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

How Utah compares

Utah ranks 35th of the 50 states for private warehousing and storage jobs, with 13,683 in 2025 across 290 establishments. A typical site employs 47.2 people.

The state sits in the Mountain states, a Census division. Its sites average 47.2 jobs against 81.5 across the country, and it holds 1.24% of the nation's warehousing establishments.

Where the warehousing jobs sit in Utah

The counties with the most warehousing jobs, from the same BLS count: Salt Lake (6,623), Washington (1,676) and Davis (1,373).

• Salt Lake County6,623 jobs, 48.4% of the Utah total.
• Washington County1,676 jobs, 12.2% of the Utah total.
• Davis County1,373 jobs, 10.0% of the Utah total.

What fills the yards in Utah

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

• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing7,842 private jobs in 2025, 2.2% 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.
• Dairy product manufacturing4,388 private jobs in 2025, 2.6% of the US total. Cold-room cycles and wash chemistry. Dairy residue and milk fats cling to textured decks. Pallets are replaced on a schedule or when a crack harbours residue. In a pile from here, photograph the colour code and any cracks.

The rest of Utah's pallet economy

Private jobs in 2025: food manufacturing 23,423, pharmaceutical manufacturing 7,842 and auto parts 3,691. Measured against the national share of employment, dairy product manufacturing is the most concentrated pallet-using industry here, at 2.4 times.

Cold storage in Utah

USDA counted 65 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Utah on October 1, 2025, 20th of 36 states. Cold stores wear pallets differently, and the refrigerated warehousing page says how.

What the size of the state means

Utah 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 Mountain states

Against Utah's 13,683 warehousing jobs, the largest metros in the same division are Phoenix, Arizona (42,340, 3.09 times), Las Vegas, Nevada (28,250, 2.06 times), Denver, Colorado (15,858, 1.16 times) and Reno, Nevada (12,269, 0.90 times).

Next to Utah

The table sets the warehousing counts of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada and Wyoming against Utah.

Metros we cover in Utah

Salt Lake City each have a page with ZIPs, counties and a corridor note.

• Salt Lake City-Murray6,623 warehousing jobs, 40th of 60 metros. ZIPs 84104, 84119, 84116.

Marked pallets in Utah

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

Describing a Utah load

Begin with the Utah ZIP and the count, then the footprint. A pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing pile calls for photos of the deck surface and any batch plates. For dairy product manufacturing, take the colour code and any cracks.