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

How Oregon compares

Across 267 establishments, warehousing and storage in Oregon employed 16,750 people in 2025. That is 0.88% of the national total and puts the state 32nd of 50, with an average of 62.7 jobs per site.

The state sits in the Pacific states, a Census division. Its sites average 62.7 jobs against 81.5 across the country, and it holds 1.14% of the nation's warehousing establishments.

Where the warehousing jobs sit in Oregon

The counties with the most warehousing jobs, from the same BLS count: Multnomah (7,435), Marion (4,206) and Linn (1,681).

• Multnomah County7,435 jobs, 44.4% of the Oregon total.
• Marion County4,206 jobs, 25.1% of the Oregon total.
• Linn County1,681 jobs, 10.0% of the Oregon total.

What fills the yards in Oregon

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

• Food manufacturing28,203 private jobs in 2025, 1.6% 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. In a pile from here, photograph the deck surface and any staining.
• Fruit and vegetable preserving9,076 private jobs in 2025, 5.2% 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. A pack season ends and the yard is cleared. Sugar and acid residue stain decks. A customer standard change retires a footprint. In a pile from here, photograph a stack from the side, and a stained deck.
• Beverage manufacturing7,137 private jobs in 2025, 2.3% of the US total. Heavy glass and can loads crush runners over time. Route changes and returnable programmes retire whole sets. Weather in outdoor yards ages the surface. Beverage pallets at 56 x 44 and 48 x 40, stackable for heavy static loads. PHS lists a 56 x 44 beverage pallet at 30,000 lb static. In a pile from here, photograph the runners and the model plate.

The rest of Oregon's pallet economy

Private jobs in 2025: food manufacturing 28,203, pharmaceutical manufacturing 1,204 and auto parts 1,704. Measured against the national share of employment, fruit and vegetable preserving is the most concentrated pallet-using industry here, at 4.1 times.

Cold storage in Oregon

USDA counted 139 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Oregon on October 1, 2025, 9th of 36 states. Cold stores wear pallets differently, and the refrigerated warehousing page says how.

What the size of the state means

Oregon 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 Pacific states

Against Oregon's 16,750 warehousing jobs, the largest metros in the same division are Inland Empire, California (118,368, 7.07 times), Stockton, California (28,518, 1.70 times), Los Angeles, California (27,225, 1.63 times), Seattle, Washington (23,062, 1.38 times), San Francisco, California (9,473, 0.57 times) and Fresno, California (5,006, 0.30 times).

Next to Oregon

The table sets the warehousing counts of California, Idaho, Nevada and Washington against Oregon.

Metros we cover in Oregon

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

• Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro8,157 warehousing jobs, 38th of 60 metros. ZIPs 97230, 97203, 97210.

Marked pallets in Oregon

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

Describing a Oregon load

Three facts first for Oregon: ZIP, count, footprint. Pallets from fruit and vegetable preserving want a stack from the side, and a stained deck photographed; food manufacturing pallets want the deck surface and any staining photographed.