Gaylords in and out of warehouses and 3PLs
Delaware Valley warehouses and 3PLs end up with stacks of single-trip empties from inbound freight; we tell you which resell and which go to the baler, and one request covers both.
The pile at the end of the dock
A distribution building turns freight over all day. Every pallet that comes in on a gaylord leaves an empty box behind. At Pureland in Logan Township, which covers about 3,000 acres of former farmland and is reached by I-295, the Commodore Barry Bridge and the New Jersey Turnpike, the volume of freight is enormous. At the Keystone Trade Center in Falls Township, with Building 1 at 1.15 million square feet, the same arithmetic scales up.
Nobody budgets for the boxes. They gather behind a column, along a wall, on a mezzanine. They cost floor space that could hold inventory. In a wet week they turn from something worth selling into something worth baling. A warehouse manager wants them out.
What we ask, what we answer
| We ask | You say | We answer |
|---|---|---|
| How many | A rough count, or pallets | Whether it is a few pickups or a trailer |
| What footprint | 48 x 40 mostly | Which pile is which |
| Set up or flat | Flat on pallets | How we load |
| Dry or damp | Indoors on racking | What resells |
| Printed or plain | Old labels | Whether print matters (it rarely does) |
| Your ZIP | 08085 or 19007 | Whether we can serve you |
We do not state prices, minimum quantities, who pays freight or turnaround on this site. Those terms are not set on the page, so we do not guess at them. We reply by email.
Buying boxes back
Warehouses also buy. Returns processing, repack and kitting lines all use bulk boxes. A building that clears empties can also pick up used stock for its own lines at a lower cost per trip. The ticket shows the arithmetic.
Cold storage is a special case. Performance Food Group's Swedesboro building grew to 300,618 square feet in 2024, about a quarter of it cold. Boxes that move between cold and ambient absorb moisture. AICC advises storing corrugated in heated areas above 55 degrees Fahrenheit and warns that moving it between temperature zones can cause condensation. Tell us if your empties lived in a cold room.
A weekly routine that keeps the pile sellable
- Knock down empties the day they come off the load.
- Band flat stacks and move them inside.
- Keep a grease-pencil tally on the wall by the stack.
- Photograph the pile when you can no longer walk past it.
- Send the request.
Questions people ask
Who buys used gaylord boxes from warehouses?
We do, across Philadelphia, South Jersey and northern Delaware.
Do you take mixed footprints?
Yes, but sorting by footprint speeds everything.
What if some of the pile is wet?
That part is OCC. We take it to the baler.
Next door
| Place | Some of its ZIPs | Industries |
|---|---|---|
| Logan Township, Swedesboro and Pureland | 08085, 08067, 08020 | food distribution, cold storage, food manufacturing, logistics |
| Bristol and Falls Township | 19007, 19030, 19054 | emulsion polymers, resins, data centers, logistics, steel |
Sources
- WHYY on Logan Township, last reviewed November 11, 2026
- Patch on the Keystone Trade Center, last reviewed November 11, 2026
- ROI-NJ on the Swedesboro expansion, last reviewed November 11, 2026
- AICC: corrugated and cold or humid storage, last reviewed November 11, 2026
Offer us your empties
Tell us what is stacked, in what shape, and where. We reply by email.
Prefer email? Write to info@phillygaylords.com.