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

How New Jersey compares

New Jersey ranks 8th of the 50 states for private warehousing and storage jobs, with 76,152 in 2025 across 911 establishments. A typical site employs 83.6 people.

The state sits in the Middle Atlantic, a Census division. Its sites average 83.6 jobs against 81.5 across the country, and it holds 3.90% of the nation's warehousing establishments.

Where the warehousing jobs sit in New Jersey

The counties with the most warehousing jobs, from the same BLS count: Middlesex (26,309), Burlington (10,713) and Gloucester (9,948).

• Middlesex County26,309 jobs, 34.5% of the New Jersey total.
• Burlington County10,713 jobs, 14.1% of the New Jersey total.
• Gloucester County9,948 jobs, 13.1% of the New Jersey total.

What fills the yards in New Jersey

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

• Warehousing and storage76,152 private jobs in 2025, 4.0% of the US total. Check the strays first. Then separate the rackables, which are usually PP, from the nestables, which are usually HDPE. Describe each stack as its own line. Forklift tines split decks and chip corners. A racking change retires one style at once. Strays arrive on inbound trailers from shippers who use pooled pallets, and sit in the yard until someone asks whose they are. In a pile from here, photograph the yard stacks, from the dock side.
• Chemical manufacturing47,966 private jobs in 2025, 5.4% 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. 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.
• Grocery and related product wholesale38,127 private jobs in 2025, 4.6% of the US total. Sort marked from unmarked first. Count the unmarked by style. This industry is where the ownership check matters most. High volume and many inbound shippers. Strays collect at the back of the yard. Sets retire when a retailer changes its pallet standard. In a pile from here, photograph every mark, logo and RFID bump.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing30,062 private jobs in 2025, 8.6% of the US total. Hygienic 48 x 40 and 43 x 43 pallets, sometimes PP for sterilisation, with documents on resin and colour. 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 warehousing5,388 private jobs in 2025, 7.4% 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. In a pile from here, photograph the cracks at corners and along the deck.

The rest of New Jersey's pallet economy

Private jobs in 2025: food manufacturing 43,231, pharmaceutical manufacturing 30,062, motor vehicle assembly 167 and auto parts 1,046. Measured against the national share of employment, pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing is the most concentrated pallet-using industry here, at 3.1 times.

Cold storage in New Jersey

USDA counted 137 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in New Jersey on October 1, 2025, 10th of 36 states. Cold stores wear pallets differently, and the refrigerated warehousing page says how.

What the size of the state means

New Jersey 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 Middle Atlantic

Against New Jersey's 76,152 warehousing jobs, the largest metros in the same division are Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (38,250, 0.50 times), Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania (19,122, 0.25 times), Scranton, Pennsylvania (18,912, 0.25 times), Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (17,241, 0.23 times), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (9,826, 0.13 times) and Lancaster, Pennsylvania (6,994, 0.09 times).

Next to New Jersey

The table sets the warehousing counts of Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania against New Jersey.

Metros we cover in New Jersey

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

• Northern New Jersey39,367 warehousing jobs, 7th of 60 metros. ZIPs 08817, 07094, 08810.

Marked pallets in New Jersey

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

Describing a New Jersey load

Three facts first for New Jersey: ZIP, count, footprint. Pallets from chemical manufacturing want any staining and the drum seats photographed; warehousing and storage pallets want the yard stacks, from the dock side photographed.