Our Story
We bet that trash was just inventory in the wrong place.
Fifteen years ago, most of Cincinnati's pallets ended their lives in a dumpster. We thought that was absurd. So we built a company to prove it.
Cincinnati Pallet was founded in 2009 as a two-truck pallet-recovery operation. Today we buy, sell, recycle, haul, and custom-build pallets across the OH-KY-IN tri-state — with a standing commitment to send zero collected wood to landfill.
Request a quote
Every field routes straight to our yard team. Tell us the product, the volume, and where you are — we reply by email within one business day.
Why we exist
A pallet is too good to use once.
A single hardwood pallet can carry a ton of freight, dozens of times, for years.
And yet, for decades, the default was to build one, ship one, and bury one. That math never made sense to us — not economically, not environmentally. Every pallet we pull back into service is money saved for a customer and a tree left standing in a forest. We built the whole business around that single stubborn idea.
The timeline
From two trucks to a full loop.
Two trucks and a hunch
We started collecting discarded pallets from a handful of Cincinnati warehouses — convinced that 'waste' was mostly mislabeled inventory.
The repair bench
Rather than reselling only the perfect ones, we built a repair line. Suddenly a broken pallet was a raw material, not a reject.
Closing the loop
We added grinding for the truly unusable, hitting our first full year of zero pallets sent to landfill — a standard we've kept ever since.
Our own fleet
We stopped brokering freight and bought our own trucks, so delivery windows became promises we controlled.
Custom fabrication shop
Customers kept asking for odd sizes and heavy skids. We opened a fabrication shop to design and build them from new and reclaimed wood.
Still circular, still local
Millions of pallets later, we're the same company: reuse first, recycle always, landfill never — from the same Este Ave yard.
What we believe
Reuse beats recycling
The greenest pallet is the one that never had to be remade. We exhaust reuse before anything else.
Local keeps it honest
Owning our yard and fleet means we answer for every delivery, every price, every pickup.
Waste is a design flaw
If something leaves as trash, we designed the process wrong. We keep redesigning until it doesn't.
How we lead
We run it like the loop we sell.
Reuse the good, repair what's tired, and never waste anything worth keeping — including people's time and skill.
We stayed deliberately hands-on. The people who own the company still walk the yard, still know the grades, still read the email that comes in. That's why we're email-first with no phone number: it forces a clear question and a clear written answer, keeps a record everyone can trust, and spares customers the runaround of being bounced between departments. A short reply that's actually right beats a fast one that isn't.
A day at the yard
What 5748 Este Ave actually looks like.
It's not a slogan factory. It's a working yard where wood gets a second chance one board at a time — and it hums from the moment the gate opens.
7:00 AM — Gates open
The first trucks are already backing in. Cores from overnight removal routes and early drop-offs get logged by source and staged for the sort.
Mid-morning — The sort runs hot
Crews grade incoming pallets by size and condition, banding the reusable ones and pulling the fixables onto the repair line. Decisions get made in seconds.
Midday — Repair & fabrication
The repair bench replaces deck boards and re-nails joints; the fab shop cuts custom skids and crates to spec. Reclaimed lumber becomes new inventory.
Afternoon — Loads go out
Deliveries roll out on our own trucks to docks across the tri-state, while the grinder handles the last of the wood that can give no more.
4:30 PM — Yard buttoned up
Stock is squared away, tomorrow's routes are set, and the whiteboard shows the one number that matters: pallets landfilled today, zero.
Local by design
A Cincinnati company, on purpose.
Being local isn't nostalgia — it's the business model. Short loops mean cheaper freight, faster turnarounds, and lower transport emissions than shipping packaging across the country and back.
Every pallet we keep in service is money that stays with a nearby business and a tree that stays standing. We hire from the neighborhoods around the Mill Creek Valley, we keep steady year-round work here rather than chasing cheap labor elsewhere, and we answer for every load because our name is on a real address you can drive to. When a tri-state warehouse needs surplus pallets gone or a truckload delivered by Friday, they're dealing with neighbors, not a call center three time zones away.
The rest of what we stand on
Values we can actually point to.
Grade it honestly
A #2 pallet sold as a #1 is a customer we lose. We sort to a clear grade and ship exactly what we quoted — every time.
Own the mistake
When a load is wrong, we fix it fast and without argument. Owning the yard and the fleet means there's no one else to blame.
Price it fair, both ways
Fair when we sell to you, fair when we buy from you. A relationship that only works in one direction doesn't last.
Keep it simple
One account, one contact, one email reply. We'd rather remove friction than add features nobody asked for.
Respect the material
Wood took decades to grow. Squeezing every life out of it is a form of respect, not just economics.
Steady over flashy
No hype, no churn. We'd rather be the boring, reliable partner your dock can count on for the next fifteen years.
About the company
Questions people ask before they work with us.
How long has Cincinnati Pallet been in business?
Since 2009. We started as a two-truck pallet-recovery operation in Cincinnati's Mill Creek Valley and grew into a full-cycle company that buys, sells, recycles, hauls, and custom-builds pallets across the tri-state.
Where is your yard?
5748 Este Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45232. It's a working yard where the sorting, repair, and fabrication all happen — you're welcome to visit during yard hours.
What are your hours?
Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 4:30 PM; Saturday, 8:00 AM to noon; closed Sunday.
How do I reach you — is there a phone number?
We're email-first by design: info@cincinnatipallet.com. Every message routes to our yard team and we reply within one business day. No phone number means clearer quotes, a written record, and no phone spam.
What makes you different from other pallet companies?
We run the entire loop under one roof — buy, sell, recycle, haul, and fabricate — and we send zero collected wood to landfill. Most companies do one piece; we do the whole circle, locally, on our own fleet.
Do you only serve big warehouses?
No. We work with everyone from single-truck operations to large distribution centers. Whether you need one bundle or a standing weekly route, the same email gets you a real answer.
Fifteen years in, still answering the phone-free email.
Whatever your pallet challenge, we've probably solved a version of it. Tell us yours.