Three jobs set up a program: know what the site generates and how fast, sort it so each stream has a buyer, and time pickups so each truck leaves full. The listing starts at Recycle, the same way for one pickup or a standing program.
Audit what the site generates
Walk the docks and yard during a normal shift:
- Photograph every pile, container and staging area, and note where a truck can load.
- Count pallets by grade. The pallet grades page says what A, B and C mean on Repackify.
- List the other streams that recur: corrugated, stretch film, strapping, gaylord boxes, IBC totes, drums.
- Pull the last three months of hauling invoices: pulls per month, container size and cost per pull. That is what the program replaces.
- Set aside anything that cannot go on a truck as it stands, such as loose scrap wood.
Estimating a stack you cannot count
Measure the stack height and divide by the height of one pallet. A 48×40 pallet takes up 48 × 40 × its height in cubic inches; divide by 1,728 for cubic feet.
| Pallet height | Volume per pallet | Pallets in a 100 in stack |
|---|---|---|
| 4.75 in | 5.28 ft³ | 21 |
| 5 in | 5.56 ft³ | 20 |
| 6 in | 6.67 ft³ | 16 |
| 6.5 in | 7.22 ft³ | 15 |
Sort each stream so it has a buyer
Keep resellable grades apart from recycle-only material, and keep each product type on its own pallets or in its own container. Each product’s grade guide says what is resellable, what is recycle-only and what is rejected.
Blue CHEP and red PECO pallets are not yours to recycle. Repackify does not sell or recycle pool pallets; they go back to the operator, as described in pool, own, or buy used pallets.
Choose who pays
Every recycling listing carries one of three offer types. Which one fits depends on what the material is worth against what it costs to move.
| Offer | Money moves | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| Free pickup | Nobody pays | Usable material the owner wants gone |
| Material rebate | Recycler pays the owner | Sorted material with resale value |
| Hauling fee | Owner pays the recycler | Mixed or damaged material that costs more to move than it is worth; pickup only |
How a listing is claimed and how the pickup date is agreed is covered in recycling pickups.
Size each pickup to a truckload
A pickup is cheapest per unit when the truck leaves full, so the cadence follows how long the site takes to fill one. These counts are for a 53 ft dry van, from our product specifications.
| Material | Units per van |
|---|---|
| 48×40 pallets | 520–660 in 26–30 stacks 20–22 high; 480–680 at the extremes of pallet height |
| Gaylord boxes | 200–400+ knocked down; 20–22 assembled on pallets |
| IBC totes, 275 or 330 gal | Up to 60, double-stacked |
| 55 gal drums, steel or plastic | 104 single-tier on drum pallets; 208 double-stacked |
Divide the van count by what the site generates in a week and you have the weeks between pickups. The pickup frequency planner does this with your staging space as the limit.
What each pickup leaves on record
Each pickup is an order on Repackify. The order records the product, its condition, the quantity, the pickup date and the pickup address. When an order was entered with an estimated quantity, the recycler reports the actual count, split into good and bad units, and the invoice bills that count. A free pickup has nothing to invoice. The material owner can attach a weight ticket to the order; Repackify does not weigh the load or record a weight itself.
Waste reporting runs on weight. GRI 306: Waste 2020 asks for waste diverted from disposal in metric tons, split into preparation for reuse, recycling and other recovery, with an explanation of how the figures were compiled. A count converted with a unit weight from our dimension guides is an estimate and should be reported as one; a scale ticket is a measurement. EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM) estimates the emissions effect of recycling instead of landfilling, takes short tons as input, and counts pallets under dimensional lumber. EPA says WARM is not intended for emissions inventories (WARM frequent questions).