Wood pallets for composter safe to use?

[cityprepping]

Hello! I'm 100% new to gardening and am starting into this new hobby this week. I've been reading the Square Foot Gardening and am going to build to build my first 4x4 raised garden tomorrow. One of the requirements is to build a Composter. I've got a lot of wood pallets in my garage I got from behind Lowe's (with their permission). I've seen a lot of videos on Youtube on how to make a composter with wood pallets but before I do, I wanted to make sure this is safe. I know it's not advisable to build a composter with treated wood for your garden (at least what I've read in the book) to avoid letting chemicals leech into the soil, but wasn't sure if that same rule applies for the composter. I don't know the history of this wood so I have no idea if it's been treated with chemicals or not.

Any advice would be welcome...thanks!

 

[Chuck]

Pallets are not usually made of treated wood. If the wood is a green color don't use it but if not go ahead.

 

[zigs]

You need to check the code printed on the pallet, it's quite straightforward.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-determine-if-a-wood-pallet-is-safe-for-use/

 

[Becky]

Agreed; most aren't treated. It's worth checking for a stamp though, as they will tell you for sure.

Edit: zigs beat me to it!

Welcome to the forum!

 

[cityprepping]

>> Agreed; most aren't treated. It's worth checking for a stamp though, as they will tell you for sure.

I'm not seeing any stamps on this, so it's probably safe to assume they're not treated then?

 

[Becky]

Sounds like they're probably ok then. I take it they don't smell of chemicals?

 

[cityprepping]

>> Sounds like they're probably ok then. I take it they don't smell of chemicals?

I do not smell any chemicals, so I'm hoping they're untreated. Thanks for the feedback on this.

 

[Fernsdaddy]

Welcome to the forum, most pallets are made from pine and are not treated because of the cost.