Can you burn pallets? When it's unsafe, and when it's illegal

What EPA says not to burn

Source: EPA Burn Wise, best wood-burning practices. EPA notes these can release toxic or harmful chemicals and damage your appliance.

• Coated, painted and pressure-treated wood.
• Plywood, particle board, or any wood with glue on or in it. Block pallets often have composite blocks.
• Wet, rotted, diseased or mouldy wood.
• Household trash, cardboard and plastics, which often ride along with pallets.

Pallet-specific checks

1. Look for an ISPM 15 stamp. HT means heat treated; MB means methyl bromide fumigation. Don't burn MB wood. For what each character in an ISPM 15 stamp means, use the stamp decoder at epalrecycling.com.
2. Reject anything painted, stained or coloured. Pooled pallets are painted and aren't yours to burn anyway; see pooled pallets.
3. Reject pallets with spills, odours or stains from what they carried.
4. Pull nails and staples first if the ash goes anywhere near a garden.

The law

Open burning of waste is restricted in many states and cities, and a business burning pallets is usually treated differently from a household fire pit. Check your state air agency and local fire department before any burn. Our state pages list burning rules only where we've checked the rule itself; see the rules hub.

Better uses

A business with more than a few pallets has better options than burning: reuse, repair or grinding. See end-of-life pathways.