table sets the warehousing counts of Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio against Indiana.

Metros we cover in Indiana

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

• Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood41,067 warehousing jobs, 6th of 60 metros. ZIPs 46168, 46268, 46075.

Marked pallets in Indiana

Indiana has no rule we can cite on stray proprietary pallets. Until an owner is ruled out by the marks, nothing in a Indiana load is ground.

Describing a Indiana load

Three facts first for Indiana: ZIP, count, footprint. Pallets from chemical manufacturing want any staining and the drum seats photographed; motor vehicle parts manufacturing pallets want the stack and a runner close up photographed.