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Warning: That 'free' pallet wood from the grocery store almost cost me big time
I grabbed a bunch of pallets from behind a Food Lion near me last week, thinking I'd save $60 on lumber for a raised garden bed. Then I noticed one had a tiny oil stain and started reading up on MB and HT codes some pallets have chemical treatments you can't just sand off. Has anyone else dealt with this or am I being too paranoid?
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jackson.jenny15d ago
Wait, are you actually growing food in those? I've built plenty of stuff with pallets and never had a problem. Just skip the ones with any stains or weird smells and you're fine.
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dixon.amy15d ago
Honestly, I used to think the same way until my buddy tried this. He grabbed a pallet that looked totally clean, no stains or anything, built a nice little raised bed for tomatoes. The first batch of tomatoes grew fine, but when he ate them he got this weird metallic taste in his mouth. Then he started getting these headaches and feeling kinda nauseous every time he ate from that planter. Turns out that pallet was treated with methyl bromide, you can't always tell by looking. He had to rip the whole thing down and start over, total waste of a weekend. Ngl, after seeing that I just buy untreated cedar now and skip the pallet risk entirely.
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