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

How Pennsylvania compares

Across 1,162 establishments, warehousing and storage in Pennsylvania employed 123,481 people in 2025. That is 6.49% of the national total and puts the state 3rd of 50, with an average of 106.3 jobs per site.

The state sits in the Middle Atlantic, a Census division. Its sites average 106.3 jobs against 81.5 across the country, and it holds 4.98% of the nation's warehousing establishments.

Where the warehousing jobs sit in Pennsylvania

The counties with the most warehousing jobs, from the same BLS count: Luzerne (13,602), Cumberland (12,506) and Lehigh (9,774).

• Luzerne County13,602 jobs, 11.0% of the Pennsylvania total.
• Cumberland County12,506 jobs, 10.1% of the Pennsylvania total.
• Lehigh County9,774 jobs, 7.9% of the Pennsylvania total.

What fills the yards in Pennsylvania

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

• Warehousing and storage123,481 private jobs in 2025, 6.5% of the US total. General-purpose 48 x 40 pallets, nestables for empty storage and rackables on beams. Warehouses hold the widest mix of styles of any industry here, so mixed resin and mixed colour piles are normal. 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.
• Plastics product manufacturing34,094 private jobs in 2025, 5.9% of the US total. Retired stock after a product line ends. Some processors regrind their own scrap, and a pallet pile is one more feedstock. Pallets for resin bags and finished goods, 48 x 40 and 43 x 43 for bulk bags. Moulders may also make pallets. In a pile from here, photograph moulded codes and maker marks.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing20,358 private jobs in 2025, 5.8% of the US total. Hygienic 48 x 40 and 43 x 43 pallets, sometimes PP for sterilisation, with documents on resin and colour. In a pile from here, photograph the deck surface and any batch plates.
• Refrigerated warehousing4,102 private jobs in 2025, 5.6% of the US total. Say it came from cold storage. Brittle pallets grind fine. Wet pallets should be dry before they are stacked for a trailer. 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 Pennsylvania's pallet economy

Private jobs in 2025: food manufacturing 82,538, pharmaceutical manufacturing 20,358, motor vehicle assembly 3,556 and auto parts 5,730. Measured against the national share of employment, warehousing and storage is the most concentrated pallet-using industry here, at 1.6 times.

Cold storage in Pennsylvania

USDA counted 228 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Pennsylvania on October 1, 2025, 7th of 36 states. Cold stores wear pallets differently, and the refrigerated warehousing page says how.

What the size of the state means

Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania's 123,481 warehousing jobs, the largest metros in the same division are Northern New Jersey, New Jersey (39,367, 0.32 times).

Next to Pennsylvania

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

Metros we cover in Pennsylvania

Lehigh Valley, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Lancaster and Scranton each have a page with ZIPs, counties and a corridor note.

• Lehigh Valley19,122 warehousing jobs, 21st of 60 metros. ZIPs 18031, 18015, 18106.
• Harrisburg-Carlisle17,241 warehousing jobs, 24th of 60 metros. ZIPs 17050, 17013, 17055.
• Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington38,250 warehousing jobs, 8th of 60 metros. ZIPs 08102, 19720, 08085.
• Pittsburgh9,826 warehousing jobs, 34th of 60 metros. ZIPs 16066, 15233, 15205.
• Lancaster6,994 warehousing jobs, 39th of 60 metros. ZIPs 17601, 17022, 17554.
• Scranton-Wilkes-Barre18,912 warehousing jobs, 22nd of 60 metros. ZIPs 18640, 18202, 18706.

Marked pallets in Pennsylvania

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

Describing a Pennsylvania load

Begin with the Pennsylvania ZIP and the count, then the footprint. A warehousing and storage pile calls for photos of the yard stacks, from the dock side. For plastics product manufacturing, take moulded codes and maker marks.