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

How Louisiana compares

Louisiana ranks 34th of the 50 states for private warehousing and storage jobs, with 15,312 in 2025 across 326 establishments. A typical site employs 47.0 people.

The state sits in the West South Central states, a Census division. Its sites average 47.0 jobs against 81.5 across the country, and it holds 1.40% of the nation's warehousing establishments.

Where the warehousing jobs sit in Louisiana

The counties with the most warehousing jobs, from the same BLS count: East Baton Rouge (3,948), Caddo (2,610) and Tangipahoa (1,330).

• East Baton Rouge County3,948 jobs, 25.8% of the Louisiana total.
• Caddo County2,610 jobs, 17.0% of the Louisiana total.
• Tangipahoa County1,330 jobs, 8.7% of the Louisiana total.

What fills the yards in Louisiana

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

• Chemical manufacturing28,918 private jobs in 2025, 3.2% of the US total. Chemical resistance is why plastic is chosen. Wear, leaks and spills retire them. CP9 changes retire a whole footprint. 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. In a pile from here, photograph any staining and the drum seats.
• Food manufacturing16,970 private jobs in 2025, 1.0% of the US total. 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. 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. In a pile from here, photograph the deck surface and any staining.

The rest of Louisiana's pallet economy

Private jobs in 2025: food manufacturing 16,970, pharmaceutical manufacturing 748 and auto parts 307. Measured against the national share of employment, chemical manufacturing is the most concentrated pallet-using industry here, at 2.7 times.

Cold storage in Louisiana

USDA counted 8 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Louisiana on October 1, 2025, 33rd of 36 states. Cold stores wear pallets differently, and the refrigerated warehousing page says how.

What the size of the state means

Louisiana 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 Louisiana's 15,312 warehousing jobs, the largest metros in the same division are Dallas, Texas (82,593, 5.39 times), Houston, Texas (33,785, 2.21 times), San Antonio, Texas (16,751, 1.09 times), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (8,336, 0.54 times), Austin, Texas (5,657, 0.37 times) and Northwest Arkansas, Arkansas (3,065, 0.20 times).

Next to Louisiana

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

Metros we cover in Louisiana

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

• New Orleans-Metairie2,090 warehousing jobs, 53rd of 60 metros. ZIPs 70121, 70123, 70001.

Marked pallets in Louisiana

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

Describing a Louisiana load

Three facts first for Louisiana: ZIP, count, footprint. Pallets from food manufacturing want the deck surface and any staining photographed; chemical manufacturing pallets want any staining and the drum seats photographed.